Self-perm advice
October 2, 2007 9:38 PM Subscribe
[PermFilter] Should I perm my own hair, or leave it to the pros?
Recently I had my hair permed in China and was very pleased with the result (pic). However, that was two months ago and now my hair looks like this (pic). It's still slightly permed, but has lost most of its springiness and returned to its natural spherical shape. Should I attempt to perm my hair myself, or leave it to the pros? And if I attempted to do it myself, what do I need and how would I go about doing so? Anyone experienced in haircutting that can give me a tip on how to cut it back to what it looked like?
I wouldn't have any problem with "pros" doing it, except I live in a small town in the Southwest where my hair has been consistently butchered every time I get a haircut, so I kind of don't trust people around here with my hair. There are no Asian haircutters in town unless you count my mother, and years of wearing a bowl cut when I was younger has kind of made me skeptical about asking her for a haircut.
Besides lack of expertise I'm concerned with the chemicals. Do they use different chemicals to treat Asian hair than European hair, or are they all the same? I don't use any gels or pomades in my hair, if that matters.
As for the method they used, I believe it was a hot perm, because they poured a bunch of chemicals onto my hair and then put a rotating heat thing over my head.
Having permed hair isn't an urgent matter, so if there's a high probability of screwing up and giving myself a Jheri curl, I'm fine with keeping my hair as it is.
Recently I had my hair permed in China and was very pleased with the result (pic). However, that was two months ago and now my hair looks like this (pic). It's still slightly permed, but has lost most of its springiness and returned to its natural spherical shape. Should I attempt to perm my hair myself, or leave it to the pros? And if I attempted to do it myself, what do I need and how would I go about doing so? Anyone experienced in haircutting that can give me a tip on how to cut it back to what it looked like?
I wouldn't have any problem with "pros" doing it, except I live in a small town in the Southwest where my hair has been consistently butchered every time I get a haircut, so I kind of don't trust people around here with my hair. There are no Asian haircutters in town unless you count my mother, and years of wearing a bowl cut when I was younger has kind of made me skeptical about asking her for a haircut.
Besides lack of expertise I'm concerned with the chemicals. Do they use different chemicals to treat Asian hair than European hair, or are they all the same? I don't use any gels or pomades in my hair, if that matters.
As for the method they used, I believe it was a hot perm, because they poured a bunch of chemicals onto my hair and then put a rotating heat thing over my head.
Having permed hair isn't an urgent matter, so if there's a high probability of screwing up and giving myself a Jheri curl, I'm fine with keeping my hair as it is.
As amyms said, absolutely do NOT do it yourself. Some things should only be done by professionals. You'll only end up spending three times as much getting someone to fix your mistakes (I speak from hair-dyeing experience).
posted by Lucie at 11:45 PM on October 2, 2007
posted by Lucie at 11:45 PM on October 2, 2007
Your hair cut has a lot of texture, if you have a good clipper or regular shears you can trim some of the internal layers by pushing your hair back, notice that some hair pokes out, trim this hair just a quarter of an inch or so, comb the trimmed hair forward and push back your hair, more hair will poke out,trim and so on. This should restore some bounce and not disturb the shape.remember trim 1/4 of an inch off the ends even though they will be different lengths,better to do too little than too much! it may help you to prop a mirror on the floor so you can see your hair cut upside down and trim off a bit, here is how they do it in China video
posted by hortense at 11:49 PM on October 2, 2007
posted by hortense at 11:49 PM on October 2, 2007
Joining the chorus of never, ever, perm your own hair. Ever. Coloring, maybe. But NEVER perm it yourself! Especially if you have short, black Asian hair! (I'm Japanese with shortish hair, and from what I can see from your photos, my hair is probably similar in texture to yours.) From what I understand, the chemicals used to treat Asian hair are different from those used to treat European hair in that they are actually "weaker" than the European counterpart. Yeah, you'd expect it'd be the other way around, right? Asian hair is coarser, but apparently it takes less chemical to make it curl.
