Perm Post #3

For those with inquiring minds, I did call the company that manufactured the perm I used for Rachel's hair. The customer service rep said the reason it didn't work is that Rachel hadn't reached puberty yet. Evidently there are some hormones necessary for the chemical reaction of the perm. Go figure. Guess we'll wait a couple years.

Perm Flop

Some have emailed asking about the success of "the perm". It was a near flop. Not a total flop--but really close. I guess I should have left the curling lotion on longer, but since this was the first time, I was afraid it would chemically burn her hair. The perm instructions said to unroll a curler to see if the hair was curly enough. Our test curl was perfect. I'm not sure why it wasn't a flag-wavin' success.

My question for you all is this...how soon can I try it again? I am willing to do all the re-rolling, applying, rinsing, etc. if it would = success. Any perm experience is appreciated.

~Joan

Perming Rachel's Hair

This AM I did something I thought I'd never do...I gave a permanent...to one of my own offspring. If you only knew how strange that idea (let alone reality thereof) is to my psyche.

I have never given a perm before, but I CAN read, so I figured we'd wing it. Below is Rachel before I gave the perm. She slept with ("those stinkin'") curlers in to achieve this look. Sleeping on curlers is not optimal, so she would like to avoid it in the future! Those curls would have disappeared inside 30 minutes, even if we hadn't washed her hair.




Below shows after I got all the rods in. Tedious, but certainly doable...

If you've had your hair permed, you know the drill between the above picture and the next one. Curling lotion, timer, timer, timer, timer...the key is determining how long the solution needs to stay in. Too short and you just wasted a lot of time. Too long, and you look like a Brillo pad. We wanted somewhere in between. It looks like the eagle has landed!

Here she is after the neutralizing solution was applied, rods were out, conditioner was in...me, oh, my! There are a lot of steps involved. I'll post a picture later of her newly curly dried hair. She's out on the porch right now, reading while it dries.

Hope springs eternal...

~Joan