i think your results are pretty, I'm not considering a BKT but I wanted to ask you (and perhaps other natural/texlaxed ladies considering this) if you feel you can't achieve the same look without a really good flat iron? What led to this decision?
I guess I want to know why a lot of people are considering BKT, is it to just loosen texture? Can't a relaxer achieve that? I'm also asking especially since all you said regarding fumes, chest pain, etc.
I'm not knocking your decision at all, I'm more curious. I'm just slightly confused about BKT and have been for a while and just figured i'd ask users once and for all.
Sure! I don't mind questions...in fact I welcome them! I particularly went for the BKT because I wanted to have the relaxed look, but to keep my curls. Since a BKT doesn't permanently straighten your hair, I believe it was the best option for me. I'm transitioning and I was never into flat ironing my hair, so to keep flat ironing on a weekly basis to have the straight look was out of the question for me. I also feel it would help me to transition without the BC cause I plan on being a long term transitioner.
This is the longest my hair has been in my life so I don't want to hack it all off right now
Not only that, but a BKT is supposed to strengthen the hair with keratin so I feel it is much more beneficial than using a relaxer to get my hair straight. IMO, a BKT is the best of both worlds! You get to go back to your natural hair within a couple of weeks / months plus you have the option of wearing it straight with very little effort. Even when I was fully relaxed, my hair NEVER looked straight when I flat ironed! I'm surprised that the BKT worked so well to be quite honest. Not only that, but my hair has BODY, which I could never get after freshly relaxing my hair. It was always limp and thin looking. By the time it started to have body again, it would be time to relax
As for the formaldehyde...well, that was my decision to use a BKT which contained it and I learned the hard way that the fumes were stronger than I had anticipated. If I do BKT again, I will use a formula that is formaldehyde free.
As far as the heat goes, I rarely use direct heat and when I did, my hair fared well. Since I don't plan on using BKT on the regular, this shouldn't be a problem.
Well, I hope I answered most of your questions about why I decided to use BKT
I hope some of the BKT gurus chime in!
Excellent job on your first application! Thank you for the equally excellent step by step photo guide and coments as this was not only informative but fun to read (loved the picture of your reaction to using a round brush to straighten your hair 
). The end results looks fantastic! I’m glad to read that you’re feeling better from all the fumes.
so I'm happy that it has a lot of body now. When I first did it, it was a bit too straight for me. 
