QuoteReplyTopic: Perm From Hell Posted: April 04 2002 at 3:19am
One month ago I had my hair permed. I decided to get my hair permed on a whim because I wanted something totally different. A really BAD idea but I didn`t know it at the time. Before the perm I had very healthy very long but fine red hair. I had not colored my hair for at least five years.
I went to a brand new salon and a new stylist because my regular stylist said that she did not want to give me a perm. I was angry that she said that and so I went to a different salon.
The new stylist claimed she had done a lot of perms. She recommended that we use bendable spongey rollers after she first trimmed my hair to remove any "bad ends" as she called them.
The perm seemed to go as it should although I had not had a perm since I was a lot younger so I am not sure of this. The perm seemed to turn out well. I had long soft spiral curls just like I wanted.
The stylist told me not to wash my hair for at least 24 hours and up to 48 hours if I could do that. I waited exactly 30 hours before I washed my hair and conditioned it. That first day and first shampoo my hair felt weird. Much thinner for some reason that I could not really figure out.
The hair loss started about 2 days after that. Every time I brushed, combed or even ran my fingers through my hair big chunks came out. In less than two weeks I had scalp showing and I figure I lost over 50% of my long red hair.
I went back to the salon and the stylist told me that she did nothing wrong that would cause my hair to fall out. The owner of the salon backed up the stylist. They would not refund my perm money and they told me that I must have had some sort of scalp condition that caused this to happen.
My first question is to see if anyone knows what may have happened? The second question is what should I do to get my hair back in shape? The last question is about another chemical treatment. The stylist that gave me the perm suggested that I get a color applied to the hair to help "thicken" it a little. I am not sure this is a good idea in light of how my hair is so fragile and super thin now.
This has been a horryfying experience. Any tips would be so appreciated.
I am so sorry to hear about your hair. Unfortunately this is NOT the exception that I hear from many HB.com visitors. Perms can be heartbreaking.
I strongly recommend that you do NOT put any other chemical of any sort on your hair for at least 6 months and if you can wait, 1 year. It is hard to know what happened to cause this but it could be a variety of things from leaving the perm solution on too long, too strong of mixture or stylist error. Who knows for sure. The stylist may not have had a lot of experience with perms or may not have understood how long to leave the solution on or may have mixed it incorrectly. All of those things can happen.
I would recommend you strengthen the hair from the inside of your body outward. Take a good B vitamin or consider taking Viviscal which has been proven by doctors to help with hair loss as a result of chemical damage, both from chemo and from actual chemical damage from things like perm. Or if you don`t want to go the vitamin route you can get some good results with a combination of Vitamin B and C and some essential fatty acids like flax seed oil. The key is to help strengthen the hair root to help your hair recover.
You can also try my Basil Oil massage recipe that is listed on the Hair - Alternative board here at HB.com. I posted it as a result of my own hair loss problems when I was doing extreme dieting in the late 80s.
Finally, nourish your hair with conditioning treatments. Keep in mind that because your hair is fine/thin that you should avoid conditioning near your roots AND use a lighter conditioner. Aveda`s Curessence conditioner is light but has a lot of punch. It is pricey but it does work.
Try to avoid using hot tools and pamper your hair as much as possible.
Again, my deepest sympathies for your hair trauma.
Best wishes, Karen
That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger or drives you totally insane. :-)
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That is dreadful. I`m sorry. Karen is right on target - avoid chemicals like the plague. Go to a health store and get a natural shampoo, take hair vitamins and don`t put stress on your hair.
That`s what I keep telling people - leaving chemicals on your hair often seems to do nothing bad, but it can result in disaster. I said it before and I`ll say it again - Oprah once lost ALL her hair after a perm. Think of it - you put a foreign, caustic substance on your head. That is in my mind bound to COURT disaster. Really, the people who invented perming ought to have gotten an award for the most frivolous invention of the year. :D
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