Hair Smoothening Pros and Cons; Cost and Durability

Esther GodswillLast Updated: September 24, 2021

Spare this moment, and let’s dive deep into the hair smoothening sphere.

Who doesn’t like straight and silky smooth hair?

Hair smoothening refers to the practice of using chemicals to treat frizzy hair, giving you the bouncy, straight hair of your dreams.

Regardless of how effective this technique may be, it’s still a chemical process, and chemical processes always have a long list of disadvantages.

In this article, you’ll learn how much it costs to undergo hair smoothening, how long it lasts, and the pros and cons of smoothening your hair.

In short, you can refer to this as the ultimate hair smoothening guide that you must see before going to the salon for a hair smoothing treatment.

What is Hair Smoothening?

Hair smoothening, also known as Brazilian blowout or Keratin treatment, refers to using a formaldehyde cream to smoothen the hair.

Hair smoothening helps to treat unruly or wavy hair. It is usually a complex process by experts who have experience with these chemicals.

The process can take up to five hours, and it lasts for about five months before you’ll need another.

While hair smoothening is tiring, it is also rewarding, as you get frizz-free straight hair for the next few months at least.

Over the following few paragraphs, you’ll learn how to smoothen your hair, how long the smoothened hair lasts, and how much the service costs.

Hair Smoothening Cost

Hair Smoothening Procedures

Depending on the length and type of your hair, the hair smoothening process can take two to six hours.

For best results, always leave it to the experts with sufficient experience to carry out the procedures safely.

Here are the processes required for hair smoothening.

1. Preparing your hair

Before starting the process of hair smoothening, you must get your hair prepared for the smoothening process.

The preparation involves washing and drying your hair. Typically, your stylist will do all of these, but you can do it if you want to.

If you’re washing it yourself, it should be a thorough wash to remove all the dirt. Then, you can wash it using a hair conditioner and dry the hair thoroughly using a blow dryer.

2. Applying the solution

After washing the hair clean, the stylist should apply the smoothening cream over the hair strands. The solution is a formaldehyde-based cream that can smoothen and straighten your hair.

However, don’t let the formaldehyde solution touch your hair scalp. The chemical can cause some damages to your hair, most of which we’ll discuss in the cons section of this tutorial.

To prevent the solution from touching the roots of your hair, you shouldn’t smoothen your hair yourself. Applying a solution to your hair and ensuring it doesn’t touch your scalp is too much for the average human.

After applying the cream, you should let the hair rest for 30 minutes to an hour before rinsing it off.

3. Straightening and drying the hair

After rinsing the formaldehyde solution off your hair, the next step is to dry the hair. If a blow-dryer is available, you can use it to speed up the process.

You can also straighten the hair using a straightening iron if it’s available. Your stylist should do all this if you’re smoothening your hair at a salon.

While you’ve technically smoothened your hair, there is an extra step that’s also beneficial; applying some creams. These creams will help your hair become wavy and shiny.

Pros

Hair smoothening is a good hair treatment if you do it the right way. If the advantages don’t outweigh the risks, nobody will smoothen their hair, will they?

Here are some compelling reasons why you should smoothen your hair next weekend.

1. It causes no permanent damage in the long term.

If you’re not smoothening your hair now and then, you don’t risk any significant permanent damage to your hair in the long term.

You should smoothen your hair more than three times a year to avoid breakage. Continuously smoothening your hair with a formaldehyde-based smoothening solution will only cause permanent damage over the long term.

2. It gives a natural look.

Hair smoothening doesn’t try to beautify your hair artificially. It only beautifies it by returning it to the natural, straight, smooth look that it should be.

This makes the hair looks naturally beautiful and not artificially bloated. If you’re a fan of natural hair, you should try a formaldehyde hair smoothening solution.

3. Eliminates frizz

As most other hair treatments cause frizz, including over-shampooing, any hair treatment that improves your hair look without causing frizz scores a point.

Not only does it ‘not cause’ frizz, it actively prevents it. When you smoothen your hair, you won’t notice frizz for a couple of weeks, keeping your hair fresh and organized.

4. It straightens and livens up your hair

Most hair smoothening sessions end with hair straightening. So, it’s only natural that almost everyone with a smoothened hair also has straight hair.

When you have smooth, straight hair that’s also free of frizz, your hair comes to life. That’s how smoothening straightens and revitalize your hair.

Cons

Treating your hair with chemicals is always a risk. While straight and bouncy hair is always attractive, numerous side effects may come up from hair smoothening that you shouldn’t ignore.

Here are some side effects of hair smoothening that you should review before agreeing to smoothen your hair.

1. It contains toxic chemicals that can cause bodily damage

If you have severe skin issues, you may want to stay away from any hair smoothening treatments.

When formaldehyde contacts the skin, it may cause skin irritation. Having previous skin issues like acne only worsens things.

Also, it’s almost impossible to prevent the chemical from making contact with any part of your body since you’ll eventually rinse it with water.

2. Causes severe hair fall if done improperly

When smoothening your hair, you should avoid letting the solution touch the hair scalp. The chemical excessively dries the hair, leading to a dry scalp that’s the perfect avenue for hair fall.

Since applying a solution to your hair and monitoring your scalp can be too much for one person, you should always get professional help.

3. Itching and burning eyes

When applying a hair smoothening treatment, you should ensure that it doesn’t make contact with your eyes.

Depending on the volume of formaldehyde that contacts your eyes, the effects could range from itching to a burning sensation. If excessive formaldehyde enters into one’s eyes (over 100ppm), it can cause total blindness.

You sure don’t want to go blind because you want smooth hair; another reason to get an experienced stylist.

4. Cancer risk

No, smoothening your hair once in a while doesn’t mean you’ll get cancer once you turn 42. With the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifying formaldehyde as a carcinogen, you should be worried.

A carcinogen is any substance that can cause cancer. With a 1980 study directly linking formaldehyde to nasal cancer in rats, there must be a correlation between cancer and this smoothening agent.

To counter that, people have developed non-formaldehyde smoothening agents that work almost as well as formaldehyde.

If you hate cancer that much, you can always ask your stylist for a smoothening treatment that isn’t formaldehyde-based.

Hair Smoothening Cost

Depending on your geographical location and salon choice, the price for a hair smoothening treatment may be as low as $100 or as high as $1000.

Your hair length and the extra post-smoothening treatments can also increase the price.

And yes, your occupation also influences the price. If you’re a hairstylist, for instance, you can get it done for free!

How Long Does Hair Smoothening Last?

The duration of a hair smoothening treatment is the amount of time before you’ll need to smoothen your hair again.

In general, this time varies depending on the length of your hair and its growth rate. Also, a well-done hair smoothening treatment will last for much longer than one that’s not.

In any case, you shouldn’t get another treatment until after three months. This time is the bare minimum to avoid most of the side effects associated with hair smoothing treatments.

Some practices improve the health of your hair, increasing the durability of the hair smoothening treatment. Some of these practices include the following.

Use a wide-tooth comb to brush the hair in the place of a brush.
Application of hair serum.
Avoid heat styling your hair.
Keeping your hair dry most of the time.

Conclusion

Everyone wants smooth and silky hair, but no one wants the associated disadvantages. However, it seems like we have no option other than to face reality.

While smoothening your hair can be very advantageous, a few disadvantages can make the process less enticing.

In this article, I’ve highlighted most of the pros and cons of hair smoothening, as well as the cost and duration to help you decide if this treatment is the best option for your hair.

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I hope you find this post on hair smoothening interesting and helpful.

And if you got questions or feedback, do not hesitate to let me know by leaving a comment below right now.