A new look for a change? Get your hair permed!

In Japan, the permanent service is much more common in hair salons than in West. According to the Japan Perm Association, in 2015, 30% of people aged from 20 to 60 had a perm. I, personally, have been perming my hair about every 4 to 6 months for maybe the past 15 years.

Hair perm: many benefits

Indeed for people who have fine and straight hair like me, having the hair permed is ideal to:
– create volume
– have movements
– maintain / style easily every day

Even for coarse hair, it helps softening the impression and it always makes a nice change from the usual look, in addition to make all the hair arrangements much easier and fun.

Hair perm demands high hairdressing skills

But the perm technique needs a lot of experience and if it is badly performed, it can seriously damage and ruine your hair and style.
The perm technique evolves with the trend and in Japan, today there are many varieties of beautiful perm styles you can get; no need of being afraid to get the old granny’s look!

So if you want to try a perm once, I would recommend you go to a hairdresser’s that you can trust and who’s experienced in perm or I would try a Japanese salon in your city if you live in a big one, you must have at least one Japanese salon :)….or it’s for when you will be visiting Japan!!

Things to do in Tokyo as part of your beauty pilgrimage:

Go to a trendy salon and get your hair permed!

Today I got my hair permed so I wanted to give you a digest about the process and show you the new look! During the perm process, it is hard to look sexy…so the pictures are only to show you how it goes 🙂

First of all, the perm always goes with the haircut. You cannot just order a perm since the hairdresser creates a whole design including cut & perm. He will cut the hair so that it is easy for him to create the curls he imagines where he imagines, with the perm after.

Hair perm process:

So the process starts with the haircut after shampoo.
My request was that I keep the length since I am growing my hair but my hair to look less layered, a bit heavier since this is the trend now, like a lob. The trend in the recent years is not a strong curly style but more a soft wavy and airy perm, so I ordered that too.

After the haircut is accomplished (sorry I forgot to take a picture…), we start winding the hair around the rollers. There are many different ways of winding according to the style you want. The hairdresser decides on the size of the rod and how to wind.

Almost finished winding

Then we apply the first formula which is a perming lotion. It will modify the structure of your hair so that it can take the curly shape.

Application of the perming lotion.

Cap on and you let it process for 5 to 15min.

Processing time

After a few minutes, the hairdresser checks the status of the curls and decides on leaving longer or not.

Unwinding a few rods to check the curls.

If the curls are satisfactory, we rinse the first lotion off at the shampoo bowl. To minimise the damage, it is important to rinse off well.

Rinsing the perming lotion off.

We then apply the second lotion which is a neutraliser. Now that the hair structure has been modified with the reducing first lotion, the second lotion will set and help keeping the new curly shape.

Application of the second lotion.

After letting the second lotion process for 10 min, we take the rods off.

Removal of the rods

We rinse thoroughly the hair at the shampoo bowl.

Hair rinsing at the end of the perm process.

Voila, the wet finish look.

Then we dry the hair after applying a non rinse off treatment and the hairdresser usually does some final adjustments in haircut. We finally style the hair with a styling product for waved hair; either a mousse, a spray wax, or a wax. As it was the evening, I requested only a treatment cream.

Final look!

Today the perm lotions are evolving and they are less and less damaging. My hair is left soft and airy.

I could never stop perming my hair. I don’t have any hassle of blowdrying my hair anymore, it is so easy to do pretty hair styles such as a messy bun or any other trendy and creative styles.

But remember, your hairdresser’s skill is critical here; make sure you ask a hairdresser who’s popular with perm styles!

Also the after care is VERY important. Obviously even if today’s perm lotions are less damaging, it is still a chemical. Treat your hair with regular masks, always dry your hair with a non rinse off treatment.
If your hair is already highly damaged (bleached, coloured very frequently etc.), then I don’t recommend the perm. It’s just going to be a extra stress to your hair and the curls won’t look nice. Treat your hair and once it’s healthy again, give it a try!

At last, a lot of people think the perm didn’t take when they see at home their hair the next day after washing them ; the perm is revived, the curls are enhanced with styling products.

See my post and video about the different styling techniques you can do with permed hair.

If you want to try it out, go to one of the best hair salons in Tokyo that I recommend, Dot+LIM!!

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