I 100% believe that the majority of women (and some men – definitely including my boyfriend) strive for glossy, beautiful hair. And I am 100% one of those people. Unfortunately, I was not blessed with glossy silky hair. Actually – saying that, when I was younger, I had great, shiny, straight hair – but then puberty struck – and I was suddenly blessed with a mane of weird, curly, straw hair (as you will allll already know, from previous blog posts where I rant about my hair).
Ever since then I have been looking for ways to make my hair look like these girl’s hair…
My hair is in a pretty decent condition at the moment – not great – but it is ok.
However, recently, I was given the opportunity to have a Pure Keratin Blow Dry on my hair at Daniel Galvin’s hairdressers in Marylebone and I was like YASS.
I have been coming to Daniel Galvin since I was a little girl. I got my first hair cut there, had my first set of highlights there.. and I have also come in crying and in desperate need of getting my hair fixed after many DIY attempts of dying my hair at home failed…
I trust them with my hair/life so I couldn’t wait to try out the Pure Keratin Blow Dry.
A Keratin blow dry is basically a blow dry treatment that smoothes away all that frizz and ‘tames texture for two to four months’. It isn’t one of those blow drys that makes your hair poker straight for 4 months, just de-frizzes through a straighten process where the Keratin is sealed into the hair cuticle and helps puts the health back into your hair.
Here is some science: The Keratin protein fortifies and enriches the hair and improves hair quality and shine. Nanokeratin particles will penetrate deep into each hair cuticle to condition every strand.
It is a replenishing treatment that reconditions and protects the hair from water and heat damage while enhancing it’s natural shine. Sounds dreamy, right?
When I arrived at their flagship salon on George Street, I was introduced to my stylist, Georgia, who would be doing my treatment. She was SUCH a babe – I loved her. We chatted the entire time throughout my treatment – she also has FAB hair – so I trusted her instantly.
Anyway. Here is a photo of my hair when I came into the salon. See – it is pretty dry..
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| Oh hey split ends |
I thought my hair was not too bad but looking back at these photos, I can see how much it needed some help.
So the first part of the treatment involves you getting your hair washed with shampoo. Just shampoo – no conditioner.
I felt incredibly sorry for the poor girl that had to attack my hair with a Tangle Teezer after washing it to try and get all the knots out after my shampoo-only washed hair.. Not pleasent.
Now step 2 was probably the most depressing part for me – seeing what my hair looked like after a quick rough dry – no styling – no conditioner. Just thin, fluffy, frizz. Literally, bleugh.
I couldn’t wait to get the treatment into my locks.
Next step – you get all the Keratin conditioner put into your hair – just like any other hair treatment mask. You let it sink in for a bit, whilst reading magazines and drinking tea – bliss.
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| Looks SO satisfying. |
After you have left the conditioning treatment in your hair for 30 mins (I think) – THEN comes the exciting part. Sealing it into your hair. This involves heat. The Kertain treatment is blow-dried into your hair, followed by being straighten-er-ed in (straightened in with a straightener).
My hair literally drank in the treatment. Apparently – this part can take ages as you have to keep blow drying the Keratin into the hair until it is all absorbed and the hair is dry. This happened really quickly for me, literally my hair sucked up every last drop (because it was so desperate and thirsty), however, sometimes the Kertain can just sit on the hair surface and therefore takes a longer time to be absorbed into the hair cuticles.
Now – a little warning: this part of the treatment does give off quite a lot of steam (/product evaporating – I don’t know what this is called) from the heat and the Kertain. I have incredibly sensitive eyes and my eyes did start to water a lot at the beginning. However, they did quickly get used to it, and I managed to stop looking like I was just sitting there crying. I would strongly advise all contact wearing folk NOT to wear contact lenses, just incase.
Anyway, once the hair has been blowdried and all the treatment is absorbed, it is then set with straighteners. (Again, this produces a lot of steam/evaporation/whatever it is – but my eyes were totally fine with this bit).
