Bad Perm?

by Janey
(Georgia)

I went to a salon a while back, a few months ago now. (would rather not mention where). I told the lady I had used bleach in my hair recently and that I wanted the least harmful perm she had. She told she had one that would work.

The perm looked half way decent after she was done but a few days later my hair started falling out. After a few days of this happening, I called up the salon and told them. They had me come back in for deep conditioning treatments but the damage was already done. I still don't know what happened.

Its been a while since I got it, but I won't get one again. My hair is just beginning to come back to life.

(somewhat, after getting a few trims...)

I don't know if the lady got the perms mixed up or what, but I'd never had that happen before. (Oh, btw the whole time the perm was in my hair, my head was on fire! It burned like crazy!)

Hi Janey,

That sounds like a bad time for sure! I'm sorry that happened to you. I wondered if you told the hair dresser that your perm was burning your head? If so, she should have done something or known that something wasn't right and taken action. (like getting the perm out of your hair) If you didn't say anything, you've learned a hard lesson. Its really not your fault in many ways though. We get so relaxed when someone is doing our hair, that we forget we have a voice sometimes! The other part of it is that we go to a salon because we trust that the person working on us will have the experience they need to take care of our hair properly.

You are right though. It sure sounds like it was a bad perm to me. Anytime a perm burns your scalp like that, or is wrapped too tightly, or anything else, you should speak up. If you're doing a home perm and that happens, get your head and hair under cool running water immediately. Take the unused portion of the perm back to the store and demand your money back.

When you put chemicals in your hair, you should read about doing it first. Know the precautions and warnings, then you'll be in a safer place and know what to do is something goes awry.