Protein and a flat-iron= Brazilian Keratin Treatment or Damage?

The other day, I put in Aphogee's 2 minute Reconstructor and I accidentally went to sleep. The next day, I bought a flat-iron and wanted to experiment with it before I was to wash the Reconstructor out of my head. I flat ironed my hair and afterwards got into the shower and I noticed the part where I flat-ironed my hair wasn't reverting. My hair is natural, and EVERYTIME water, or humidity hits my hair, it will REVERT in no time. I was shocked, yet puzzled. I know the Brazilian Keratin Treatment is a protein that is sealed into the hair to loosen the curl pattern while using the flat-iron to seal in the molecules. So, I was wondering did I accidentally give myself a Keratin Treatment?

It's not that I'm worried about my hair reverting anyways, when my hair gets longer, I'm planning on wearing it straight all the time, because single-strand knots slows down my retention. If this method is safe and is not damaging my hair, I will definitely use this in the future. Besides, it's much cheaper than a BKT without the formaldehyde. I know heat damage may be an option, but I only took one pass with the flat iron. Can heat damage happen that soon and that fast? I also used a heat protectant. Ladies, please help me shed light on this.

Have you washed it out yet to see if it reverts?

manter26 said:

Have you washed it out yet to see if it reverts?

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I washed the protein solution out once, it reverted a little, but the curl pattern was still looser than the rest of my hair. My hair usually reverts fast, even after a flat iron, so something with the protein and the flat-iron was working together to do something like this. I'm astounded, because I'm going back to this when my hair gets a little longer.

to answer the question about heat damage happening that fast ... yes it can.

when I bought my flat iron in 2010 I decided to try it out on a section of hair right at the front of my head had it on 350, did one pass and I got heat damage. I had some twisting product in my hair (dont remember now what it was and did not use a heat protectant)

messed up 1 whole year of growing....good thing it was just a small patch

Yes it can, but you need to wash it a few times before you can be sure that the straight hair is permanent.

I burnlaxed my hair once before in 2003 & I had to do a second big chop.

thats interesting. Over the years i have tried leaving in different protein concotions with the purpose to loosen my curl(multiple swipes of the flat iron) and my hair never became straight.most barely affected my curl pattern.

I personally you should not use that product for that purpose because it is not made in the same way as a bkt and may give you inconsistent results. There are affordable keratin treatments that are safe now a days.

BeautifulMe said:

The other day, I put in Aphogee's 2 minute Reconstructor and I accidentally went to sleep. The next day, I bought a flat-iron and wanted to experiment with it before I was to wash the Reconstructor out of my head. I flat ironed my hair and afterwards got into the shower and I noticed the part where I flat-ironed my hair wasn't reverting. My hair is natural, and EVERYTIME water, or humidity hits my hair, it will REVERT in no time. I was shocked, yet puzzled. I know the Brazilian Keratin Treatment is a protein that is sealed into the hair to loosen the curl pattern while using the flat-iron to seal in the molecules. So, I was wondering did I accidentally give myself a Keratin Treatment?

It's not that I'm worried about my hair reverting anyways, when my hair gets longer, I'm planning on wearing it straight all the time, because single-strand knots slows down my retention. If this method is safe and is not damaging my hair, I will definitely use this in the future. Besides, it's much cheaper than a BKT without the formaldehyde. I know heat damage may be an option, but I only took one pass with the flat iron. Can heat damage happen that soon and that fast? I also used a heat protectant. Ladies, please help me shed light on this.

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Ok I'm going to be honest. How is it so damaging to use chemical relaxers but damaging you hair with heat is perfectly ok? I will never understand that. I read a lady in here the other day say "I'll do a BKT over a relaxer with its damaging chemicals. How is one better than the other? I use a relaxer 1x every 6 months. How often would that extreme heat and process be applied this way or with a BKT? I assure you more often than 2x a year. I guess I just don't comprehend. This is why I ended my transition and relaxed. My hair is thick but my strands are fine. I cannot tolerate the constant use if heat on my hair. Well I say it's your hair. Ultimately it's up to you I just don't see how a $20.00 Keratin treatment is less damaging than a $7.00 Relaxer. But like I said if it works for you, do your thing. Even relaxed I wouldn't dare do that to my hair.

