Lost my curls due to Keratin treatments & hair won't grow past shoulders. Help!

[Luna12345]

Hi all. I haven't been on the forum for about 2 or 3 years. I had finally reached my goal length(waist length) during my pregnancy thanks to hormones. By the time my son was 4 months old I chopped it off to my chin. I have naturally very thick curly hair which I didn't have time to take care of with a young baby. I also didn't want to spend too much time on blow drying so I started getting keratin treatments & at first I was in love!! My curls were a little looser but the awesome part was that I was able to leave my hair down with no frizz and I didn't need a single product.
Fast forward to a year and a half or 2 of getting my hair treated with keratin. ....ALL my curls are gone. My hair is straight and no matter what I do my curls are not coming back. I've used tons of clarifying shampoos and other things to strip the keratin and the frizz in and volume has come back but no curls. My hair also won't grow past my shoulders and I've been trying for 2 years to grow it. Can any of you lovely people give me advice on how to get my natural curls back and how to get my hair growing again?

[Nique1202]

The thing about the keratin treatment is that it burns the keratin into the hair, specifically so that it can't be removed and you won't get the curl coming back. How long since your last keratin treatment? Especially if you've been doing a lot of stressful or damaging stuff to your hair trying to get it out, you may not have much luck until it's been trimmed out entirely. At that point, your hair should be much healthier and you should be able to stop trimming and let it grow back down. As with all damaging treatments some hair can take the damage of keratin straightening, but some hair just can't.

[Johannah]

I thought keratin treatments are permanent... So I'm afraid you have to grow it out.

[lapushka]

Yes, no choice but to grow it out, and start from scratch. I'm so sorry! :(

[meteor]

Luna12345, "keratin treatments" are semi-permanent chemical straightening treatments, and they don't necessarily wear off, especially if you do it more than once!
They usually use one of the following pathways:
- Formaldehyde (methylene glycol);
- Oxoacetamide/Oxoacetic acid/Glyoxylic acid (behaves like formaldehyde);
- Cysteine and Ethanolamine or cysteamine hydrochloride.
(more on this here: http://thebeautybrains.com/2014/08/how-do-keratin-hair-smoothers-work-the-beauty-brains-show-episode-43/)


For improving texture, fighting frizz and coaxing back your natural texture a bit, I highly recommend pre-poo oiling with penetrating oils (http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.ca/2014/03/oil-pre-shampoo-or-pre-wash.html) and hydrolyzed protein treatments followed by deep moisturizing treatments. You mentioned (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=133074&p=3055954&viewfull=1#post3055954)Redken Extreme Builder Plus mask in a different thread as one of your recommendations and that's a great one for chemically treated hair! Also, you may want to experiment with gelatin DIY masks or Joico K-Pak Reconstruct or even Aphogee (if you want a much stronger dose of protein).
Also, post-wash, try LOC method for sealing moisture (leave-in/liquid + oil + cream).

All of this will help a bit with condition, but really, after so many keratin treatments, your hair texture on the chemically treated parts will be different from your virgin hair, no matter what, until you grow those ends out. :flower:

Also, check out heat-free wet-setting curling methods to help create non-damaging curls, e.g.:
- flexi-rods;
- curl-formers;
- rag curls;
- pin curls;
- foam rollers;
- bantu/cinnabuns...

Beautyklove has a great channel that covers many heatless waves/curls methods: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4626FAE04F57ED14

[Luna12345]

Thanks!! I will definitely check out the youtube channel.

[Luna12345]

Thank you all. I guess I will just have to style it curly until it grows.