Brazilian Hair Straightening is the latest trend in the hair care industry that is considered to be more effective and natural hair straightening process. This is said to be less laborious and more effective as compared to the Japanese hair straightening process. The process involves the use of keratin, which is a natural protein known to promote soft hair and straighten the strands. Developed in Brazil, it is also termed as Brazilian Keratin hair treatment.

The hair stylists claim that this treatment is highly effective and helps you get lustrous and straight hair within few minutes. There is no doubt about it that the Brazilian Hair Straightening really works wonders on your hair, but the problematic part is that it can even kill you. Wondering how? Read on.

Though keratin is an essential ingredient in Brazilian Hair Straightening treatment, formaldehyde is the actual active ingredient, which is a destructive carcinogen. The fumes of formaldehyde are fatal and its bad effects mount due to heat and humidity levels. The Brazilian Hair Straightening treatment involves applying heat to the hair directly with an iron. The treatment is extremely dangerous to perform, and the stylists are recommended to wear gas masks and latex gloves while executing this procedure. The FDA considers any solution with above 0.2% formaldehyde as blatantly unsafe. As the higher percentage of formaldehyde ensures better hair straightening experience, the quantity often exceeds the safe limits prescribed by the researchers. If you trust the surveys performed by Allure Magazine, many salons are actually using solutions, which had formaldehyde more than ten times than the recommended safe quantity.

Though formaldehyde is also present in household cleaners, carpets, synthetic fabrics, plywood, smoke, and smog, it is present in the safe quantities. A person is likely to develop inflammation and minor irritations, and the overexposure of this chemical can be extremely dangerous.

With repetitive treatments, formaldehyde can accumulate in the hair while liberating formaldehyde fumes each time a stylist blow dries or hot-irons the hair. In March 2007, it was reported that a 33 year old Brazilian woman died while undergoing this process. Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency- Anvisa supports this saying an excessive amount of toxic fumes were released from the heat when she took bath after 4 days of taking this treatment.

Some people are already sensitive to formaldehyde, and are likely to develop allergy due to it. The effects of formaldehyde include headache, running nose, sore throat, irritated eyes, and skin rash. The pregnant women and people having week lungs must avoid exposing to formaldehyde completely.

If you are looking for straight hair, you should instead opt for safer methods, such as using ceramic flat irons. Remember, low intensity formaldehyde will drastically fail as a straightener, and thus becomes completely useless for hair stylists. Though this chemical is known to cause harmful effects worldwide, salon are still offering this treatment illegally. In fact, there is a huge demand of this treatment in the black market.

If you want to enjoy a healthy hair style treatment, you must use only cost-effective, beneficial, and harmless chemicals on your hair. And, if you are planning to go for Brazilian hair straightening process in future, think again.