OGX 30 Day Smoothing Treatment, Ever Straight Brazilian Keratin Therapy, 3.3oz

I've used this product twice in the last six months and it works great. It leaves my hair smooth and soft and even though it's not super straight after I wash, blow drying and straightening usually took me about an hour, now it doesn't take more than twenty minutes and last until I wash it again. I'm Puerto Rican with mixed hair, it is naturally very curly and kinky, if I don't straighten after I wash it it ends up looking like Bozo the Clown's crazy afro but with this product the curls are loose and soft after I wash and I could wear it like that if I wasn't so used to it being straight. Even on days with high humidity, which there have been tons of this summer, my hair looks great. I know I'm gushing but I've always been self-conscious about my hair and this product makes the worry of the evil frizz go away.I've seen some bad reviews for this product and I can't explain it, like I mentioned I've used it twice and had no problem, it's worked both times and I've had no side effects. I don't know if that's because I don't have tons of treatments on my hair, only relaxers at the salon every four months. I haven't had a relaxer in almost eight months and I probably won't again now that I've found this product, the relaxers were very harsh and I almost always ended up with scabs on my scalp. I'm not only avoiding the hassle and pain of a salon relaxer but saving on money too. This product is cheap for all it does and 48 hours of not going out is well worth the results. I also noticed that even though this product says 30 days, the effects lingered for at least at 3 months. I don't know if that's because I use less products on my hair now, so I don't need to wash it as often and that makes it last longer or what but I'm glad. I had a professional Keratin treatment done for my daughter, who luckily did not inherit my kinky hair and even though it looked great at first it didn't last more than a month and cost $350.00. I wasn't about to risk losing that amount again at another salon so when I saw this product at a Walgreens I figured why not. My daughter, already disappointed by one procedure lost interest and instead of returning it I decided to use it on myself and what a great idea that turned out to be, lol. I am not lying when I say this product worked better and lasted longer than my daughter's expensive treatment.I noticed some people complained about their hair being waxy or like glue after blow drying. That, I realized, is over saturation. The first time I used it I put it on like it was conditioner, I figure the more I use the better it works but that's not the case it will be harder to dry and straighten it. The second time I also put in on like it was conditioner but after the 30 minutes I ran a fine tooth comb over my hair and wiped any residue that came off on a towel. I know waste of product but I wanted to make sure it was thoroughly saturated. I blow dried, didn't bother to straighten it with a round brush like it recommends just dried it and then straightened it thoroughly with my CHI flat iron which doesn't have a heat setting but is the only one I've got. I straightened it super flat even flatter than I would normally wear it, running the same fine tooth comb in front of the flat iron to get every kink and curl, have a couple of fine toothed combs handy, they will gunk up but if you soak them it will come right off. I will admit that the fumes that come off smell sweet but if you breathe it in, it burns so please be careful. I noticed that there were much less fumes the second time I used this product than the first time and my hair did not feel as waxy, so removing some of the over saturation definitely worked but I started to worry that I wouldn't get the same results as the first time but there was nothing left to do but see it through now. I straightened eac section 7-10 times like it recommends times and continued to straighten for the next two days very thoroughly especially after waking up in the morning. I wasn't very impressed with the Organix sulfate free shampoo & conditioner so I had begun using the Loreal brand and that's what I used to wash it off though I did have it on for an extra day due to work. It looked great, exactly like the first time. So all and all I am very pleased with this product and will continue to use it every couple of months. I haven't been able to find it at Walgreens where I first purchased it but found it here on Amazon for even cheaper so that's even better. Thanks for reading and good luck.

Backgeound info: I am half Puerto Rican and half Barbadian. I have thick, curly hair. I believe my curl pattern is 3b. Starting from the age of ten, I've had relaxers of all sorts. They all destroyed my hair but I couldn't care less until I hit 21. For four years I'd been looking for an alternative method to to soothing out my curls. I looked in to keratin treatments because they're supposed to be better for hair. I don't know if I believe that so much considering you still need gloves to apply the product but I wanted to give it a shot.Product info: I bought this from amazon because I have scoured the stores looking for it. I want a salon keratin treatment but until I'm able to afford one I figured I could try to at home version. I wanted to try this knowing it wouldn't have the same effect as the salon applied keratin treatment. I think it's important for everyone deciding on whether or not to buy this. It will not replace the salon applied treatment.Application: Being that I've had relaxers before, I knew what I was getting myself in to. I had my bf help me put it in because my hair is too think and full for me to see in the back. He made sure I got every spot on my head. The instructions say to not over saturate your hair but I told him to use the whole bottle. The instructions were clearly meant for people with thin hair. After that I let the product set for 45 minutes instead of the suggested 30 minutes. Being that it's a drug store keratin treatment and my hair is thicker than the average person who would buy this, I knew better again.Styling: blow drying my hair took about the same amount of time that it would've taken had I not used this treatment. I did find that my curls were more loose after I blow dried my hair, though. That made it A LOT easier to straighten my hair. The straightening process only took about 20 minutes, maybe 25 minutes. It usually takes me 45 minutes by itself.Sleeping: As the instructions say, you're not supposed to put it up at all. I slept on it down (which was a huge pain in my butt) and I woke to find that a huge chunk of my hair had reverted to how it looked right after I'd blow dried it!Expectations: Until I'd woken up to find my hair curly again without even being wet, this had beat my expectations. I didn't think it would help my hair straightening process and to be honest, I thought it would leave my hair just as damaged as a relaxer. My hair feels healthier than if I were to just get a perm.I'd read a ton of reviews before buying this and a lot of people said that this product had a horrible smell and while straightening hair, it burned their eyes. I found the smell of this product pleasant while my bf was applying it to my hair. After I straightened my hair I could smell the chemicals but the smell was NO WHERE as strong as relaxers, for me anyway.I have not gotten to the part where I wash my hair and straighten it again but once I do I'll give an updated review.