question about root perm

Hi,

I spent several hours with Shelley Pryor this morning getting my quarterly highlights done. As an aside I should mention that Shelley does my highlights at 7:00 am. Because I work 7 days a week, 20 hours a day, she works around my schedule and lets me show up with cell phone, notebook, whatever while she pulls my hair through the cap. I am only mentioning this because many stylists will be flexible if you ask them about starting early or working later. Shelley has done my hair at all hours of the day and she is really great about understanding my crazy schedule.

At any rate, I just received a similar question about root perms and I asked Shelley her opinion. As Shelley explained, hair usually needs to be long enough to take a perm rod for either the root or spiral perms. Yes, you can apply the perm solution to pin curls but of course you won`t get the same results.

Spiral curls would probably require an absolute minimum of 3 inches. Again it depends on how long the smallest perm rods are that are used to wrap spiral curls but anything less than 3 inches seem risky for any reasonable results. To get satisfactory results you would probably need at least 6 inches.

The other side of the coin is that hair can be too long to take spiral curls well. It can also be too thick. So again, a lot depends on the expertise of the perm expert. Some may be able to work with the bare minimum of hair, others may require a little longer length to help with the rolling.

As far as root perms, Shelley said you would probably need at least 3 inches.

Each stylist you talk to will have different opinons so it is key to get consultations or at least call perm experts on the phone and ask their opinions. However, that should give you a general idea.

Best wishes,
Karen