Carley's Keratin Hair Treatment (8 ounces)

Review Details: Wow! This product is AMAZING!!!! I couldn’t believe the results when I finished the treatment! I am a 32 yr old mom with long (shoulder blade length) wavy hair.
My hair texture is medium to fine and very dense. I got a lot of hair! Usually I just leave my hair wavy and I very rarely straighten it. It takes too long, it’s too much work and the
results aren’t usually worth it. I get my hair trimmed every 3 to 4 months, and one of the things I look forward to when I get my hair cut is getting it blown dry and straightened.
I could never replicate the salon sleek straightening look at home…until now. I got a sample of the keratin treatment with my recent conditioner purchase(which is also amazing by the way).
When I knew I could carve out some time to straighten my hair, I decided to give the treatment a try. I washed my hair with a sulfate free shampoo, and then applied the treatment and
left it in for about an hour. I rinsed it out, blow dried my hair in rough sections (I’m not exact when I section my hair) and then straightened it in 1 inch sections with a straightening iron.
The results are better than when I go to a salon. Even with my subpar styling tools (my iron is about 8 years old) my hair became soft, sleek and smooth, with almost no flyaways!
I couldn’t believe how great my hair looked!! I decided to write this review right away because I was so excited and wanted to share my excitement! I will be spreading the word of
this amazing hair product AND I will be buying a full size bottle of this as soon as possible! I have been a Customer for years, and have been happy with everything I have used,
but this is the cherry on top for me. I will be straightening my hair more often just so I can see these awesome results! R.G.

Almost all keratin product labels we looked at contained an uncertain amount of keratin and some chemicals and thickeners. We thought that made no sense. In addition to the keratin, why not use quality ingredients? This is a product that stays on your hair a minimum of 30 minutes? Some leave it on for a day or more at a time. ALL THE INGREDIENTS MATTER! We decided to use our formula for Argan oil hair conditioner (without the peppermint) and just include a high quality Keratin . We took out some water and added in the keratin at cool down(very important). A full 10% of this product is Keratin. Formulators have told us 10% is about the maximum you want in a product to get the best results. Since keratin is very expensive, I suspect most products on the market contain less.

So how does it work? If you can imagine a shaft of hair under a microscope. The surface of the hair shaft has missing sections. A Keratin treatment fills in those missing sections. Therefore smoother hair and better looking hair. Easier to control. Our conditioner uses several ingredients that help the keratin adhere to the hair. And we don’t use Silicone (more about that below).

How do you use it? Wash your hair thoroughly, then apply a good amount. Comb or brush through your hair and let it sit for at least 30 minutes. Some people keep it on for days. (This is why you want quality ingredients) You can experiment to see how long works best for you. You rinse it out and then use heat to seal in the Keratin. Personally I just use a hair dryer and put it closer to the hair at a high setting. Many use a flat iron. There’s some disagreement over what temperature works best. Do some experimenting. (Tell us what works for you so we can pass that along to our customers)

Most of the people buying this are already going to know how to use it.

I noticed the next day after my first use, that my hair seemed to easily comb into place and stayed there all day. My hair felt different. Instead of thin my hair felt course. That evening I just washed my hair and used our regular Argan oil hair conditioner . The next day I just couldn’t believe how soft my hair was. Still easy to control. As i write this well over a week later my hair still feels easier to control and very soft. How long this lasts depends on how long you leave in contact and how much heat you apply. We’ll see when our customers start commenting. At this introductory price, you could easily afford to do a treatment once a month or even every other week. It’s a 8 full ounces.

So how do we get the keratin (and other ingredients) to initially attach to the hair shaft? We use several cationic quaternary compounds. Such as vegetable derived: BTMS and Cetrimonium Chloride. The cationic quaternary compound is hydrophobic – “scared of water” – so it will resist removal by water alone. (The more hydrophobic the quaternary compound, the less likely it is to be removed by water alone.) So the positively charged cationic quaternary compound is attracted to your negatively charged hair shaft and clings on to the surface.

BTW just a thought, since keratin is heat activated, I wonder at what temperature most manufacturers mix in the keratin? We do it at cool down. Well below 100F. Large manufacturers usually don’t have that sort of flexibility.

We noticed a lot of hair care products use Argan oil. If these companies love Argan Oil so much, how come they use so little of it?

Most of the time Argan Oil was so far down the ingredient list that you could only be getting a drop or two from each use. You see, the ingredient list is not in alphabetical order, but by the actual amount of the ingredient in the product (prominence). These products were Argan in name only. Of course, we know why. At $90 to $150 per gallon, it is pricey. And often it is hard to know if you are actually getting all Argan oil. Suppliers are known to lie and bastardize with other oils. This is why we are very picky about where we buy our ingredients. We use the best, Virgin Argan Oil which is $150 a gallon.

Argan Oil is one of the most precious oils in the world. It comes from a very hardy tree that only grows in Moroccan in the desert. The Argan Trees only produce every other year. The seeds/nuts are incredibly hard. They require a lot of hand labor to get the oil out. Many areas of Morocco rely on this oil as their only income source. We use it in several of our moisturizers and are very familiar with Argan Oil. It is amazing and we love it!

Argan Oil is world renown as a curative oil for the hair. It is loaded with nutrients that the hair can use to become healthy. The difficult part is getting those benefits into your hair.

So why not just buy Argan Oil and apply it to your hair? Because our skin and hair cannot absorb oils by themselves. When you apply an oil directly to your hair, it leaves a film and just catches dirt from the air and feels greasy. The key is getting the Argan oil to absorb into your hair and scalp. For that to happen Argan has to be in a true moisturizer base. One thing we do know how to do is make a moisturizer. MAKING A TRUE MOISTURIZER IS ALMOST A LOST ART. When I say a true moisturizer what I mean is a perfect bond between oils and water. Oils and water don’t mix. This is accomplished by combining oils and water using vegetable waxes at a precise temperature. Most products use thickeners instead. Which is not even close to a true moisturizer base.

