Brazilian Blowout, Baby

UPDATE: Scroll to the bottom to see my hair air dried on 06/08/11, three weeks and one day after getting the Brazilian Blowout. (It looks close to how my hair did before the BB, after blow drying only.)
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After a couple of years of research, I have finally gotten my much-desired, long-awaited Brazilian Blowout, thanks to an amazing Groupon deal!

Here's some back information. It's pretty confusing if you just Google "Brazilian Blowout" to decipher exactly what that means. It has kind of become a generic term when it shouldn't be, the way people use "Band-Aid" to describe any old bandage. That's a specific brand made by a specific company, and one is not always like the other.

That being said, I specifically got the Brazilian Blowout from the Brazilian Blowout brand. There are treatments, such as the "Brazilian Keratin Treatment" and others, that might be called a BB in layman's terms, but they aren't the same thing. For these other treatments, you can't wash your hair for 1 to 3 days, get it wet, put it up, put it behind your ears, or anything that could create a bend in your hair. These are also the ones that tend to have high levels of formaldehyde and other -aldehydes that are carcinogens and harmful. They specifically are straighteners, but the BB is a smoother that also straightens some. After getting the actual BB, you can go home and wash your hair, put it up, do whatever you want to with it and it's not a problem. Thank God! I can't imagine going THREE DAYS without washing my hair. Ick.

If I didn't cover something in this blog you'd like to know more about, leave a comment for me and I'll address it if I can.

So, at last, below are a bunch of different before and after pictures of my hair before and after getting the treatment. Let me know if you have any questions, and I plan to do an update in a couple of weeks!

Before the BB (blow dried and flat ironed, about 22 minutes)
Don't let this deceive you. Sure, I could get it looking pretty good, but it was a huge struggle and very time consuming. I used a lot of product and shine spray to get it to this point.

Before the BB (air dried, took a long time) #1

Before the BB (air dried, took a long time) #2

Before the BB (just blow dried, 16 minutes)

After the BB (just blow dried by the stylist, with BB serum) #1

After the BB (just blow dried by the stylist, with BB serum) #2

After the BB (just blow dried by me, with no product, 7 minutes) #1

After the BB (just blow dried by me, with no product, 7 minutes) #3

After the BB (just blow dried by me, with no product, 7 minutes) #3
As you can see, this looks just as good as it used to after only a few minutes blow drying, zero product, and no flat iron. I'm sure I'll keep using a smoothing product just for an extra boost, but I don't have to anymore!

After the BB (air dried)

2010/2011 New Year's Resolutions

I failed. It's true. My 2010 New Year's resolution was to read 25 books in 12 months, but I only made it to 17. Should've shot lower, I know! But I was being ambitious. So, I'm going to shoot for 15 this year, and I think I'll actually be able to reach that again. We shall see.

I also want to blog about every book I read this year. Clearly, I only blogged about a few in 2010, which cheated me out of the purpose of this blog -- to express my opinions about the books I read by writing them out.

Other than that, my 2011 New Year's resolution is to wake up earlier. I'm not and have never been a morning person, so once I started freelancing full time, I took full advantage of it :) My plan now, though, is to be more productive in 2011 than in 2010, and that will certainly require me rising before the Today Show ends. I'm shooting for 7:30 a.m. Monday through Friday (and if it happens to be 8, I won't beat myself up!).

Onward.