How long do smoothing treatments last?

All of our smoothing treatments — including Brazilian Blowout, Cezanne, and Keratin Revolution — last up to 12 weeks with proper care. The QiQi Curly Treatment is different: it's permanent until cut out, since it reshapes the internal bonds of the hair rather than coating or sealing them.

When should I color my hair in relation to a smoothing treatment?

Single-process color can be done before any smoothing treatment, or two weeks after for Brazilian Blowout, Cezanne, or Keratin Revolution. With QiQi, you can color, swim, and style before or after your treatment — there are no restrictions, except one: if you're lightening with bleach, that must be done before the treatment. Toners can be applied anytime afterward to refine brightness or tone if your color shifts slightly. We'll help you plan your color and smoothing schedule so everything stays even, glossy, and healthy.

Will a smoothing treatment change my hair color?

Most smoothing systems can slightly lighten single-process color and may warm or yellow gray and white hair, especially with heat. The QiQi Curly Treatment is the exception — it does not cause color shift and is ideal for clients with lighter tones or gray hair who want smoothness without fading.

Will smoothing make my hair flat or take away volume?

Not unless you want it to. Every service is customized to your texture and preferences — from soft, frizz-free curls to smooth, max results. Our goal is always healthy movement, not heavy or lifeless hair.

Can I swim? Do sulfates, salt water, or chlorine affect smoothing results?

Yes — sulfates, salt water, and chlorine all speed up the fading process. They strip the protective layer that keeps hair smooth and shiny, shortening the life of your treatment. QiQi – Keep All the CURL is our only treatment that allows you to swim immediately after receiving it.

What if my hair is damaged?

If your hair is compromised or overprocessed, we'll still take great care of it — we'll just approach things a little differently. Delicate or fragile areas will be treated with lower heat and a gentler technique, which means your first result may be less dramatic than usual. The goal is to protect your hair's integrity first, then build it back up over time. We can create a restoration plan that combines targeted treatments, proper at-home care, and gradual smoothing so your hair gets healthier with every visit. Once your strands are stronger, we'll be able to perform the treatment at full strength for a more transformative and lasting result.

Can I do a smoothing treatment if I use henna or minoxidil?

No — smoothing treatments cannot be done over henna or on hair being treated with minoxidil. These ingredients can react unpredictably with smoothing systems. We'll help you plan a safe timeline if you've used either recently.

Are these straightening treatments?

No — none of these are straightening treatments. They're smoothing systems, which means they reduce frizz, add shine, and improve manageability while keeping natural movement. Because these treatments don't break and reform bonds like relaxers, we can't guarantee completely straight hair for every texture — but we can guarantee smoother, healthier, humidity-resistant hair that behaves beautifully in Boston's weather. If your hair is frizzy-straight or has a loose wave, it will appear smoother and straighter. If your hair is curly or coily, you'll still have curl and bounce — just softer, shinier, and easier to style. All of our treatments have a cumulative effect and will build on the hair with regular treatments.

What's the difference between the treatments you offer?

Each treatment uses its own science and active ingredients: Brazilian Blowout coats the hair for high-gloss, frizz-free smoothness. Cezanne gently rebuilds and refines the cuticle with a formaldehyde-free formula. Keratin Revolution combines keratin and glycolic acid for stronger smoothing and shine. Results are a little stronger than Cezanne. Formaldehyde-free. QiQi Keep All the CURL permanently reshapes curls for softer, defined texture without losing bounce. Formaldehyde-free. During your phone consultation, we'll help you choose the perfect system based on your hair and goals.

Why choose Brazilian Blowout Boston?

Because smoothing isn't a side service here — it's our specialty. We're the only salon in Boston fully dedicated to professional smoothing systems. Every stylist is trained in product science, safety, and precise application to deliver consistent, glossy, frizz-free results. Clients travel from NY, RI, NJ, CA, CT, VT, MN, LV, Cape Cod, Quincy, Milton, South End, and beyond because they know they'll leave with hair that's glossier, healthier, and easier to manage — every single time.

Does a Brazilian Blowout Take Out Your Curl? Not Unless You Want It To

September 23, 2026

Yes, you can keep your curl. A Brazilian Blowout does not have to erase it. Formula strength, iron temperature, and how the product is applied are all adjustable, and those three choices decide how much curl you walk out with. This is not a one setting process. It never has been.

That is the short answer. It is also why so many curly clients stall before booking. They picture the treatment as a straightener wearing a different name. We hear that worry on almost every consultation call, and it deserves a real answer instead of a reassuring sentence.

What a Brazilian Blowout Changes About Curl

A Brazilian Blowout is a 12 week amino acid based smoothing treatment. On curly hair it softens the curl pattern, cuts frizz, and shortens blow dry time. It does not permanently restructure the hair the way a relaxer or a Japanese straightening service does. How much curl stays is decided in your consultation, not fixed by the product itself.

