Welcome to this week's Cosmetic Report^™ newsletter. It's our goal to bring you unbiased information about cosmetic products and trends so you can make educated buying decisions. If you've been searching for straightforward beauty information and advice, you've found it here. The Cosmetic Connection Panel of reviewers are consumers just like you who face the same issues and challenges, and look to the beauty industry to help solve them.

In this issue, we follow Kristen's experience with the thermal reconditioning process for turning curly or frizzy hair into straight hair. If you've ever considered taking hair straightening to this level, this is a report you'll want to read.

Kristen is 28 years old and from a Texas town just east of Houston. Kristen frequently makes trips to Houston for cosmetics and skincare and the people at the Laura Mercier counter and the Sephora store know her by name. She has combination skin that is exacerbated in the summer (due to the extreme humidity in Texas) and normal to dry in the winter. She is acne prone with redness around the nose and chin and a handful of red acne scars, which she is always looking for something to even those out. Kristen has large, almond-shaped blue/green eyes that she considers to be her best feature.

You all know that saying about always wanting what you don't have. We highlight or color our hair because our own may be too drab. We put on the fake nails, eyelashes, colored contacts, you name it, all to enhance what we've got or just totally flat-out change it. That's the way I felt about my naturally curly hair. While I've always considered myself to have pretty curls, I just didn't like my hair that way. As I got older and entered the professional working world, I needed something a bit more polished instead of poodle. I needed to have a smooth appearance. However, my desire for straight hair began way back when my former hairstylists gave me a blowout at the age of 21. Nobody had ever made my hair look that way, so I didn't know it was possible, therefore I never sought it out. Boy, I don't know if she did me a favor or cursed me because here I am having just turned 28 and I still opt for straight hair and will purchase anything to get it that way (well, almost, until a couple of months ago). I had my first straightener when I was 22. It was the old kind and I was very fortunate to not have any of it break off since I had heavily highlighted hair. I remember it being very dried out for about 3 weeks, and then it was okay. I also remember about a month later, my curls started to come back, but they weren't coiled. They looked like I braided my hair while wet and let it dry - it was kind of stringy and it stayed that way for well over a year and a half. One thing it didn't do was go completely straight. My ends would still curl under and no matter what; they would not go poker straight. And the humidity affected it a bit, too. Eventually, my curls came back and since then I've wrestled with 3 different brushes - depending on the section of my hair - to get some sort of smoothness to my hair only to walk outside after an hour and a half of wrestling with the tools to just swell and frizz right on up. Thank goodness for hair clips!

So imagine my intrigue when I heard about this fabulous new straightener from Japan typically referred to as "thermal reconditioning" that promised to give you sleek, smooth, shiny, straight-as-a-board hair without a whole lot of fuss. And the best part is that you can do it to bleached or colored hair. That's a tall order! Typically, the straighteners of the past would damage color or bleached hair. With my old straightener, I was lucky in that I didn't have any of it break off, but my hair was fragile for a while and it wasn't very shiny for a few months. And I still had to section it off. I wanted hair I could run my fingers through to blow-dry, then style it with the flat iron. I was growing tired (figuratively and literally) of styling my hair. My curly hair was just like Julia Roberts' hair in terms of length, curl and thickness. And I love Julia Roberts' hair. I think it is so beautiful, I just didn't like it on me. So after 2 years of contemplating, fearing the worst would happen to me, I finally made an appointment after having seen one of my friends have it done. I would have never been convinced had I not actually seen it myself. I've had 3 consultations with all 3 stylists telling me my hair would be fine. I didn't even blink at the price tag, which ranged from $500-$700. To me, if it did what it said it would do - smooth, straight hair that is more resistant to humidity - it would be worth every penny. Imagine my surprise when my friend told me she only paid $200 for it. I first thought "there has to be something wrong here," but I live in a small town and some people just won't pay $500 here. There are places that do charge that amount, but I know that they are less frequently visited. I am certainly not saying not to go spend $500+ for it or necessarily find the cheapest deal. Go somewhere that you've seen their work. I likely wouldn't have gotten it done for $200 if I had not seen my friend's hair. I probably would have spent 3 times that much in nearby Houston. However, my friend and I are walking advertisements and testaments that you don't have to pay a kazillion dollars for it to look good.

