I came across Baby face pure keratin treatment thanks to a hair emergency I had a while back. I had a run in with a fake pair of GHDs a while back. It wasn’t pretty; it rendered my fringe (the only thing I straightened) dead. Fried, frazzled, there isn’t a word that describes quite how bad my fringe was. It didn’t lie flat, it didn’t lie straight, it was a crazy unruly frizz of afro-carribean style hair. Which, sitting bouffant my smooth hair looked awful. Truly terrible.
I’m not stupid, when hair is that damaged there is no going back. The eventual answer was, and is, to cut it off. But you can’t just go cutting off an entire chunk of your fringe. So I had to find some way of taming it.
After many trials of hair oils, treatments and conditioners, I took to the internet. I know protein is good for your hair (as it literally is protein) but I had never come across a pure protein treatment. Googling took me to Babyface Pure Keratin treatment, and I bought it for £21.
First thoughts on the product: The bottle is tiny. I didn’t read how big it was so this was a huge surprise- I’d paid £21 so I had just assumed it would be a decent amount. Thankfully, you don’t use the product directly on your hair as it is too damaging: you mix a capful with enough conditioner to cover your hair, so the bottle lasts a while.
The instructions are to shampoo the hair with a cleansing shampoo, as the treatment won’t work if it can’t get past the grime and oil and into your hair. Once you’ve shampoo’d, you make the protein treatment by mixing a capful with enough moisturising conditioner to cover your hair, and then leave this on for 25 minutes before rinsing as usual. You have to blow dry your hair and straighten it to set it, and you can’t wet your hair for 24 hours. The concept is pretty similar to a Brazillian blow dry/ straighten, if you’ve ever looked into them. The conditioner you use has to be moisturising to combat the drying effects of the protein.
I really wasn’t impressed with my first use. I used it with an intensive hair mask and when I’d washed and dried it I really couldn’t see or feel a noticeable difference in my hair to when I usually used hair masks. I was gutted. Not only had I lose my one hope for a restored fringe, I had wasted £21 on a tiny product of absolute crap.
However, I decided to give it one more chance. This time, I decided to kick it up a notch by mixing it with my Lee Stafford hair growth treatment, which also contains protein. I left this on for 20 minutes before rinsing. At this stage, my hair felt extemely hard, but I’ve always found that when using anything with just protein and no moisturising agent (e.g. eggs without olive oil), so I wasn’t worried. I then used a mixture of Argan Dew replenishing hair mask and Hair Mayonnaise to make a hair mask, which I left on for 30 minutes before washing and drying.
Oh my days my hair felt soft. And the ends looked so much fuller, as if they had just been trimmed! And my whole hair felt thicker. By this point, my fringe wasn’t too bad because I’d been doing frequent hair oil treatments and deep conditioning treatments everytime I showered, plus snipping the ends weekly, however after this treatment it had improved so much more, that the damaged hair is starting to blend in with my non damaged hair!
After a few treatments (every couple of weeks) and a few DIY trims, my fringe is almost back to normal. The damaged bit is shorter than the rest of my fringe, and is prone to flyaways and a bit of frizz but do a little balm or serum, and it blends in perfectly with my hair.
I actually can’t believe how much my opinion on this has changed. At first, I was seriously dubious as to whether it would work or not but it has honestly been a life (fringe) saver, and the rest of my hair is super thick and healthy. It doesn’t prevent you getting split ends, so you will still need your trims and serums, but it adds to much strength to your hair it is insane. If you’re a bleach or straightener addict, get your hands on this! The bottle lasts for ages, so you do get your money’s worth. And it’s so worth it to have soft, strong hair.
