Why hair botox is a thing

To regain this texture and strengthen your hair, hair botox is a treatment that uses vitamins, oils, peptides, and collagen and thus it replenishes the hair.

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BENGALURU:  If you are one of those people who wants to try Botox and haven’t yet gathered the courage to take the injections, then you must get hair Botox done. For the uninitiated, hair botox does not inject botulinum toxin. Instead, it is the latest fancy term in the beauty industry to revive and rejuvenate your hair by deep conditioning your tresses. Just like how your skin ages and loses elasticity, the hair too loses its shine and texture, volume and bounce due to the chemicals and heat treatments. To regain this texture and strengthen your hair, hair botox is a treatment that uses vitamins, oils, peptides, and collagen and thus it replenishes the hair.

What is hair botox?
It is an advanced conditioning treatment to fill in the individual strands that become frayed due to overheating with tools and chemicals. The fibre that fills in the hair makes it stronger and gives it a healthier bounce and sheen. But the key ingredient that differentiates it with conditioning treatment is collagen apart from caviar oil, argan oil, or jojoba oil, the antioxidants that smoothen the hair by restoring the hair cuticle. Since binding the moisture or sealing it in is very important, the process takes almost 90 to 120 minutes.

“Hair botox has become the largest global trend seen across all premium salons in the world and is the healthier alternative compared to all keratin, smoothening, and straightening treatments. This botox restores hair health and rejuvenates dry damaged hair while filling up hair fibres. Unlike keratin and straightening treatments, hair botox also gives you the flexibility of retaining the original texture/waviness of your hair or going for a relaxed straight look,” says Rajesh Dsouza, director, NUcare India.

Hair botox or keratin?

•  Both have different strengths and what could be better would vary as per your hair goals. Keratin will straighten out your curls, while hair botox will just make it frizz-free.
•  Keratin is a chemical treatment that uses formaldehyde while hair botox doesn’t use it. Instead, it uses hydrolised elastin and moisturises and sealing oils to hydrate it.
•  Keratin is cheaper than hair botox so it could be more cost-effective.
•  Keratin might last longer than hair botox, up to 4-6 months, while botox will last for 10 weeks or so.
•  Since the market is competitive, newer forms of keratin also are being introduced which seem to be using natural products.

Geeta Rao, founder of Glossnglass Salon and Makeup Academy uses keratin for bouncy hair. She says, “Keratin is a protein treatment and there are latest additions in the national market that are using the natural form of keratin ‘juvexin’. Keratin gives 90 percent relaxed/ frizz-free hair leaving it shiny.”

How much is to be used?
Whether it is keratin treatment or hair botox, both are effective in giving shinier and healthier hair. It maintains the hair and works like magic, ironing worries and filling up the gaps to make it look smooth. But repetitive treatments could make hair weaker, leading to thinning and anti-breakage. So thrice a year is a good number to maintain natural lustre.

Hair care regimen after hair botox or keratin treatment
Use a sulphate-free shampoo and conditioner to make it last longer. Since fine hair is prone to looking flat due to the overload of protein that weighs the hair down, use a lightweight conditioner.

This treatment makes the hair look shinier, frizz-free, and manageable. Hair botox or not, use good masks, homemade or otherwise. No amount of TLC is good enough for your hair and this treatment with its fancy name is a reminder of the same.