Retire flat irons with keratin hair

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By Karen Goldberg Goff

Wavy-haired Washingtonians seeking a new look no longer have to spend the morning with a flat iron. The latest hair treatment at Roche Salon in Georgetown is the Keratin Complex Hair Therapy Smoothing System. The leave-in formula "shrink-wraps the hair with a protein derived from sheep's wool," says salon owner Dennis Roche.

"It holds hair in a straighter position," he says. "Hair also blow dries in a heartbeat and looks very smooth."

The keratin treatment is part of the evolution of straight hair since the late 1990s, Mr. Roche says. When runway models and Hollywood actresses started showing up with long, glossy hair, customers began seeking all sorts of products — both in the salon and for home use — to try to replicate the look, even if they were born with curls.

First came Japanese thermal reconditioning, which, for $600 to $800 a treatment, would give clients "really, really straight hair," Mr. Roche says. The caveats: Japanese thermal reconditioning is not for those with colored or otherwise chemically treated hair, it often could make hair too flat, and it still needed to be done two or three times a year.

Then came Brazilian keratin treatments (BKT), which were a little less expensive and helped hair find a new, smoother texture. The problem with those, though, is they contain formaldehyde — sometimes in amounts higher than those considered safe. Stylists at some salons took to wearing safety masks in order not to breathe in too many fumes.

Roche Salon has been offering a chocolate Brazilian keratin treatment for a while, mixing in a cocoa-based booster so the paint-on product had the aroma of a hot fudge sundae. It smelled better, and the chocolate didn't hurt the hair, but the chemicals were still at work.

Longtime Roche Salon client Sandy, who asked that her last name not be used, says she "smelled like a chocolate bar" for three days after getting the chocolate treatment.

She has since moved on to the new keratin complex, created by hairdresser Peter Coppola.

"It makes my hair manageable and not so frizzy," she says. "I don't even have to dry it. I used to have to condition, oil, dry my hair, and then iron it. Now I don't do any of that."

For the new keratin treatment, hair is washed with a special shampoo, and then the treatment is painted on to sections of hair. It is left to soak in for about 30 minutes, then dried and sealed with a flat iron. Cost: about $400 to $600, depending on the length of the customer's hair, Mr. Roche says.

Looking for something a litte less pricey? Roche sells the GHD flat iron ($240), which features a computer chip that reads how much straightening the user's hair needs, as well as Moroccan oil, a leave-in solution of highly refined Argania spinoza kernel oil. That product makes hair smooth and shiny, with a 40 percent faster drying time.

And it costs just $40 a bottle.