I’ve been going to the John Sahag Workshop for cuts (from Karmela) and color (from Frank) since I was about 17 years old. I introduced my parents to the salon, and they’ve been loyal patrons for nearly a decade now. A few weeks ago they gave me a MoroccanOil hair treatment, which staved off the disaster that is my split ends for a while, but let’s be honest, now: my hair is in semi-horrendous condition (my fault entirely). It’s over-bleached (thank you, LA-obsession-with-being-blonde) and I don’t let Karmela get her crazily talented hands on it nearly often enough (for the past two years, I’ve harbored a futile obsession with growing it as long as possible…and have discovered that the old wives’ tale about it being impossible to grow out unhealthy hair is, unfortunately, true.)
Sympathetic to my plight, Doug Macintosh at the John Sahag Workshop very generously extended me an invitation to try out the Keratin Restorative Treatment, which is a non-traditional relaxer (it’s not chemical-based, and unlike the Japanese relaxing treatment permits you to continue styling your hair as you please – even curls – but minus the frizz). He described it as “filling in the potholes”; the treatment just binds more of the protein that your hair already consists of to each individual strand.
Since you can’t wash your hair for 72 hours post-treatment, they start by applying a clarifying shampoo that gets rid of product, oils, etc. The next step (above) is applying Keratin to the hair and allowing it to sit for 20 minutes. Finally, they blow-dry and flat-iron your hair (nope, the product doesn’t get washed out first).
