What is Thermal Reconditioning?

My philosophy on hair education is that it must be creative while at the same time being useful for the client. I take a pragmatic approach to hair, which eliminates a lot of the fluff seen in a lot of today's education. However, I do not feel that usefulness means no creativity. On the contrary, I feel the artistic aspect of the Hair Business is just as important and essential as practicality. Michael Ricca,  President, Heaven & Earth Hair International

The last six months I have been bombarded by questions about this new Hair Straightening procedure from Japan.

People were saying how it conditioned the hair at the same time it straightened it and even though it was expensive it would last for 6 months.

The name given in North America for this new rave was "Thermal Reconditioning" also known as TR, Magic Straight, Ionic Perm, Bioionic Straightening, Yuko System, Liscio, and Rebonding.

Most western hair designers, at that time, did not know much about it and are still trying to sort it all out, however since I am located in Asia we have been working with this service for 3-4 years now. The hype and craze were familiar to me as we had gone through the same reaction to the service only a few years before. This concerned me because to some extent it seemed that people were being misled as to what could and could not be achieved with the TR procedure. It was being marketed (as it had been in Asia) as a cure all for curly hair, stiff hair and life less hair. For the record I would like to say that I am for the service when used in the right situation for the right type of hair. Just as with hair colouring, perming and standard relaxors, it is not suitable for all types of hair and should always be performed by an experienced trained professional. I am however against the fanatical marketing and extravagant claims I have been reading about (been there, seen them).

I hope that I can answer many questions that have been put to me about TR by consumers and hair professionals in this article.

»	Experienced - Someone who is familiar with the service and has had time to work with the products and procedures on different types of hair.
»	Trained - Someone who has received proper training on the TR procedure and the product line which they are working with in the salon.
»	Professional - A hair designer who has had good training not only in haircutting and designing but also one who understands the chemical reaction of hair products on various types of hair.
»	Right type of hair - Not all hair types can or should receive TR and remember that you will most likely get different results on different types of hair.

Someone once asked me, "Why has Thermal Reconditioning come from Asia, doesn't Asians already have straight hair, why would they want a hair straightening system"? Very good question. In fact hair straightening or some type of chemical rearrangement has been popular in Asia for over 20 years now. In the past the hair designer would apply perm solution to the hair and then comb it over "straightening boards" in order to chemically straighten Asian hair. This procedure was done for years and in many instances successful but often left the hair frizzy and dry.

There are 3 main reasons why Hair Straightening is popular in Asia:

1)	Perspective - The first "Perspective", a little bit of natural movement which might be considered great to a person with a full head of "Little Orphan Annie" curls in the west is considered very unmanageable to someone living in a culture where most of the hairstyles are/were very straight. When I first came to Asia some of the models that I would work on warned me ahead of time that they had Naturally curly hair, I tried finding it but was not yet in tune to the small variations found within Asian hair textures. To me their hair was great, but still straight. Our perspective or/and what we are familiar with determines if our hair is straight or curly.
2)	Natural Texture - After working on Asian hair and becoming familiar with it, I was able to distinguish a wide variety of texture within what many western hair designers would call straight hair. Just as a hair designer who only worked on Caucasian type hair might look at African type hair and call it all "Very Curly" an African American knows that there are many degrees of curliness/texture within this hair type.
3)	Softening - Not only can a service such as hair Straightening be used to make the hair straight but it may also be used by a hair designer to "Soften" extra strong hair. Softer hair has a bouncier effect and appears to have more natural movement then stiff strong hair. By using chemicals on the hair, the hair designer can control this for the client.

Ok, so what's so special about TR? In the past we have usually used a chemical solution which had the chemical "Thioglycolate" (Thio) as it's base ingredient. This is the main chemical found in Permanent Wave solution, you know the one that smells like rotten eggs. The Thio separates the Sulfur bonds (the bonds which control the hairs shape) in the hair allowing the hair to take on a new shape, usually a perm rod. Later in the neutralizing phase of the procedure the Sulfur bonds are reconnected into this new shape and we then have curly hair. It works great when we want to make straight hair curly because we use the perm tool/rod which creates tension and a new shape for the hair to reform on. Originally thio based products were only found in a liquid form thus making them not very practical to be used for hair straightening. The liquid would run all over the place creating a mess and would not allow the correct tension to be applied to the hair for straightening. This is still used today to remove or loosen permanent waves but is usually not very successful in straightening naturally curly hair.

In the 1970's a cream based Thio became popular and were used mainly on African type hair to get what has popularly been called "The Jheri Curl". The cream based Thio allowed the hair designer to control the application and to later apply tension to relax the hair. However, keep in mind that even with the Jheri curl the hair was placed on perm tools to get the tension and have a firm base for the hair to reform on. Nevertheless, this was a major breakthrough for the hair industry and added a very valuable salon service which could be offered to the client with African type hair.

TR solutions also use a Thio base as their active ingredient. Like all other products, different manufacturers have come up with their own formulas. Some will work better than others and of course personal preference will be a major factor in determining which product a hair designer feels comfortable with. However, in all of the TR products that I am familiar with Thio is still the major active ingredient. What makes Thermal Reconditioning unique and new is that the Hair Designer uses a Straightening/flat Iron to create the tension on the hair so that it may take on the new (straight) shape. New advances in straightening irons have produced "Ceramic Plates" that are able to reach and maintain extreme temperatures without the scorching effect of metal plated irons. It is the use of these ceramic straightening irons that makes TR radically different from past straightening services.

So we know that the active chemical in TR is Thio and that a ceramic straightening iron is used.

What's the actual procedure?

In my next column you will get an idea of what to expect when you go in for your TR service.

Thermal Reconditioning Part 2, Procedure for Thermal Reconditioning

Thermal Reconditioning Part 3, What type of hair is not suitable for TR?

Discuss this topic with others right now at the Salon!

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