And ta-da. Conditioned, poker straight hair. (look at that ombre line… *monkey-covering-its-eyes emoji*).
You can instantly see a difference in the moisture level of my hair. Yes there is a lot of conditioner in there but it really doesn’t feel like there is, its smooth and so so soft and NOT FRIZZY. You may think that it will feel like you will be walking around with a hair mask, but it is honestly not like that, it is all absorbed into your hair and it feels fab gorgeous.
Look at the ends of my hair and that blunt cut, compared to before where they were all over the place. Dreamy.
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| Side point – your hair does go slightly static after its been blow dried a few times |
So the next step involves leaving the treatment in for 3 days. 3 days. You can not wash your hair for 3 days. Not even a bit. So you should probably book 3 days off work so that you can sit at home in a ball of straightened hair grease, right?
You have to keep your hair totally straight and completely dry. And as straight as possible – no wipping it up in a bun to hide the grease – it has to be kept total straight.
By the end of the 3 days, my hair actually didn’t look that awful. I mean – I probably wouldn’t of gone anywhere where I would have see people I knew – but I was fine going out in public and going on the tube to the hairdressers without feeling like a complete disgrace.
Then the satisfying part of all – washing your hair.
Daniel Galvin include a hair wash & blow dry as part of the package, so after 3 days you go back in and they wash out the Keratin and blow dry your hair – and show you how fabulous your hair looks. If you would prefer to wash it out at home and not come back in, then that is also totally fine – but who would pass up a free blow dry?
So lets just take a moment to appreciate the difference.
As you can see in the picture below, my hair looks silky, smooth and genuinely thicker.
I know that the first image is only rough dried and second is styled but you can definitely still see a clear change in the hair quality and the difference in the moisture level.
Now look at those ends.
I was completely blown (/blow dried – Lol) away with how much difference it made to my hair. With all of these things, I was pretty sceptical – but this genuinely changed the quality of my hair.
I had the Keratin treatment done a few weeks ago – maybe 3 weeks ago – and I waited a while to review it to see how my hair turned out after a few weeks of washing it. My hair is still as glossy and fabulous as it was when I left the salon on this day. (The ends of my hair are starting to feel a little strawy now, but I have had a lot of styling and blow-drying and hairspray etc in the past few weeks which I am sure has taken its toll).
(Daniel Galvin also provide you with the preferred special shampoo to wash you hair with as part of the package. I personally don’t like this shampoo. You have to use a lot of it per wash to make my hair clean as it doesn’t lather very well, but it is meant to make the Keratin last longer. However, I can’t wait for this shampoo to run out though.)
The main difference I have noticed (apart from the obvious change in quality) is the speed in which I can dry and style my hair now.
Before, to blow dry my hair took me forever. I would have to rough dry it, then blow dry it again in sections using a large barrel brush, then probably wizz my GHDs over it. Now – I can literally rough dry it and it is good to go. I am not joking.
This is a photo of just a really quick rough dry – no frizz.
I am so impressed with the results – I highly highly HIGHLY recommend it, to anyone with slightly overly frizzy hair, or dry hair, or hair that freaks out when it rains or gets humid etc. It is AMAZING. Go. Go. GOOOOO.
Also wanted to include some images of the DG salon – it is so BEAUTIFUL. This is just the downstairs area, where they deal with all the styling – the upstairs (where you come in) is where all the colouring takes place. Hair colouring – now colouring books. Although that would be a great floor.
Any questions you have about the treatment – please do let me know and I will be happy to answer whatever I can.
Huge huge thank you to Georgia and to Daniel Galvin for treating me to this amazing, hair/life-changing treatment. The treatment last for about 2-4 months and I will definitely be back to have another one when this one ‘runs out’.
My Pure Keratin Treatment was complimentary, however their prices range from £226 for collar length hair (and above) to £307 for hair below the shoulders. You can also get touch ups/fringe for £83.
It is expensive – but I honestly have never found a treatment that has been so worth it.
Thank you again for reading! Have a wonderful day
xx