How often should you really get a keratin treatment?
Every salon in Delhi will happily book you in every eight weeks. Your hair does not need that. Here is the honest schedule, what a real keratin treatment costs, and how to tell when yours has simply worn off versus when it has damaged your hair.
A good keratin treatment lasts three to five months. Not eight weeks. If a salon is calling you back at the eight-week mark, they are selling you a top-up you almost certainly do not need yet — and the extra heat passes are the part that actually costs you hair.
What the treatment is really doing
Keratin does not "repair" hair in any permanent sense. A smoothening formula coats the cuticle with a protein-and-sealant blend, and a flat iron at 200–230°C locks it in place. That coating is a temporary shell. It survives roughly 25 to 40 washes depending on how you wash and what you wash with. So your real schedule is set by your wash frequency, not by the calendar.
- ✦Wash three times a week, sulphate-free: expect four to five months.
- ✦Wash daily, especially with a clarifying or anti-dandruff shampoo: expect two to three months.
- ✦Swim regularly: chlorine strips it fastest of all. Two months is realistic.
The Delhi factor
Two things shorten treatments here specifically. The first is water. Most of Delhi runs on hard, high-TDS supply, and the calcium and magnesium in it bind to the treated cuticle and lift it. The second is the summer-to-monsoon swing: 44°C dry heat followed by 85% humidity is the single harshest thing you can do to smoothed hair. Clients who get treated in February routinely get an extra month out of it compared to clients treated in June.
How to tell it has worn off versus gone wrong
Worn off looks even. The frizz comes back gradually, from the mid-lengths outward, and the hair still feels like hair. Damage looks patchy: gummy, over-elastic strands when wet, and ends that snap rather than stretch. If you are seeing the second thing, the answer is not another keratin. It is three months of protein-light conditioning and a proper cut.
What to ask before you book
Ask which system they use and whether it is formaldehyde-free — the Indian market is full of relabelled formalin-heavy products, and a salon that cannot name the brand on the bottle is a salon to walk out of. Ask for a strand test if you are coloured, bleached or have had a previous smoothening. And ask what the aftercare shampoo costs, because a ₹6,000 treatment maintained with a ₹150 sulphate shampoo is ₹6,000 wasted.
A sensible schedule
For most people in Delhi: one full treatment a year in the winter, and one mid-length-only refresh before the monsoon. Roots do not need smoothening — new growth at the scalp is not the frizz you are seeing. Any salon willing to treat only where the treatment is needed is a salon that is thinking about your hair rather than their ticket size.