"It takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to blow dry using a roller brush and then straightening iron," Courtney explained to Chase as they discussed her lifestyle and reasons for wanting the treatment. "What mom has that kind of time?"
"I'm hoping that this will help me find a way to run around with young kids, be on the go constantly and still look cute. I'm praying for "wash and go hair," she pleaded with a smile.
"You have very thick, curly hair," Chase said, examining his client's strands, "And, you're the perfect candidate for a Brazilian Blowout," he assured her.
(Editor's note: Brazilian Blowout is a brand name that's sometimes used erroneously to describe the entire category of Brazilian Keratin Treatment procedures.)
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The Brazilian Blowout Process
"The best way to explain a Brazilian Blowout," Chase said as he began the 90-minute procedure, "is that we coat the cuticle of the hair with a high dose of amino acids, creating a protective layer around the cuticle that will smooth out all the frizz."
Unlike processes that use chemicals to get the hair straight -- there's no shortage of horror stories and cautionary tales on the Internet about "formaldehyde" treatments -- the Brazilian Blowout doesn't mess with the natural texture of your hair, it just smoothes it out, and makes curls softer and easier to manage.
"This was actually a pleasant process," Courtney says, "I'm happy to report that it didn't hurt at all or smell bad in the least."
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The Product Application
Once Chase had coated all of Courtney's hair with the treatment, he blew it dry and went over it section by section with a flat iron to seal in the product.
"I have to say that the blow dry and sealing part of the process was pleasant too," Courtney recalls, "not tedious at all, it didn't take very long and Joseph was so nice that the conversation made the time go by quickly."
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The Post Application Blow Out
With the product firmly sealed into the cuticle, it was time to rinse her hair and dry it again.
"I LOVED the second blowout," Courtney exclaims, "even before [Chase] did any roller brushing or flat ironing, my hair was smooth and silky and looked amazing from just a quick blast with the dryer!"
"Joseph was very generous and gave me [the after care products] to use," Courtney says. They smell great, make my hair feel wonderful and have lasted a long time -- I'd definitely buy them again."
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The Makeup Transformation
With her smooth, shiny hair adding a discernable spring to her step, Courtney met makeup artist Barbara Farman whose artistry would add the finishing touches to her makeover.
"Courtney has great skin," Farman said, adding that she did very little to even it out, concentrating instead on making her beautiful blue eyes pop.
"I decided to make it all about violet, taking a deep dark shade (try Nars Single Eye Shadow in Daphne, $32) and going right into the center crease of the eye and making a V in the whole crease and doing a paler violet shade (try MAC Eye Shadow in Digit, $24.99 on the inside," explains Farman who has worked on innumerable celebs including Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Heather Graham. She then applied black liquid liner (try Almay Liquid Liner, $8) and lots of mascara (try Flirt! Far Out Mascara, $16) to Courtney's lashes and ran a line of dark brown (try NYX Single Eyeshadow in Charcoal Brown, $5) inside the bottom lid ("don't use black, it's too harsh," she warns) before smudging out the violet line under the eyes.
"I feel incredibly glamorous," Courtney said, admiring her new look in the mirror. "Going to have to make my husband take me out tonight, it'd be a shame to waste this on a mac and cheese dinner with the kids!"
If you read women's magazines or beauty sites with any regularity, you've no doubt heard of keratin hair treatments (aka Brazilian Blowouts, Brazilian Keratin Treatments, etc., etc.) -- the hair smoothing procedure that's all the rage these days with celebrities and mortals alike.
And, if you struggle with frizzy, curly, unruly hair, you've probably at least daydreamed about getting it done.
That was the case with Courtney, a 33-year-old mom of two who was more than a little fed up with wrestling her curly hair. "My hair is basically like a frizzy triangle," she says, "It changed a great deal after two pregnancies and the curls aren't uniform anymore -- the under part is ringlets and the outer layer is straight and frizzy. Not a good look!" Factor a newborn baby into Courtney's equation, and blowing her thick curls into submission every day becomes an unviable solution.
Determined to find a work-around, Courtney did some research and decided to have a keratin treatment done. Keratin, a strong protein that's a major component of skin, hair and nails has been used more and more in hair care treatments in recent years to coat hair follicles and smooth the shaft for a shiny, un-frizzy result. "I figured I didn't have anything to lose," she says of the Keratin Complex Smoothing Therapy by Peter Coppola (the name brand her salon uses) procedure that "infuses natural keratin deep into the hair's cuticle" and claims to reduce 95 percent of frizz and curl and impart great shine.
How'd it turn out? "The first attempt didn't take at all," she recalls, "and, although the second procedure was successful, I had 3 days of discomfort. For 72 hours, I was stuck with stick-straight, flat hair that I literally could not touch or sweat with or wash or do anything to! As someone who likes to exercise and has a baby at home, it was not very compatible with my lifestyle."
Feeling condemned to a life sentence of blow dry hell, Courtney got a sudden stay of execution when she was selected to get a makeover courtesy of TotalBeauty.com, one that would feature the $350 Brazilian Blowout (a different brand of keratin hair treatment) as the crux of the transformation!
As she settled into stylist Joseph Chase's chair at the ritzy Argyle Salon & Spa on Los Angeles' famed Sunset Strip on a recent Saturday, Courtney was psyched. "I can't wait to see how it turns out," she said, "I have a good feeling about this!"
