Call me high maintenance, but really it’s my hair’s fault not mine. It’s so super thick and curly that hairdressers always sigh and charge me extra, or require two stylists to blow dry it to save time. When I have my baby, I know that a 40-minute self-styling session (even though it only needs to happen once a week) will not be an option. However I fear severe bad hair days for six months may bring on post-natal depression, not to mention frighten the poor child! So last week I booked in for the L’Oreal Extenso relaxing treatment at Bettjemans salon, in an attempt to make my tresses low-maintenance - at least for six months or so. It’s a less intense version of those Japanese thermalstraightening treatments that make hair poker straight - kind of like a bodywave as opposed to a perm, only in reverse. You can use Extenso even if your hair is coloured, but as mine is highlighted blonde, my stylist Jason (the Extenso expert, apparently) recommended we just did the underneath part of the hair (about 3/4 of it) and left some of the more fragile top layers untouched. “This will just get rid of all the boof and the frizz,” he explains. Did it ever. I can now leave my hair to dry naturally, and only need spend a minute or so GHD’ing the fringe and side layers to make it look salon perfect. At around $300, Extenso is not cheap but in my opinion worth every penny. And instead of fretting on how vain this makes me, I consider it an environmentally friendly initiative. Yes every minute less on the blow drier is power saved and green brownie points!

Melissa Williams King 26/06/08

Would you get this treatment done?