Review: At home Permanent Hair Straightening Kit

I opened the ClIcks Beauty Festival brochure the other day and I was like " Damn , for real?" LOL.  So the product I want to review is :

Scott Cornwall STR8 FORWARD >> Permanent Keratin Hair Straightening Kit.

It is an at home Japanese / Brazilian hair straightening kit in a box but without the salon price tag.  It is supposed to last for 3 months and retails for R160 at Clicks stores.  I purchased it for R10 less as Clicks who was having a beauty festival sale.  It is supposed to cut down the time taken to dry and style your hair by more than half.

Most days I feel like this.....

So imagine my delight when I saw this.  I hoped and prayed it was not a gimmick.
It comes in two variants : SUPER STRAIGHT for normal to coarse hair and EXTRA CONDITIONING for sensitized or colour treated hair.  I chose the Super Straight.

So with application you will need a helping hand and lots of patience as it can take about 2 to 4 hours depending on the length of your hair.  I had begged my mother a day in advance for her help.  The kits comes with gloves, an instruction leaflet and 3 bottles of products labeled A,B and C.

So first you need to shampoo your hair with baby shampoo about two or three times just to remove all residue from styling products.  Baby shampoo does not have any sodium laureth sulphate in it.  Alternatively you may use a clarifying shampoo but you need to check the ingredients on the bottle first.
After you have towel dried your hair, part your hair into four sections.

Next apply the bottle marked "A  - Straightening Cream".  This must be applied root to tip then combing straight being careful not to over-stretch or pull the hair.  Then you take long strips of cling wrap into the hairs surface.  This will trap the heat inside the hair and ensure effective development.   Leave on for 25 minutes (check instruction leaflet for timing for different hair types).  Rinse for 3 to 6 minutes with warm water.
You then part your hair into sections again and apply the second bottle marked " B  - Keratin Protein".  You need to leave 25% of this product aside for use at a later stage. This needs to stay on for 10 minutes.   Rinse the hair for 3 to 6 minutes with warm water.

At this stage you need to blow-dry the hair about 80% and then iron with a good iron.  The instruction manual says not to use poor quality irons as they emit uneven heat which can dry hair during this process.  Use high quality ceramic, teflon, tourmaline or titanium plates.  You need to glide the iron through the hair 6 to 12 times.  The objective is to get the hair super straight.

Then you take the bottle marked "C - Fixing Cream".  Part the hair into sections again, apply and comb through.  Leave on for 10 minutes to develop.  Rinse for 3 to 6 minutes and then take the remaining 25% of bottle B Keratin Protein that was left from before and apply to wet hair.  Comb through the hair and leave for 1 minute.  The hair then needs to be blow dried and then ironed as normal.

Please note that you may not tie or clip your hair up for 3 days. Do not get the hair wet either.
Some dry shampoo and a quick iron will eliminate any bed-head. 

So, was that long process worth it?  U BET IT WAS!

It is supposed to last for 3 months, but if not looked after, it may revert to its original state sooner.  There are expensive salon treatments out there for aftercare of this process.  Alternatively,  you can be smart and learn to read the labels on hair care products and know what you should and shouldn't use.  You may continue to use baby shampoo.  Dischem sells shampoos and conditioners that do not contain any sodium laureth sulphate, alcohol or parabens.

Xoxo