Spiral Perm

by Sophie
(UK)

Was in 'the chair' getting a perm. First off the hairdresser didn't even let me decide what I wanted, but told be she would give me spiral curls.

The end result was corkscrew curls!

As my mum knew the hairdresser, she decided to repay me by giving me a 'free trim'. She took off 5/6 inches of my then lovely long hair! It's now been years ago, but I still think about it!

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Sorry that happened to you Sophie. When spiral perms are wrapped too tightly, you can end up with corkscrew, Shirley Temple, curls instead. The thing to remember, is that if you get too tight a perm, you can loosen them up in the first 24 -48 hours after the perm, by taking hot showers and using lots of heavy conditioners. After that, perms are harder to loosen up, but not impossible. It just works best during the initial first days, to try and loosen them.

As for the haircut, hairdressers sometimes don't have a clue as to how much we love our hair! This seems blatantly ridiculous to me, since they are in the business of hair. When I was actively working as a hairdresser, I always hesitated when people told me they wanted a lot of their long hair cut off. I hated doing it because I love long hair so much! I am sorry you had to go through this but the good news is always that perms fade and hair grows back! Thank God huh?

The other thing to remember is to get out of 'the chair' if a hairdresser won't listen to you! We are women and we have power! Its easy to remember after you get a nice relaxing shampoo and you have your hair combed out by someone else. We get relaxed and forget we have that power and option!

If a hairdresser won't listen to you, leave! You are under no contract to stay and have your hair tortured! Easy to say, not so easy to remember. After all, we're supposed to be able to trust professionals right?