Here is the mechanism. Your curl comes from the shape of your follicle and the bonds inside the strand. The treatment works on the cuticle and the mid shaft. It coats the hair, seals it with heat, and calms the frizz that makes curls read as undefined instead of shaped. It does not rewrite the follicle. That is exactly why we can dial the result up or down.

Think of it less like flattening a wave and more like combing the static out of one. The wave is still under there. What changes is how much frizz sits on top and how much definition survives from your shower to the end of your day.

Smoothing does not automatically mean straightening, and a Brazilian Blowout is not a keratin treatment. Keratin treatment is an umbrella term covering hundreds of different formulas, and some of them really are built to leave hair permanently straight. We break down the differences between the four main smoothing services here if you want the longer version before you book anything.

Classic, Lighter, and Heavier: The Three Result Levels

We offer three customizable result levels because curly clients do not all want the same finish. Pretending otherwise is how a salon loses a curly client for good.

Classic knocks the frizz down and adds shine while leaving real wave and body in place. Most clients who still want curly days land here.

Lighter softens the curl, cuts detangling time, and shortens the diffuser routine, while keeping visible texture.

Heavier gives the smoothest result the treatment can produce. This is for someone who is done fighting frizz every morning and wants sleek hair without picking up a flat iron.

None of these are presets we apply the same way twice. We adjust formula strength, processing time, and iron temperature around your curl pattern, your porosity, and how much of your curl you want to keep. If curl specific work is the reason you are looking, that is what our Brazilian Blowout for curly hair service is built around.

Why Customization Is Not Optional on Curly Hair

Texture, curl pattern, strength of curl, porosity, chemical history, and desired result all shape how we approach a treatment. Skip that step and you land in one of two bad places. Curl that vanished when the client wanted half of it back. Or frizz that barely improved because the formula was too gentle for how tight the curl really is.

The reason is physical. A tight coil needs a stronger formula and more processing time to change at all, because the bonds holding that shape are denser and the cuticle tends to resist the smoothing agent. A looser wave needs less of both. Push a tight coil formula onto a loose wave and you overprocess it, and the hair can read flat and lifeless instead of smooth.

Porosity stacks on top of that. Highly porous hair drinks product fast and can process faster than hair with a tighter, more resistant cuticle, even when the curl pattern looks identical. Two clients with the same curl can need different processing times. That is not guesswork. It is the reason we treat the first appointment as a starting point rather than a one shot answer.

We keep notes on formula strength, timing, and iron temperature for every client, and we fine tune at the next visit based on how the last one held. Nothing about that first result has to be the permanent version.

What a wrong pass costs shows up weeks later, not in the mirror that afternoon. Underprocess a tight curl and the frizz is usually back near baseline by week four or five instead of holding through the full 10 to 12 weeks. Overprocess a loose wave and the curl may barely come back at all when the client wanted to keep some of it. Both are fixable at the next appointment once we know what happened. Neither is what she paid for.

What Happens During the Appointment

Every new client starts with a complimentary 10 to 15 minute phone consultation before we book anything. We want your hair history, what you have tried before, and the result you are after, long before you sit down in our studio on Beach Street at Marina Bay in Quincy.

Consultation and hair assessment. We look at curl pattern, texture, porosity, and condition, and settle on Classic, Lighter, or Heavier together. This is where the whole result gets decided.
Clarifying wash. Hair is clarified before anything else, so the formula meets a clean cuticle. Clean, dry hair with no heavy oils is ideal, but not required. We clarify either way.
Application. The formula goes on section by section, matched to the plan from your consultation rather than a house default.
Processing. The formula sits for a window set by your texture and how much change we are aiming for. Tighter curl generally sits longer than a loose wave.
Blow dry and flat iron sealing. This is the step that seals the formula into the shaft. Temperature and pass count get adjusted for curl pattern, porosity, and any color or damage.
Final rinse and style. You leave with the finished result, not a preview of it.

Done right, you look like a better version of your own texture. Not somebody else's hair stapled to your head. Appointments run 90 minutes to 5 hours depending on length and density, and curly hair, especially longer or denser curl, tends to sit at the longer end of that.

We have run this process more than 10,000 times since 2016, and our founder has been doing smoothing work since 2009. The studio is private and fully ventilated, which matters more than people expect on a four hour curly appointment. Clients drive in from across Greater Boston, the South Shore, and further out in New England for exactly this kind of curl specific work.

What Curly Clients Get Wrong Before They Book

The most common mistake is assuming every smoothing treatment produces the same result under a different name. They do not. The chemistry is different, the process is different, and the outcome is different.

The second mistake is picking a result level before having a real conversation. A client who wants to keep her curl but asks for the strongest option, on the theory that stronger always means better, usually ends up disappointed. The level should match the goal.

The third mistake costs the most. Going somewhere that treats curly hair like straight hair, same formula strength, same processing time, same iron temperature no matter the texture. One client wrote on Google that before she found us, most places did not apply treatments correctly, "resulting in wasted money on my end and hair that is still curly." That is the whole failure in one sentence. Different curl patterns need different customization, and that is not a detail at the edges. It is the treatment.

