I've had two perms in my life. Once when I was around ten, and again around fifteen. I didn't like the perm I had when I was ten because my hair was short and it was the typical tight perm. When I was fifteen, I LOVED my perm. My hair was a little longer, and my stylist did it with bigger rollers so the effect was looser curls, not the shirley temple kind. However, around that time the super-straight hair came into style and I spent the next several years being a slave to my flat iron. After that, I kept my hair short enough that just blowing it dry to get some wave in it was easy. Now, I'm growing my hair out and making a lot of progress...I'm taking biotin and babying it, and it's longer than it's a huge pain to style. It's so heavy that it's flat and straight a lot of the time, blowing it dry takes FOREVER. When I had my hair permed, it was so easy. I'd wash it every other day after dinner, put in a little gel and let it air dry. The next morning I would spritz a little water on it if the curls had flattened, and voila...awesome hair. Now that my hair is getting long like this, I'm thinking it would be good to perm it again.

Right now the plan is to grow it 4-6 more inches, then perm it with the goal of having the same length/style of curls as the picture I attached.

However, I have a few questions. Both times I had permed hair, I just grew it out, I never re-permed it. How do they do that when all your hair is curly except a few inches at the roots? About how often do you have to get it re-permed? My own hair has some natural wave, so both times my natural wave in the grown-out part pretty much matched the falling-out perm. How hard on your hair is it to be a long-term permer? I go several months between colorings, but it's pretty hard to fry my hair. Lastly, does anyone have pictures of their hair permed that they wouldn't mind sharing?

Edit: I can't find a picture of my hair's length right now, and it's up in a greasy nasty bun so I can't take one now. It'll be several months until it's long enough that I want to perm it, but here's a picture of my hair when I put a lot of work into making it wavy/curly, so I know my hair is capable of looking that way...but right now, it takes gel and a ton of hairspray to look like this for all of twenty minutes before it straightens out

(pic is what my hair length is now )

I should have known my sister from another mister wanted a perm too I've been contemplating one as well, but I don't think Locks of Love will take it if it's been permed. So that's why I'm kind of lenient. My hair is getting soooo long and heavy and although mine also has some natural waves to it, it's like the weight is pulling it all flat.

I have no real advice whatsoever, but when you had your perms before did you find your hair was any more/less tangly? Mine is ridiculously knotty currently and it almost takes longer to comb it all out than to blow dry it.

Krystal, your hair is so long and beautiful! I don't think locks of love takes hair that's been colored or permed, unfortunately. I've found a great secret to avoiding tangles (I learned it when I had my hair permed). Comb/brush all the tangles out before you get in the shower, then just leave it be when you get out, don't even touch it. Whether you blow it dry or let it air dry, the thicker clumps it's in will dry into waves, no tangles!

Of course the picture didn't work, so I attached it here. That's my hair as curly as I can possibly get it, and I wish it could look like that all the time and not have it fall flat in ten minutes. I just love curly hair!

And Krystal, I checked Locks of Love's website, and permed/colored hair is acceptable, so I think you should go for it and blaze the trail ahead of me

www.locksoflove.org . . .

I'm not sure about the actual perming but when my sister had her's done years back she was told to only comb it when it was wet so she used to wash it, smother in conditioner, comb and then rinse and dry. That way it didn't tangle too bad. The one time she didn't do it, she ended up with a dreadlock at the back of her head (underneath) which had to be cut out in the end.

I have really curly hair and the only time I can ever get a good brush or comb is when it is wet, if I dare to do it any other time I just end up with frizz. I tend to use an afro comb (apologies if this is not the correct terminology but its what I know it by) as its great for getting through the hair and untangling it.

- You both have beautiful hair too!!

Awww, I need to stay away from these types of threads, because every time I start to feel good about my decision to keep my hair short, I see pics of the beautiful ladies of DDN with their long, flowing hair and get horribly jealous!

Sorry, I have nothing constructive to add, but yeah. Jealous.

Oh, actually, I will add that when I used to get my hair permed as a kid, the entire perm would eventually start to relax, and then my mom would take me to get it redone, and they would just re-perm the whole thing. So it wasn't like I had straight hair at the roots and super curly hair everywhere else when I went to get it redone. But that was a looonnng time ago (20+ years), so maybe they are doing things differently now so that the perms stay curly longer. Can't really speak as to how often we got it redone, because I don't remember, but I DO know that I had some crazy nasty dandruff around that same time, and I'm thinking there may have been a correlation. So take good care of your scalp if you're going to be regularly subjecting it to a chemical bath.

Just Say No.


hahaha. I'm glad you had success with them. I, however, have learned to say the above motto when it comes to perms. I can't post a pic of myself with a long-hair perm because I haven't gotten around to getting my eye..
Every time I got one, I had chunks burned off from the chemicals, and nobody showed me how to do curly hair. So most of the time it was unmanagable and frustrating.

sigh.

I loved my perm and only recently had it cut out but already I'm thinking about getting another one. I will say that despite how much I loved having one it still wasn't great on the condition of my hair. If you get a perm you have to be willing to baby your hair a bit - I deep conditioned it once a week and visited the hairdresser for a quick trim any time the ends got split which was more frequently than when my hair was straight.

I actually got my hair repermed about ever 10 months even though the recommended is much less than that (3-4 months?). I just didn't feel there was any need to go back and get it done again, all that happened was that the curls relaxed a bit and my hair became more of a soft curl and I liked it like that anyway.

I also grew my perm out and for a while it was fine, the fact that the top few inches of my hair was straight wasn't really noticeable with the fact that the curls had relaxed. Once it grew a bit longer I twisted and pinned the top half of my hair up to disguise the straightness and then eventually I had it cut out and my hair is now shoulder length.

I don't have my eye so I can't post a picture but if you want there's some photos on facebook, just drop my a PM.

reel_faerie85 wrote:

I tend to use an afro comb (apologies if this is not the correct terminology but its what I know it by) as its great for getting through the hair and untangling it.

A pick? www-static.weddingbee.com . . .

Also, is it weird that the first thing I think of when I hear the word perm is Legally Blonde? *shrugs*

^ Yea afro comb!



Its all I have ever known it by

I like perms!

But dont over do it! as it can make you hair very dry:((