Ingredients:

Keratin (active) a full 10%

Reverse Osmosis purified water: virtually all skin care products ‘say’ they use purified water. But the real deal is reverse osmosis purified water. This mean ZERO contaminants which means the starting point is pure. It’s expensive to do (goes through 5 filters, which have to be changed often), but it is the only water we use. We use the waste water from this purifying process to water our flowers and landscaping. So there is no waste. Don’t some products use distilled water? Yes but distilled water is expensive to make (heat is used to boil the dirty water and stream is collected). the problem we have with distilled water is it has a lower pH due to the extra ions added during the process. We prefer to work with pH neutral water. To me there is no more perfect water than R-O water. I remember the 1st time we made soap with it. As we poured the soap is was so creamy! It looked like home made ice cream right before it gets solid. It’s one of our special secrets to how good our products are.

5% Virgin Argan Oil (Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil) One of the most precious carrier oils in the world.

Glycerin (vegetable). What skin care product doesn’t benefit from Glycerin? Problem is most store bought and even high end moisturizers use animal derived Glycerin. You don’t even want to know how they make this glycerin. Unless the label specifically says vegetable it is almost always animal derived. Yuck!

BTMS (Behentrimonium Methosulfate Cetearyl Alcohol) This is a sulfate free ingredient. BTMS Conditioning Emulsifier is an excellent cationic self-emulsifier and conditioner for both hair and skin care. It is naturally derived from Colza oil and is noted for its exceptional mildness. BTMS Conditioning Emulsifier offers innovative properties to formulations as both a mild primary emulsifier and an excellent conditioning agent.

Cetac 30 (Cetrimonium Chloride) is a cationic quaternary ammonium salt that is used as a hair conditioning agent. This is a vegetable derived ingredient. Its use in conditioners and cream rinses improves both wet and dry combing and reduces static electricity. Cationic means it helps other nutritional ingredients adhere and absorb into the hair even after the rinse.

Panthenol (2%) Panthenol is present in all living cells in the form of Pantothenic acid which is a constituent of Co-enzyme A. A deficiency in Panthothenic acid results in dermatological and many physiological disorders. Pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5) is a natural constituent of healthy hair. Panthenol (pro-vitamin B5) will convert to pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) in hair. Panthenol conditions the hair without build up.

GuarSilk (Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Chloride)

Cetyl Stearyl Alcohol (vegetable) this is a waxy vegetable ingredient used to give the moisturizers a bit of heft and contact feel.

Germall Plus (4/10’s of 1%) (diazolidinyl Urea, 3-Iodo-2-propylbutylcarbarmate) (a vegetable derived preservative to keep our product fresh) only needs 4/10’s of one percent to keep our product safe. Look before you ask, no totally natural preservative really protects products from bacteria. We don’t like using Parabens. and since we pH balance our moisturizers we are limited in our choice of preservatives. What’s great about this one is so little is needed to afford protection.

We use enough Sweet orange and Lavender essential oils to cover the scent of the keratin.

Why don’t we use silicone? Silicone is an ingredient that is in practically every skin care product and especially hair care products. Silicone is also known as dimethicone. It has several other chemical names and forms. What is does is make things slick. It is the active ingredient in those anti-gas products people take. Silicone makes the big manufacturers job easy, since they can fill containers fast without worrying about bubbles or foam. We don’t use silicone, because it also leaves a film on the skin and hair. For hair care our worry was it seals the hair and actually starves the hair of nutrients. But isn’t it great for combability? Yes, when your hair is wet, silicone helps the comb glide through the hair. So with our product your hair will not get that ease of combing until it dries. As you continue to use our conditioner, you’ll see your hair getting healthier because it can now absorb the nutrients in our product. And your hair will get easier to comb.

We do not use Phthalates: Ever wonder how most products can last years and years on the retail shelf? There’s this secret almost unpronounceable ingredient called Phthalates. It used to be only used to make plastics stronger and more flexible. But recently it has been revealed that this mystery ingredient is used to also ensure fragrances stay fresh smelling in cosmetic products for years. And here’s the kicker, our government doesn’t require manufacturers to even put this ‘poison’ on the label. But the secret ingredient was revealed when scientists were trying to figure out why this chemical was turning up in baby urine. Everything we ship is made fresh, and we only use natural essences so no need to use Phthalates. Sorry if we sound smug, but the more we examine the products being sold as good for us the more we find they aren’t good for us. Or to me even worse: bland. Nothing we make could ever be described as bland.

No animal testing EVER!

Most skin care products you buy to use today, were made in large factories years ago and have been in storage. Everything we ship was made in small batches within a few weeks of shipping. Fresh matters! Quality ingredients matter!

Now keep in mind it is legal in this country to put one drop of an ingredient into a product and name it after that ingredient. WE DON’T EVER DO THAT. It might be legal, but it isn’t moral or ethical. Besides in our mind if a product works we will get reorders.

Best if used within one year of receipt. I’ll bet no skin care product you have bought from a store was made within the last year. Most of the products were made years ago. We find we can better control our quality if we make products as they are used. Fresh just makes for better skin care products. Our families all use our products. We only sell what we would use.

People ask us all the time, how come I’ve never heard of your company? The reason is our products have to be made and shipped fresh and used within one year. Which pretty much makes us, by design, a small company and a niche product. That’s ok, we have an extremely loyal following. And we get a lot of referrals. We spend almost nothing on advertising. And we are profitable since we spend almost nothing on advertising. lol. No, we’re not getting rich or driving BMW’s. We support several families while helping people with top quality products. What’s not to love?