Long straight to long curly?

I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but you will probably get better results from curling it yourself every night (using sponge rollers or something like that, curling it wet and with styling products, and letting it dry.  Rolling the rollers vertically on your head should help it come out in spirals). 

Since your curls fell out the last 2 times you got perms, its possible your hair will just do the same the next time. I'm kind of assuming you were younger when it went too curly and older when the curl fell out?  If not, then maybe there's hope for a perm.  Hair tends to change as one gets older, and it maybe that your hair just won't hold perms that well any more.  Mine is like that, it'll only be curly for the first week, then fall to barely wavy, and I'd have all that damage for nothing).  That's the main reason I discourage you, perms are SO damaging, and you have such long hair that you obviously want to keep, it would be a shame if you got that done only to have the curls fall out again.  Good luck though, I hope you can achieve what you are looking for.

Hi CM, and welcome! 

You've had your hair permed 3 times, and it's past your waist.  How is the condition?  For most people, it's a trade-off between long hair (waist-length or longer), or permed/styled hair.  The harsh chemical processing can weaken the strands and make them brittle and fragile.  Anyway, I'm sorry to hear you haven't yet gotten the look you've sought.  I've read about a technique for perming long hair wherein different sizes of rollers are used on the same section of hair, in an attempt to approach uniformity of curl from root to ends.  I wonder if that might work?  Of course, a stylist experienced in perming all lengths of hair should know what to do.

Hi CM,

Your stylist doesn't sound very technically competent.

Let me guess -- when you went to the salon 3 years ago, you hadn't planned on donating your hair.  Am I correct?

While it is noble that you donated your hair, the charity you mentioned is not deserving.  Better to sell it or hang onto it for a keepsake, instead, because that charity only makes or repairs enough hairpieces to use 1% of the hair donations they receive.  They sell a lot of the hair given to them -- their cash reserves are rising steadily; and they sell most of the hairpieces they make (they require payment on what they describe as a "sliding scale" which means, the more the family earns, the more they pay).

Glad to hear you like the Aussie products.  Regarding your request, I might suggest going to Sally Beauty (or the like) and ask them if they have what you're looking for.

your hair sounds perfect for sock curls.Anais's site has a tutorial how to do them,plus they give beautiful results. Hope the link works.My computer doesnt want to do links for some reason.If the pic link doesnt work just type in Medusa's lair and it will be the first page.

Edited by Longhairdreams - October 12 2006 at 11:43am