It's Like Thermal Reconditioning, But Without the Heat |
Not only is it like the thermal reconditioning treatment in results, but it doesn't take as much time, and is not as expensive as the thermal reconditioning is. It's called cold smoothing, and I have a hunch this hair treatment is soon to be the latest craze in hair treatments across the US.
Soon, women will be pouring into salons across the US to request the cold smoothing process. There are two options actually to go with for this hair treatment system by the folks at Matrix. You can get it done with heat, which means they use the same chemicals on your hair, but they also use heat and very hot flat irons, similar to the japanese straightening process. Or, you can do like I did, and go with the cold process, where your head is just basically covered in some conditioning treatments and a straightening and relaxing and defrizzing formula for several minutes, and there are no high heat elements involved.
How Cold Smoothing is More Versatile than Most Hair Straightening Treatments
First of all, cold smoothing is a process whereby it does exactly what the name implies - it smooths your hair out, permanently, or for as long as your hair grows out, rather than completely flattens and straightens the hair as the thermal (heat) process does. I've had both processes done on my hair, and I have to say I like the cold smooth better than the japanese straightening, because my hair actually has body. I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved the fact that I could just wash and go when I had it completely straight, but board straight, flat hair gets old after a while, and you really crave the curls you used to have, and some good old fashioned vavavoom body, you know?
Cosmetic Product Updates
So that's when I discovered the cold smoothing process, a friend actually went to a salon near where I work and she had their pamphlet laying at her desk. I saw the cold smoothing service listed as one of their offerings, got curious about what it was and did a little research and said "sign me up".
I knew that I wanted the versatility of straight, wavy or curly hair, and that's exactly what cold smoothing gave me. Now, I can just let my hair air dry and it's got a nice waviness to it, or if I want I can blow it out straight, or even put some curls in it with a 1 1/2 inch barreled curling iron (which works fabulously on my hair with this treatment).
As far as the defrizzing factor goes, I have noticeably less frizz and less volume in my hair when it's humid, althought there are still a few stray strands here and there. All in all, I'd say 80% or more of my frizz is completely gone, and I can honestly say I like my hair for once.
You will probably want to make sure that you don't get your hair colored for a few weeks after the treatment, because the cold smoother is in fact a chemical also, just like hair color is, so it's not good to get the two hair treatments simultaneously or too closely together. They actually made me wait about two weeks before coloring my hair. I will say I notice it's a little dry now, but I'm taking care of that with some intense conditioners.
The Process
The process is a fairly simple one, and I was in and out of the salon in about an hour and half, maybe two hours at the most. Basically, you are shampooed, then get a treatment doused on your hair, then you get rinsed, with another round of processing after that. I think I had solutions on my head for a total of about 40 minutes all together, the rest was prep time such as blowing dry and using a flat iron (my stylist just chose to do a quick run through with the iron, not a full-on heat treatment, for extra smoothness). I ended up paying about $300 for my cold smoothing in the end, but I do have very long hair, and I got a complementary haircut with it too.
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