You want frizz-free, smooth hair, so you just got a keratin treatment. Now, you also want the option to add curls to your hair, so you’re wondering how to curl your hair after the keratin treatment.
Keratin treatment adds shine and temporarily straightens curly or wavy hair to make it smoother and more manageable.
But is it possible to curl your hair like you did before keratin treatment? Can you get the same beachy waves you had before? What about the voluminous curls you like to rock on a night out? Let’s find out.
Can You Curl Your Hair After A Keratin Treatment?
Yes, of course you can! Curls of all sorts are not only possible with a keratin treatment but they’ll look even better than your pre-keratin curls, free of unwanted frizz and you won’t have to fight against your hair’s coarse or unruly texture!
Although curls are entirely possible and very encouraged after keratin, there will be some slight changes in the way you curl your hair and how to get the curls to stay put throughout the day and into the night.
How To Curl Hair After Keratin Treatment
The steps to curl your hair after a keratin treatment are different than the way you curled your hair pre-keratin. Here are our steps for getting great curls!
- Make sure to apply a heat protectant to clean, damp hair.
- Get hair 100% dry with a blow dryer and round brush before curling.
- Use a ceramic curling iron with different heat settings so you can control how hot the iron gets. A bigger curling iron will give you more of a wave ( 1-1 ½ inch) and a smaller curling iron will give you ringlets (¾-1 inch).
- Section hair into four quadrants, securing each section with a clip.
- Starting in one of the back quadrants, take 1 inch sections of hair and wrap them around the curling iron starting near the root, for more of a beachy look leave ends uncurled!
- Work from back to front taking 1 inch sections until all the hair is curled, when curling the two front sections around your face make sure to curl away from your face for a modern look!
- Spray hair with hairspray and let curls set before combing them out with your fingers.
Dos and Don’ts for Curling Hair After Keratin Treatment
There are some important things to remember when curling your hair after a keratin treatment. We put together our list of dos and don’ts to keep your hair curled and your keratin treatment long-lasting!
Don’ts
Don’t curl your hair for a week after getting a keratin treatment
Keratin treatments need a full week to fully absorb into the hair and give you the best, long-lasting result. Putting a lot of heat on the hair right after a keratin can pull the treatment out of your hair, making it less effective.
We know you paid a pretty penny for that keratin, so be patient and wait a week before picking up your curling iron!
Don’t forget the hair spray
Keratin treatments are smoothing treatments not straightening treatments, this means you should still be able to achieve the same kind of curls you were able to get before the keratin treatment because your hair won’t stick straight.
However, because your hair will be silkier, the curls may not have the same staying power. Spritzing hair spray onto your blow-dried hair before curling will give your hair that little bit of grit and ensure that your curls will stay for hours, just like before the keratin!
Spritz the hairspray again once all the curls are in and before breaking up the curls with your fingers.
Do’s
Get a good curling iron with different heat settings
You’ll want to curl your hair on a low heat setting (350-360 degrees) after you first get your keratin treatment done. This will give your keratin more longevity. When you’ve had your keratin for a couple months you can gradually up the heat as needed.
Use heat protectant
We recommend heat protectant to anyone who uses any sort of heat on their hair, but heat protectant is especially important for keratin treated hair.
As we mentioned before, heat can pull the keratin treatment out of the hair, but adding a heat protectant to your routine will create a barrier between your hair and the curling iron, making it safe to curl away!
Limit the amount of time the curling iron is used in each section
Now that you’ve had a keratin treatment, there’s no need to use a curling iron to smooth out each section of hair before curling.
Since your hair is already a smooth canvas, you can reduce the amount of time the curling iron stays on each section. A perfectly formed curl should appear in just a few seconds!
Let your curls fully cool down before finger combing
Your curls might fall out sooner than you’d like now that your hair is free of frizz and unwanted coarse textures. To make those curls last, we recommend first curling all of your hair in sections.
Once all the hair is curled, lightly mist hair spray all over and then let the curls cool down completely before combing them out gently with just your fingers.
Letting your curls set this way will give you an all-day hold, even with your keratin treatment!
Those are our easy, breezy dos and don’ts for curling your hair after a keratin treatment! We love keratin treatments because they give your hair shine, remove frizz, and soften coarse hair textures without taking away all of the fun styling techniques (like curls!) you love to use on your hair!
Key Things to Remember:
- Wait at least a week to allow your keratin to set before curling your hair.
- Use lower heat settings to protect the keratin treatment.
- Hair spray and heat protectant are mandatory for curling hair after a keratin treatment.
- Let your curls cool and set completely before breaking them up with your fingers.