curious

I  have really long fine STRAIGHT hair (and i do mean straight!) and i want to get a perm. The only problem is that for some reason my hair will NOT hold a perm.=( I've tried having it permed  three differant times but within three or four days it no longer had curls. It would be thicker though. I was wondering if anybody else has this problem and if maybe some kind of wave or whatever it's called will work?? I thought about trying tighter curls but i don't know how that would turn out either.