Everything You Need to Know about the Natural Keratin Smoothing Treatment

If your hair has a natural tendency to frizz and get a bit unruly in the humidity, I'll guess that these past few weeks have you feeling a bit frustrated when you spend extra time to look good only to have your style puff up or re-curl itself in an uneven way! If this sounds like you, you might love the benefits of Keratin Treatment!

In this post, I will answer all of the most commonly asked questions by my clients, as well as the important info I would like everyone to know!

The Results

Your hair will be noticeably less frizzy and your curl/wave pattern will be loosened for 3-5 months (depending upon how often you shampoo). You will be able to blow dry in considerably less time and achieve smoother, more polished results than before. One woman I work with is able to reduce blowout time from 60 to 45 minutes and eliminate the need for a flat iron all together! Those with natural curls still have the option to air dry with the result of considerably less fuzz for a more put together look.

Who benefits from Keratin Treatments?

Women with curly, frizzy, dry, unruly (and usually thick) hair love the added control and time saving results from Keratin Treatments. I personally love the fact that it gradually washes out over time, meaning that there is no harsh line as your hair grows and you get to choose just how much you do or don't want to commit. Example; some women love a Keratin simply to get through the humid summer months, while others opt for Fall-Spring treatments because they like it to aid in their blow dries during the cool weather and wear natural curls all summer.

The Process & Aftercare

I provide the Keratin Complex Brand- Natural Keratin Smoothing Treatment. This service is booked for 3 hours in salon and once you leave, you will wait 3 days (72 hours) before your next shampoo to ensure the best results, so it is important to check your calendar in the days preceding your treatment when scheduling. During these 3 days, you will also want to keep your hair in the straight style that you leave the salon with. If your hair gets a bit messed up, you will want to smooth it back out with your flat iron. You will want to make sure that you are only using hair products that are sulfate free moving forward, other products can drastically reduce your treatment's staying power!

What I want everyone to know...

When researching Keratin Treatments, it is easy to find some pretty amazing Before & After pictures that can be misleading and confusing. Generally, you may see a picture of a client's hair that is naturally curly, wavy, frizzy, and dry looking at the beginning of the process, then fast forward and she is walking out of the salon with hair that is straight, smooth, and shiny. While it's a super gratifying transformation, the true results are what you get after your first shampoo (see above), and you shouldn't expect your hair to simply be straight from here on out.

As always, I love to hear from you! If you have any questions on this or other topics I've covered feel free to reach out to me directly!

xoxo,

Ann

How one Chicago Couple Achieved Small Wedding Goals!

Having a small wedding does come with it's advantages! Couples who are able to scale back often find opportunities to get really creative (in ways that cannot be carried out with a guest list of 200).

When Elizabeth and Michael got married on a Monday morning last October, they were able to pull off a big surprise for their family and friends. It was their ten year anniversary that day, and they had told their favorite people that they were ready to get engaged, and wanted them to come along to select Elizabeth's engagement ring.

Completely unexpected to all, the couple arrived to pick up their wedding guests in a bus with photographer Mackenzie Maeder along for the ride- and to document the surprise wedding about to take place! As you can imagine, the intimate group of guests was absolutely overjoyed!

This wedding is a perfect example of how small can be really special!

Hair by Ann

Makeup by Tilly

Photos by Mackenzie Maeder

The Number One Mistake Women are Making with their Beauty Products

Are you ready for this? The number one mistake we are guilty of making with our beauty products is that we are keeping them way too long! But it's okay, now is the perfect time to take on a super gratifying spring cleaning project that shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes!

The beauty of this is in the simplicity. Literally EVERY hair product, skin care product, and cosmetic has the lifespan indicated on its own container. We just need to know where to look for it!

My simple plan is explained below.

1. Set aside 30 minutes to sort through ALL of your beauty products each season.

2. Here is the key; you need to look for the tiny icon on each item that looks like a small jar-like container with an opened lid. This icon has a number inside like "12M". (You will usually find the icon on the side of a product toward the bottom.) This item is good for 12 months. Some will say "6M", "12M", etc. When you get into a routine, you can attach a small label sticker to each item indicating your purchase date before you even add it into your collection for easy sorting later!

3. Anything that has passed its lifespan gets tossed, simple as that.

4. Now you have the opportunity to curate your beauty product collection with intention moving forward. This is my favorite part of the process. For example; did you discard 10 beautiful lip colors? Maybe you need to keep on hand just 2 neutrals and 2 bold colors moving forward. Maybe after throwing out 12 hair styling and conditioning products that you thought you couldn't live without, you've learned to scale back to your go-to buys... or even switch over to some travel sizes to be less wasteful.

I hope that you found this helpful, and happy spring cleaning!

xoxo,

Ann