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Salon Today Investigates Brazilian Keratin Services
By Victoria Wurdinger Added: March 11, 2009 Average Rating:

(The following report was featured in our sister publication, Salon Today magazine - March 2009. Due to the soaring level of interest in this topic, we decided to post it on ModernSalon.com as well.)

This emerging category has people talking. Salons, manufacturers, clients, consumer press and bloggers are all abuzz: “Where are the opportunities? What are the concerns?” This first in a series of SALON TODAY special reports goes In Depth to get the info and answers you need to form your own opinions on the most current—and most controversial—topics impacting beauty and business.

Spend a little time Googling “keratin services” or “Brazilian keratin treatment” and you’ll find a dizzying amount of website postings. Sort through enough of them and you’ll likely come to this conclusion: Consumers are interested in the service because it promises to make curly, frizzy and even damaged hair sleek, smooth and healthy looking. With service tickets averaging $300-$600, and reaching as high as $800, many salons want to meet this demand and offer keratin treatments. But they are unsure how and where to find credible facts, products and education.

To add to the confusion, online surfers will find an assortment of strong claims, both positive and negative, with likely exaggerations on both sides.



What It Is, Where It Started
Keratin treatments to smooth hair began in rural Brazil more than 10 years ago. Someone discovered that certain preservative chemicals seemed to link keratin to hair, resulting in frizz-free locks that lasted for months. This got the attention of Brazilian cosmetic manufacturers, who began testing and formulating.

Researchers discovered that when the cuticle is open, the protein keratin can be introduced, along with cosmetic-grade formaldehyde, which is known to cross-link proteins in hair. Then, the cuticle is sealed with multiple-pass flatironing at 450 degrees. During the flatironing, the heat can cause fumes to be released. This step—the fumes—is the center of the keratin treatment confusion and controversy.

Facts and Fiction
According to Doug Schoon, a chemist and president of Schoon Scientific in Dana Point, California, any keratin treatment product that supposedly contains formaldehyde actually uses an ingredient called formalin. Formaldehyde is a gas and, as such, can’t be a liquid, so could not be added as a cosmetic ingredient.

Schoon explains that formalin is created when dry formaldehyde gas is reacted with water to create a new and different substance called methylene glycol.

“Methylene glycol is a totally different chemical with completely different properties and characteristics,” he says. “For years, this name mistake has been made around the world by scientists, doctors and regulators, until last December when formalin’s name was officially changed in the International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients (INCI) dictionary.”

“When you heat formalin,” Schoon adds, “it can convert back into the original form and release a small amount of formaldehyde gas in the air.”

Schoon is currently working with a manufacturer to measure the amount of formaldehyde fumes stylists may be exposed to when using flatirons with formalin-containing products. He says it’s possible cosmetologists who perform service after service may be exposed to excessive levels, but very likely a source-capture ventilation system can reduce those levels, effectively removing the gas from the air before it’s inhaled.

Online postings about formaldehyde being an irritant and potential carcinogen are correct. It’s associated with nasal and brain cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. However, most posters aren’t aware it’s a gas released during some keratin treatments, and the FDA does not regulate the amount of formalin in cosmetics, making the discussions of “legal amounts” in bottles moot. Regulation occurs through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which has strict guidelines for maximum allowable worker exposure to formaldehyde gas.

Food and Drug Association (FDA) spokesperson, Suzan Curzan, e-mails: “The FDA doesn’t have specific regulations that prohibit or restrict the use of formaldehyde [formalin] in cosmetic preparations, and is unaware of safety data indicating that Brazilian keratin products pose a health hazard to consumers, under the labeled conditions of use.”

That’s why, for instance, the FDA takes no issue with nail hardeners containing up to 5-percent formalin. These products are more than a “coating,” says Schoon. “Formalin is reactive to proteins and creates a chemical link or bridge with them.”

Like the second step of a perm process, keratin treatments with formalin don’t break bonds in the hair, but do “fix” the keratin in place, semi-permanently. Whether ingredients other than formalin act identically is unclear.

Second Generation Products
The success—and confusion—about Brazilian-style keratin products opened the door for a slew of “formalin-free” formulations, currently calling themselves “formaldehyde-free.” But keratin alone cannot create the desired, long lasting, “frizz-busting” results. So the theory is that some “free” formulas simply use different chemical compounds. Chemists say they can’t be sure if the “free” products create a potentially hazardous gas or not when heated, unless they test the surrounding air during use.

Nine years ago, QOD Cosmetic, a dominant cosmetic firm in Brazil, was one of the first companies to create a professionally produced Brazilian keratin product. According to Niko Johnson, CEO of San Francisco-based QOD USA, under EU and international labeling standards, his brand could claim to be “free,” but doesn’t.

“It’s not that complicated to get other compounds to transform into formaldehyde,” says Johnson. “They convert when you flatiron the hair. Any Brazilian-style keratin treatment product sold to stylists should require identical protocols and precautions, whether it’s called ‘free’ or not.”

According to Johnson, all currently marketed Brazilian-type keratin treatments either:

1.Use formalin.
2.Use a compound that reacts in a similar manner when heated (this includes his brands).
3.Contain keratin and incorporates flatironing, but has no chemicals similar to formalin, thus doesn’t last very long.
The lesson? Know which of the three types you have, because there can be huge differences in results and effects.