Color Treated Curly Hair: What Changes

If your curls are also colored or highlighted, we adjust temperature and approach in those sections specifically. Highlighted, fine, or delicate areas usually need a lower temperature and a more conservative pass to protect both the color and the condition.

That is not a reason to skip the treatment. It is a reason to make sure whoever is doing it asks about your color history before the formula ever comes out. If nobody asks, that tells you something.

If You Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding

We do not perform the Original Brazilian Blowout on clients who are pregnant or breastfeeding. We do have formaldehyde free smoothing options for clients in that situation, or for anyone who would rather avoid that exposure.

Be clear on expectations here. Those treatments do not necessarily give the same result as the Original Brazilian Blowout, and we will tell you that on the phone rather than in the chair. Curly clients ask us about this constantly, so it is worth raising on your consultation call.

How Long Curly Results Hold

A Brazilian Blowout is built as a 10 to 12 week smoothing treatment. How it holds on curly hair depends on your natural texture, how often you wash, how you dry, and what you use in between. Humidity is one of the biggest factors in how long a smoothing result stays put around here, and coastal air off Quincy and the South Shore adds its own pressure on top of that.

Result level	What it does to curl	Best for	Upkeep
Classic	Cuts frizz, keeps visible wave and body	Clients who still want curly days	Sulfate free products, light styling
Lighter	Softens curl, shortens daily styling time	Clients who want less effort with texture kept	Sulfate free products, occasional diffusing
Heavier	Smooths the curl pattern significantly	Clients done fighting frizz every morning	Sulfate free products, minimal heat
Any level, overprocessed	Curl can read flat and lifeless instead of smooth	Nobody. This is what we adjust to avoid	Grow out and re-plan at the next visit

What drives the length of your appointment and the cost of it is the same short list: hair length, density, curl strength, and how much change you want. Our service menu is the one place those specifics live, so nothing goes stale in an article.

What Curly, Frizzy-Haired Clients Actually Say

One client wrote on Google that she was "amazed it took my curly frizzy hair to sleek and manageable." Another wrote, a month out from her treatment, that she had gone on vacation and washed her hair a ton and it was "still straight as can be." Different results, both correct, because those two clients wanted different things from the same service.

That is the point of the consultation. We are not aiming at one look. We are aiming at yours.

Aftercare That Protects the Curl You Kept

What you do after the appointment matters nearly as much as what happens in the chair. Hair can be washed the same day. No three day waiting period.

At the bowl we tell clients to use sulfate free products and to skip heavy oils. That is what we see holding a result longest without weighing down the curl pattern you chose to keep. When someone comes back in on a heavy sulfate shampoo, the treatment usually fades faster and the ends look duller by week eight instead of holding through week eleven. If your curls puff up before you even leave the house, this is worth a read.

One more thing. If your goal is permanently straight hair that never reverts, this is the wrong service and we will say so on the phone. A Brazilian Blowout fades out. Your curl comes back.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will a Brazilian Blowout make my curls completely straight? Only if you choose the Heavier result level and your curl responds strongly to it. Classic and Lighter are built to cut frizz and soften curl while keeping real texture and body. We settle on the level with you before the appointment.

Can I choose how much curl I keep? Yes. That is the entire reason we work with three result levels instead of one. We talk it through on your complimentary phone consultation, before you are booked.

Does tighter curl need a stronger formula? Generally, yes. Tighter curl usually needs more processing time and a stronger formula to see real change, while a looser wave needs a lighter touch. That call gets made during your consultation, not improvised in the chair.

What happens if I want my curl back after a Brazilian Blowout? Because the treatment does not permanently restructure the hair, your natural curl pattern returns as the treatment grows out and fades. That typically happens across the 10 to 12 week window.

Is my hair too curly for this treatment? No. Curl pattern is one of the main things we customize around, never a reason to turn someone away. Very tight curl is simply approached with a different formula strength, processing time, and iron temperature than a loose wave.

Can I get this while pregnant or breastfeeding? We do not perform the Original Brazilian Blowout on clients who are pregnant or breastfeeding. We do have formaldehyde free smoothing options, and those do not necessarily give the same result as the Original. We will walk through the difference on your call.

Will this damage my curl pattern for good? When the formula and processing time match your hair, no. The adjustments matter most on color treated, fine, or previously treated curls, which is why we ask about your chemical history first.

Why did my curl come back faster than my friend's? Porosity, wash frequency, and product choice all play a part, along with how each of you was formulated in the first place. Two people with a similar curl can hold very differently because of those three things.

Talk Through Your Curl Before You Commit

Every consultation here starts with a real conversation about your texture and your goal, not a default we apply to everybody. Tell us how much curl you want to keep and we will tell you honestly whether we can get you there. Book your consultation and we will work out which result level fits your hair.

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