JerkyFlea, William ... advice

> Is it okay to re-perm hair? I had a friend do my perm> about a week and a half ago and I wound up with a flat> top with a little curl at the end. The bottom also was> straight. How soon can I re-perm it and do you suggest> that I use a gentle perm solution this next time?To S.L.;It is possible to reperm hair that has been recently 'permed' ONLY if the hair is in excellent condition and not severely 'porous'. In perming the hair, certain tests should always be done before perming; 1) a porosity test to check the 'ability of the hair to absorb the waving solution', 2) a pull test to test the strength of the hair, and finally a determination of what 'type' of hair you have now and what the finished results will be after the perm. Sometimes a persons hair will 'just not perm' no matter what you do to it. This is rare, but does happen. To check for 'porosity' take a clean dry hair and lay it on the surface of a warm(not hot) cup of water, if the hair is 'normal' it will start to sink after a while(it is soaking up water through the pores of the hair surface). If it sinks rapidly it is 'very porus' and if it just sits on the surface and does not sink, it is 'very resistant', and will be difficult or impossible to perm properly. If the hair breaks easily when pulled between your two hands with two fingers and will not return to its original length when slowly stretched plus about 10%, several times, it is not healthy enough to perm. On long hair always check along the entire length of the hair strand, on both tests, to check for varying degrees of porosity/strength. A 'perm insurance' product is used to 'level' out the porosity during the wrapping proceedure to provide proper protection to this type of hair. I would suggest a pro's touch here to keep from severely damaging the hair, and this is no guarrantee of a good job unless you find a very experienced pro WHO CARES about your hair.(A hard thing to do!) As for reasons for your perm not taking properly, 1) wrapping too much hair on the rod, over wetting the hair with water when wrapping,(only barely damp, please), wrong formula perm for the hair type, improper saturation of the hair with perm solution, improper rinsing of the hair between steps, not enough 'blotting' between rinsing out the perm solution and neutralizing. I usually reccomend a two week wait between perming, in a situation like this, If you do the tests beforehand, the 'second attempt is usually not needed! william