I like the look in your first photo, it really looks good on you. If hopping on a plane back to China to get your hair cut again isn't an option at this point, maybe driving out to your nearest Chinatown (or Koreatown, or Little Tokyo, you get my point) might be? I have a feeling you'd have to get someone who's used to handling Asian hair to get a look like that done right.
posted by misozaki at 12:54 AM on October 3, 2007
I like the look in your first photo, it really looks good on you. If hopping on a plane back to China to get your hair cut again isn't an option at this point, maybe driving out to your nearest Chinatown (or Koreatown, or Little Tokyo, you get my point) might be? I have a feeling you'd have to get someone who's used to handling Asian hair to get a look like that done right.
posted by misozaki at 12:54 AM on October 3, 2007
Oh, by the way, I don't know if hortense has experience with Asian hair or not, and I'm certainly not trying to pick a fight here or anything, but speaking from personal experience, don't try to cut your own hair, either. Yes, I know plenty of people cut their own hair, but I just really, really think that it only works if you have European hair (I don't know what else to call it. Non-Asian hair?). It just... won't look right. You could fiddle around with your bangs a bit, maybe, but I'd leave the rest alone if I were you. YMMV...
posted by misozaki at 1:08 AM on October 3, 2007
posted by misozaki at 1:08 AM on October 3, 2007
Now about that perm, use a tinted formula acid perm the trick is to hold the rod on your scalp and wind the hair a turn and a half , two turns max leaving out the ends, you could use wine corks for rods and clips from hot rollers sit in a sunny window for the twenty minutes recommended in the instructions, just do three rods at a time until you get the soft lift like the photo.
posted by hortense at 2:13 AM on October 3, 2007
posted by hortense at 2:13 AM on October 3, 2007
i would say don't do it yourself unless you are willing to shave your head if it goes wrong.
posted by thinkingwoman at 4:24 AM on October 3, 2007
posted by thinkingwoman at 4:24 AM on October 3, 2007
A bad home perm can make you look like a poodle. Trust me. Also, while your perm may be fading now, your hair still looks good.
As a fellow Asian, I totally understand about most people not "getting" how to cut/style Asian hair. Seriously? Look around for the closest Asian stylist and get yourself ready for a road trip.
I actually go to a stylist who doesn't speak any English -- we have to communicate in gestures and pictures -- and she always gets it right. But I can talk my head off to the most experienced, most expensive non-Asian stylist and end up looking completely bizarre.
posted by brina at 7:21 AM on October 3, 2007
As a fellow Asian, I totally understand about most people not "getting" how to cut/style Asian hair. Seriously? Look around for the closest Asian stylist and get yourself ready for a road trip.
I actually go to a stylist who doesn't speak any English -- we have to communicate in gestures and pictures -- and she always gets it right. But I can talk my head off to the most experienced, most expensive non-Asian stylist and end up looking completely bizarre.
posted by brina at 7:21 AM on October 3, 2007
ack, ack!!!
Nooooooooooooooooo!!! Don't perm it yourself.
posted by buka at 8:00 AM on October 3, 2007
Nooooooooooooooooo!!! Don't perm it yourself.
posted by buka at 8:00 AM on October 3, 2007
Is there a chinese/korean church nearby? My mom used to go to a lady that had a small salon in her basement. Most of this woman's clients were people from church or word of mouth.
posted by spec80 at 8:15 AM on October 3, 2007
posted by spec80 at 8:15 AM on October 3, 2007
HELL TO THE NO. I actually have curly Blasian hair, but as a veteran of years of at home and salon variations of relaxing, straight perms, Japanese/"Magic" Straight, as well as a gaggle of Asian relatives and friends who have been getting perms with varied results, this is something when even left to "professionals", you have a minor chance of it coming out fucked up. Do it at home? You better go to the story and buy some Jheri curl activator to continuously spray on your new perm to keep it from drying the hell out or something.
