This $8 Treatment Made My Heat-Damaged Curls Look Brand New

The rate at which I blow-dry and flat iron my hair should leave me with — absolutely — no curls. I perform a rigorous silk-press routine once a week. Then, if any strand of my hair begins to coil, I pull my flat iron out again to straighten it into submission. Thankfully, every single time I shampoo my hair, my strands bounce back into loose waves.

Now, my curls are nowhere near as big and voluminous as they were when I was a child — I do have some heat damage — but considering my current relationship with my flat iron, still having any curls is a blessing. Maybe it's just good juju from the hair gods or pure luck. However, I think the at-home protein treatment I've been using once a week plays a big role in the preservation of my curls.

While raiding the beauty closet for hair masks a while back, I came across the Nexxus Keraphix Reconstructing Treatment. The tiny purple vial contains a protein treatment the claims to revive damaged hair. My loose curls fit the bill.

Let me preface this by saying: Please read the instructions before you use this product. The first time I used Keraphix, I just popped off the cap and doused my head, but this keratin and rice protein treatment isn't like a regular rinse-out conditioning shot. It's a gel that slightly hardens on your strands, and you should use it on shampooed hair. I squeezed an entire tube out and coated my hair, focusing on my most damaged areas, and left the product on for five minutes.

My hair transformed into a sturdy, wiry texture, which might be alarming if you go in blind (like I did). However, once I thoroughly washed the product out, the results were impressive. Areas of my hair that would normally form into slight zigzags took on a more defined coil, which didn't disappear once my hair was dry. All over my head, my curls were more defined.

For the first time in a while, I was able to wear my hair naturally curly without feeling self-conscious about it looking a blow-fried mess. I did decide to straighten my hair after my second Keraphix treatment (each box comes with two vials), and it still felt incredibly strong — very few strands came out of my brush, and my blowout was sleek, shiny, and bouncy.

By boosting up my heat-damaged curls, Keraphix has given me the ability to switch between straight and curly styles from week to week. Now that summer's here, I might even drop the flat-iron routine completely, and rock my curls and box braids until September.