OP, please don't do this again. That product is not meant the way you're using it and you're going to play Russian Roulette with your hair. You don't even need a BKT to wear your hair straight, but I do understand the appeal as I've had it done before as well. I agree with @Napp, let's use the products for their intended purpose. Using this protein product overnight was already a risk in itself. And BKT protein is not even supposed to be left in overnight.

PinkSunshine77 said:

Ok I'm going to be honest. How is it so damaging to use chemical relaxers but damaging you hair with heat is perfectly ok? I will never understand that. I read a lady in here the other day say "I'll do a BKT over a relaxer with its damaging chemicals. How is one better than the other? I use a relaxer 1x every 6 months. How often would that extreme heat and process be applied this way or with a BKT? I assure you more often than 2x a year. I guess I just don't comprehend. This is why I ended my transition and relaxed. My hair is thick but my strands are fine. I cannot tolerate the constant use if heat on my hair. Well I say it's your hair. Ultimately it's up to you I just don't see how a $20.00 Keratin treatment is less damaging than a $7.00 Relaxer. But like I said if it works for you, do your thing. Even relaxed I wouldn't dare do that to my hair.

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I think the results look very different. BKT hair looks lighter and bouncier in my opinion. The results might be the reason someone would choose one over the other. Personally, I wouldn't do a bkt, relaxer, heat or whatever because I love my hair the way it is. But all chemicals are just another option.

PinkSunshine77 said:

Ok I'm going to be honest. How is it so damaging to use chemical relaxers but damaging you hair with heat is perfectly ok? I will never understand that. I read a lady in here the other day say "I'll do a BKT over a relaxer with its damaging chemicals. How is one better than the other? I use a relaxer 1x every 6 months. How often would that extreme heat and process be applied this way or with a BKT? I assure you more often than 2x a year. I guess I just don't comprehend. This is why I ended my transition and relaxed. My hair is thick but my strands are fine. I cannot tolerate the constant use if heat on my hair. Well I say it's your hair. Ultimately it's up to you I just don't see how a $20.00 Keratin treatment is less damaging than a $7.00 Relaxer. But like I said if it works for you, do your thing. Even relaxed I wouldn't dare do that to my hair.

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PinkSunshine77
relaxers and bkt yield different results affect the structure of the hair differently as well. Doing a bkt doesnt have to be any more heat intensive than any blowdry and flat iron session. Bkt usually last 3 months which is about the frequency that many do their relaxers(every 12 weeks).people consider the bkt less damaging because your hair is supposed to revert overtime unlike a relaxer meaning that the bonds were not permanently broken aka damage.the aqctive ingredient such as carbocystine is not a corrosive agent such as sodium hydroxide,it doesnt require scalp basing and doesnt burn unless your burn yourself with the flat iron so some may feel safer in putting it in their hair as opposed to relaxers. in the end it comes to personal preference of the desired result.

There is a youtube vid of a keratin treatment. Wash, keratin, blowdry, flatiron, rinse, blowdry, flatiron. Thats alot of heat!! It made me wonder why ppl get these treatments.

But almost everyone I know that relaxes their hair uses heat very frequently anyway. So it's nbd to me. I like my curls that why I don't do either, but a bit is no more offensive to the hair than a relaxer. Considering how much heat many people use to get their relaxed hair bone straight, I'd opt for the bkt first. At least the chemicals aren't damaging on top of heat damage.

sckri23 said:

There is a youtube vid of a keratin treatment. Wash, keratin, blowdry, flatiron, rinse, blowdry, flatiron. Thats alot of heat!! It made me wonder why ppl get these treatments.

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I saw that video and think that stylist did it wrong. You don't need to wash again that same day.

If I fell asleep with a PT in my hair, in the morning my situation would feel like ramen noodles. And if I put heat on top of it... My hair would be like this:



I hope your hair isn't damaged, but I think I'd skip doing that a second time.

BBritdenise said:

But almost everyone I know that relaxes their hair uses heat very frequently anyway. So it's nbd to me. I like my curls that why I don't do either, but a bit is no more offensive to the hair than a relaxer. Considering how much heat many people use to get their relaxed hair bone straight, I'd opt for the bkt first. At least the chemicals aren't damaging on top of heat damage.