Now, about the procedure itself. The stylist used the straightener from Rusk. I won't bore you with technical terms as I will give you some sites at the end of this review so you can check out all the technical jargon associated with this procedure. I sat down at the stylist's chair and she washed my hair and put in a 7-minute conditioner. After rinsing it out, she applied the straightening solution and combed it through my hair. After 15 or so minutes, she rinsed that out and applied another conditioner to be left on for another 7 minutes. She conditioned my hair after every step and before the next to keep it as soft and healthy as possible. She rinsed out the conditioner and began to blow dry my hair, just running her fingers through it. She wasn't styling it at all, but was just trying to get it dry for the next step. This is where I panicked. My hair felt like straw. This is exactly how my hair would look if I just aimed a dryer at it in no particular fashion. It looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket - and it felt that way, too. I kept thinking to myself, "what in the world have I done?" In order to comfort myself, I reminded myself that she wasn't done. This process would take about 3.5 to 4 hours on my hair and this was just the beginning. Of course, in my panicky state, I was paying close attention to her combing my hair, wondering how much of it broke off. I saw none. When I commented on this, she said if it was going to break off, it would have done it after the initial solution because that was the chemicals that took the curl out. When my hair was dry, she sprayed some sort of leave-in conditioner specifically for the system and began to flat iron it. This is when I felt much better. It was so smooth, straight and shiny, and she wasn't even done yet. After ironing my hair, she applied a neutralizer. As best as I got, it was to seal down the hair since it was flat from ironing so the hair would maintain this shape. This was left on for about 15 minutes, then she rinsed it and put more conditioners in my hair and let me sit for another 10 minutes. After rinsing that conditioner out, she applied a cream styling product and began to style my hair. The process was finished, now she just had to dry and style it. Just like before, she combed her fingers through my hair while drying it. It looked much more smooth than it did before (of course), then flat ironed it to seal the look. I was completely amazed. I'd never seen my hair that straight and it looked quite a bit longer since it was so straight. My hair felt like silk and it was so shiny. I've never, ever felt my hair like that before even on my best hair days. I was so happy with the way it looked and felt. I was even happier that none of it broke off. Parts of my hair that would not look smooth no matter what I did to it were super sleek. It was almost like someone gave me a hair transplant. I would usually have some puffiness in my hair that I did like because it gave me volume, but now it was just straight. Upon my return home, my 9 year-old daughter said I looked completely different. Ouch!

The stylist gave me a set of four products from Rusk to go along with the reconditioning process. She claimed that other products would not work with the process and I needed to use these and only these until I ran out. I was given the Calm Guarana and Ginger Nourishing Shampoo, the Calm Guarana and Ginger 60 Second Hair Revive Conditioner, Str8 styling cream, and a smoothing serum (I can't recall the name). And they all worked great. In fact, I like the shampoo and conditioner so much that I bought more. As far as after-care, I could not wash or get my hair wet for 72 hours. I could not put it behind my ears or put any type of bend in it. If I woke up in the morning and slept on it the wrong way, I had to iron that part again. I was so excited to wash it to see how easy it would be for me to fix it. I must admit, it wasn't as smooth as when the stylist did it, but it didn't require an hour and a half to dry and style it. No aching arms or shoulders. However, it became more smooth every time I washed and styled it. Now, I don't have to section it off and I can run my fingers through it while drying it, then go back over with the flat iron. I will say that it still takes me about 20 minutes to dry my hair, but the plus is that I don't have to style while drying with all of those brushes. Some of the claims of the benefits of this process say you can let your hair air dry and just go, but that is not the case with me. but I don't mind blowdrying my hair and putting a bit of effort into it. My hair is much too thick to let it air dry. Other things I have read about the procedure is that your hair can end up flat without any volume and your ends would not curl under if you wanted them to. Well, that is also not the case with me, either. I still have tons of volume and if I want to wear it poker straight, I can. If I want to add more body by curling the ends under with a large barrelled iron, I can. Options are what I like, what I wanted, and I've got them now.

I would like to now offer the one downside I experienced. My hair is still slightly curly. I let it air-dry one evening and I woke up to some curls. However, that still didn't take away my enthusiasm for my hair. I went into this with a few goals in mind: no breakage, less time styling and more resistance to humidity, and I got those. While it's not completely humidity-proof, my hair never requires me having to pull it up, even if I've been outside for a while. Usually, 5 minutes outside in 75%+ humidity would make my hair severely frizz. Now, I can spend hours outside and it still would never look like that. My highlights look better and more defined and my hair is just super smooth. Like I said earlier, there were some parts of my hair that just would not look smooth no matter what I did to it, but now it's like I grew in brand new hair - brand new straight hair. Do you ever wish you had your child's hair again, untouched by irons and chemicals? My daughter has beautiful hair and my hair just about looks like that. Not quite, but it's good enough for me.

You can check out the process at letsgetitstraight.com. It offers information about several of the brands out there that are used for thermal reconditioning, including the one I used by Rusk. Some other sites are thermalreconditioning.com, and peterlouissalon.com, both of which offer pictures. There is another that is all about the Rusk system at ruskthermalstr8-dallas.com. You can also type in "thermal reconditioning" in your search engine and read all you want about it.

Hopefully, this super-lengthy review has offered you some insight about thermal reconditioning. If you decide you want to do it, find someone you know that has done it, especially someone with hair similar to yours. My friend has highlighted hair just like mine done by the same stylist, so I know it's the same type of bleach. Her hair is slightly longer than mine, but just as thick. As convincing as the pictures I found on some websites are, I couldn't feel it or touch it, so that wasn't enough for me. I had to see it for myself. So, check out these pictures I took along the way and if you have any additional questions, feel free to email me.

We hope you enjoyed this issue of The Cosmetic Report!