Really, it's just worth it to put in the effort to find someone who can do it. And yes, there really is a difference between what you'd get in Asia versus here. I was never satisfied with any of the haircuts I got in the States until I realized I just did not like the way American-trained hairstylists cut hair. There's just certain way with texture and layering and even general cut shape that I only got when I was back home in Korea and when I finally found a Japanese hair salon here and my favorite stylist, I stuck with them and I've been getting haircuts I liked since then. If it's that much of a battle to find someone just to cut hair you might have to do some research or (I hope not) travel, to get what you want with a perm.
On the otherhand, you can experiment on your own, but really, damaged hair takes a LOOOONGGG time to repair itself. However, as others have pointed out, you have to be more than willing to live the results for a while or shave that mofo off,
posted by kkokkodalk at 8:20 AM on October 3, 2007
Really, it's just worth it to put in the effort to find someone who can do it. And yes, there really is a difference between what you'd get in Asia versus here. I was never satisfied with any of the haircuts I got in the States until I realized I just did not like the way American-trained hairstylists cut hair. There's just certain way with texture and layering and even general cut shape that I only got when I was back home in Korea and when I finally found a Japanese hair salon here and my favorite stylist, I stuck with them and I've been getting haircuts I liked since then. If it's that much of a battle to find someone just to cut hair you might have to do some research or (I hope not) travel, to get what you want with a perm.
On the otherhand, you can experiment on your own, but really, damaged hair takes a LOOOONGGG time to repair itself. However, as others have pointed out, you have to be more than willing to live the results for a while or shave that mofo off,
posted by kkokkodalk at 8:20 AM on October 3, 2007
Never had a good self-perm experience. Nthing "don't do it yourself!"
(I find self-coloring easy, though.)
posted by iguanapolitico at 8:50 AM on October 3, 2007
(I find self-coloring easy, though.)
posted by iguanapolitico at 8:50 AM on October 3, 2007
now, if you can't trust the licensed hairstylists in your area to not mangle your hair, just what makes you think it could possibly be a good idea to take a whack at it, yourself?
find someone licensed. in the mean time, though, have you tried some of the non-permanent curl activators and whatnot that they sell at the drugstore? i'm not, in fact, asian, but my hair seems to be of a similar length and cut, and it's fairly straight and coarse; out of boredom, one day, i bought a bottle of the revoltingly-named "tresemme 'touchable curls shaping milk'" (ick, ick, ick) and was pleasantly surprised at the effect it had.
it was six bucks, it's not going to do any damage, and since there's still some existing curl from your last perm, it might be enough to hold you over until you find a professional about whom you feel comfortable.
posted by wreckingball at 9:29 AM on October 3, 2007
find someone licensed. in the mean time, though, have you tried some of the non-permanent curl activators and whatnot that they sell at the drugstore? i'm not, in fact, asian, but my hair seems to be of a similar length and cut, and it's fairly straight and coarse; out of boredom, one day, i bought a bottle of the revoltingly-named "tresemme 'touchable curls shaping milk'" (ick, ick, ick) and was pleasantly surprised at the effect it had.
it was six bucks, it's not going to do any damage, and since there's still some existing curl from your last perm, it might be enough to hold you over until you find a professional about whom you feel comfortable.
posted by wreckingball at 9:29 AM on October 3, 2007
Response by poster: Hey, thanks for the advice everyone! Guess I'll be staying away from the perm chemicals... also, hortense, thanks for the detailed info. Actually, I do cut my own hair with decent results, so I'll be sure to try that method next time.
posted by pravit at 6:03 PM on October 3, 2007
posted by pravit at 6:03 PM on October 3, 2007
until you can find a salon, you could try a small curling iron (on lowish heat) to give your hair some body.
posted by bluefly at 8:19 AM on October 8, 2007
posted by bluefly at 8:19 AM on October 8, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
You mentioned that you are concerned about salons in your area not being familiar with Asian hair. If that's the case, then wait until you can plan a trip to a bigger city and find a salon that has experience with your hair type. But, whatever you do, DO NOT PERM YOUR OWN HAIR!
posted by amyms at 10:34 PM on October 2, 2007 [1 favorite]