Our reporter tries a semi- permanent straightening treatment

Shampoo bottles and hair adverts are awash with hair categories that all women must fall into. When it comes around to buying hair products I wonder, am I dry and damaged, or greasy and lank? Or am I heavily treated? Frizzy? I’ve often settled on ‘normal’, but when I proudly informed my hairdresser friend, she said there was no such thing, which disappointingly put me back at hair square one.

When I walk into Atherton Cox in Marylebone for the Keratin Revolution, a protein treatment that smooths and straightens hair, I am still confused. I’d heard it had done wonders for a friend’s hair, straightening her unmanageable half afro mane into Beyonc�-like locks. But what was it going to do to my hair? My sometimes wavy, sometimes straight, quite thin and average hair.

“What do you expect this treatment to do?” asks Mick Pass�ri, my stylist, who has been in hairdressing for 25 years. After I have assured him I have no idea what to expect, he takes me through the process. I will have my hair washed with a shampoo that will remove build-up. It will then be dried before a non-toxic protein-rich treatment is put on it and straightened in. I will then not be allowed to wash or wet my hair for three days, to let the treatment do the work. As I look ahead to a miserable weekend of hair grease horror, Pass�ri installs me in the sink chair and treats me to the best bit: a good shampoo.

With his fingers soaping my very average hair, Pass�ri tells me why this treatment is so different from every other. Keratin Revolution is the only straightening treatment that is formaldehyde free despite the claims of other companies. “Many of the straightening products contain formaldehyde and we worked on creating one that doesn’t ,” says Pass�ri. “Most people want to avoid putting toxic chemicals on their head.”

Once I have understood the USP which, even though it is a USP, is quite important, I can sit and relax for the two hours of the treatment. Afterwards, my hair is as silky as Hugh Hefner’s sheets. “Of course it is, Mick has just straightened it for almost two hours,” I think cynically.

It is only after my three days of epic greasiness (a rite of passage almost) that I realise just how worthwhile the treatment has been; I wash and dry my hair, not paying much attention to it (as usual) and amazingly, I still feel like I have Hugh-Hefner-sheet hair. The treatment even lasts into my holiday, although I do have to relive my grease horror with lashings of conditioner to protect it.

The verdict? Expensive, but it works. If you want to look like you’ve got healthy hair, it may be simpler than negotiating the labels on supermarket bottles.

Keratin Revolution is available at Atherton Cox, 18 New Cavendish Street, W1. Athertoncox.co.uk. Prices start from �250.