Perming Your Hair

Whether you want to reinvent your looks or just change your hairstyle, perming your hair is a sure way to achieve them. With this permanent waving alternative, changing your hair from straight to curly and vice versa is no longer a difficult task. Perming is probably one of the most common chemical hair treatments, opted for changing the natural wave pattern of hair. Nevertheless, exposing hair to any type of chemical formulation is associated with certain side effects. Hence, you need to take extra care while perming your hair, as well as follow permed hair care tips afterward.

Hair Perming Procedure

Most often queries like 'is perming your hair bad' and 'does perming damage your hair' linger on the minds of people. The perming procedure basically involves 3 steps - wrapping of hair strands (divided into sections) on perming rods, applying waving lotion to break disulfide bonds of hair and lastly, treating hair with a neutralizer to reform disulfide bonds. After these steps, permanent new hair wave is set. To get impressive results and minimize hair damage, the curing period for application of waving lotion and neutralizer should be strictly followed as per the directions mentioned in the leaflet of the hair perming product.

Tips for Perming Your Hair Curly at Home

Changing hair texture or hairstyle is a great way to flaunt a new look. But, deciding the correct wave pattern that will suit your face shape and personality is not so easy. So, it is always better to do a little research regarding hairstyles that will complement your looks. If at all you do not want to take a risk, ask a hairstylist for his advice. Read the directions of hair perming and you will get an idea about the successive steps. Frankly speaking, perming is relatively simple and you can easily perm your hair at home. Following are steps to be followed for perming your hair at home:

First of all, determine your hair type, current condition and decide the right perm product for your hair. Regarding hair perming products, there are two types, one is acid base and the another is alkaline base. If you have low elasticity hair and are perming your hair for the first time, alkaline solution is for you. Acid perming product is for those who have already permed hair, colored hair or damaged hair.

Other than perming solution, you will need 20 or more straight type perm rods (based on your hair volume and curling pattern), comb and shampoo. As a preparatory step for perming, wash your hair and towel dry properly. Moist hair is preferable for perming procedure. Then, divide your hair into sections, while making sure that the perm rods are wider than hair sections. Accordingly, reduce the size of the hair rows.

The next step on how to perm hair is to physically wrap hair over the rods. In case of dripping water from hair tips, cover them with absorbent tissue paper. By putting hair rods under tissue paper (i.e. at bottom), begin wrapping hair upwards. Never bunch your hair around the rods. You can place cotton over hairline to reduce irritation. Prepare waving formula according to the directions, mentioned in the perm kit.

Gently apply waving lotion starting from the scalp and working your way downwards. Ensure that you saturate all your hair with this solution. Allow it to stand for the stipulated time at the correct temperature. After that, rinse your hair thoroughly to wash off the waving solution. Even traces of the chemical should be removed from hair before putting neutralizer.

Apply neutralizer formula to the hair and rods. Now, you can unravel the perm rods from your hair. Towel dry your hair and leave new perms to set. This step should be monitored carefully, as neutralizing formula is harsh for your hair. After the setting time is over, rinse neutralizer thoroughly. You can flaunt your new curls or style them as per your wishes.

If by any chance, you do not like your newly set hair waves, you can consider perming your hair straight. For this, you can refer to straightened permed hair. However, there should be a time gap between the two hair perming sessions, preferably for a few months or as advised by the salon expert. Maintaining time gap is also applicable for coloring your hair after perming. After all, any sort of hair treatment for changing texture or color, involves exposure to chemicals, which harms the hair in several ways. In short, proper hair care is the ultimate solution to get trendy hair styles while maintaining healthy hair.