By now, many women have heard about Brazilian keratin hair straightening treatments. You may have even tried it out at your local professional hair salon.

Keratin treatments are effective at straightening kinky, curly, or frizzy hair, making it look flat, lush, and more attractive. But where did it originally come from? And how does it actually work? The answers to these questions may surprise you!

Brazilian Keratin Therapy — Origins

As you may have guessed, Brazilian keratin hair straightening therapy began in the South American country of Brazil. But what you probably didn’t guess was that it was invented by a mortician!

The operator of a funeral home in Brazil noticed that a chemical used to embalm corpses caused their hair to straighten. This chemical, formaldehyde, was then developed as a hair treatment to straighten the hair of living people safely and effectively. Today, not all keratin treatments contain formaldehyde. Some have replaced this chemical with others that are less harsh on your hair.

Since then, Brazilian keratin hair straightening treatments have made their way to every continent on the plan, providing women with the kind of long, straight, lush hair they’ve always wanted.

Brazilian Keratin Therapy — How It Works

So how does keratin straighten hair? The truth is that keratin is already found in your hair. It’s actually a naturally occurring protein that is in every hair follicle.

What Brazilian keratin hair straightening does is take additional keratin and bond it to the natural keratin in your hair. Heat is then used to bind the new keratin to the old keratin, resulting in a stronger, flatter, and more lush hair follicle.

That’s one of the reasons why a Brazilian keratin hair straightening treatment lasts so long. With just one visit to your local professional salon, you can have straight, full-bodied hair that can last weeks or even months.