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What are these non-harmful chemicals in BKT? Do you have the ingredient list? * not being facetious, I really would like to know* I'm relaxed and rarely use heat. Maybe 1x every 3 or 4 mths if at all.

PinkSunshine77 said:

Ok I'm going to be honest. How is it so damaging to use chemical relaxers but damaging you hair with heat is perfectly ok? I will never understand that. I read a lady in here the other day say "I'll do a BKT over a relaxer with its damaging chemicals. How is one better than the other? I use a relaxer 1x every 6 months. How often would that extreme heat and process be applied this way or with a BKT? I assure you more often than 2x a year. I guess I just don't comprehend. This is why I ended my transition and relaxed. My hair is thick but my strands are fine. I cannot tolerate the constant use if heat on my hair. Well I say it's your hair. Ultimately it's up to you I just don't see how a $20.00 Keratin treatment is less damaging than a $7.00 Relaxer. But like I said if it works for you, do your thing. Even relaxed I wouldn't dare do that to my hair.

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I've always considered chemicals to be more damaging because of the damage that can be caused to the scalp. My last hair relaxer left me with a bald spot that took 6 years to grow back. Flat irons & hot combs have damaged my hair, but never my scalp. I guess if I accidentally dropped the flat iron down my back, then that would be a different story.

It's not about what is more damaging but what type of damage your hair can take. One persons hair may thrive with a relaxer and someone else may have an allergy.

To the OP, I would suggest using the protein treatment as it was intended. If you are interested in heat training or a BKT there is a lot of info on both processes if you do a search.

It's always funny to me how there's always a debate about which is the better danger, heat training, BKT, or relaxing? It's like deciding whether it's better to be dying of AIDS or of cancer?

BKT hair to me has always looked wispy and lifeless--never understood the claim that "protein is being added to make strands stronger", coz they look weak as hell...and from what I've read, live up to this appearance perfectly. Folks like the swing but it looks damaged to me and so far, I've seen enough people on this forum report back how they will never use it again because of the damage it caused. Formaldehyde under heat doesn't sound very safe to me so I never understand folks making out that it is safe...just because they use a fan and a mask.

Relaxers can burn your scalp and absorption of chemicals by scalp can be harmful, but to me they are the better devil only because they've been around longer and I do believe improvements have been made to make them better and safer. Not baby-safe or totally harmless but safe enough for more people to have success with them. And one can base the scalp to minimize relaxer contact on scalp...

BKT IMO is so new that we're still playing Russian roulette with it. IIRC, one of our beloved stylists on the forum (dontspeakdefeat) was using BKT and has so far cast it out of her life. Then there's Reniece, a stylist I respect a lot, who used herself as a guinea pig so she could be offering BKT at her salon but changed her mind after ONE experience. She shared about it on YT.

Anyway, OP I think you're more daring (or crazier) than they come. The first thing I'd think of when applying heat to my hair is whether my hair was protected from heat damage. But here you are doing chemical experiments that you haven't witness being done by anyone (hey, you may be a pioneer!!! ) by directly heating up a product that was not supposed to be cooked for use (usage directions don't suggest this step) and you do this while it's sitting on your hair. What's more, you already previously left it on your hair for longer than directions say to do... But instead of first checking to see if perhaps there's some damage that might need fixing from that clumsy move of overnight use, you throw caution to the wind and decide to play with "fire" LITERALLY.

That's the most gangsta move I've seen on the forum. It's not like both the treatment and BKT have exact ingredients or are made the same way...so that you can say you considered it a good substitute--nor did you use your treatment like BKT. Wow, I guess not everyone thinks of her hair as precious like I do, and while I may be meh about caring for it but when it comes to handling it, I handle it as if I'm handling very expensive silk that I cannot afford to replace.

Oooweee...I think I need to lie down after reading the OP.

Oooh wee, @Nonie.

I'm going to do what so many did for my thread last night. This thread is about if a product should be used a certain way not about what is or isn't damage. I got sidetracked l would like to apologize for that.

Op, you said the curl pattern is looser, so is the hair in that section now silky and smooth with curls? Or is it frizzy with zero curl pattern?

......,,.........,.; double post. ......