In October's Allure magazine is an article about the lengths some women will go to to get rid of curly, frizzy hair in search of sleek locks. Now, I am a curlyhead. It took me 30 years to appreciate that fact because for the first 29 years of my life, I spent a lot of time trying to get my hair to do something it isn't naturally meant to do: be straight. I relaxed my hair, used all kinds of straightening irons on it only to have to recurl it with curling irons.

With that in mind, I admit I was a little alarmed to read that in a home treatment of this new straightening process from Brazil (escova progressiva or progressive blowdry), a woman felt she needed a gas mask to protect her from the fumes!

Quote from Allure article "Scared Straight"

"It was unbearable. My eyes and mouth burned."

What???

The words "unbearable" and "burned" shouldn't even be associated with a beauty treatment. Neither should "formaldehyde" but guess what? That's what's in this stuff. Yes, the same solution that embalmers use on dead people.



High levels of formaldehyde, which is commonly found in small amounts in household cleaners and carpets, cause cancer.

To get this process done in a salon will cost you about $150-$600, which is why some women want to do it at home, where they can save about a couple of hundred bucks. Still, it didn't save one woman's life.

A 33 year-old Brazilian woman died in March of this year after a home treatment of escova progressiva, which she left on for four days. Believe it or not, that's the time frame salons recommend. I don't know about you, but I can barely sit in a salon for four hours getting anything done, so having to endure something for four days sounds like torture. Anyway, this poor woman, who was in general good health, suffered a heart attack in the shower, where Health Surveillance agents believe the hot water caused fumes to release.

I know that to some people with curly hair, none of this will make a bit of difference. Perhaps they live by the mantra "beauty is pain." Read the article for yourself and come to your own conclusions (there's still a bit of debate about this, not surprisingly). This whole thing makes the Japanese thermal reconditioning treatment look like cake.

'Til next time, my pretties.