new here...? for William or other hair pro......

> Hi Everyone...great site. I have long hair,3/4 down to> my waist. It is naturally dk. brown w/ lots of grey,> but it is colored...a biege-ish medium blond. I used> to keep it permed, ringlet-type thing, but have grown> the perm out and wear it straight now. If I let it> air-dry, it is kind of wavy, but not curly. I do not> like this look on me. So, if I am going to wear it> down, which I often do, I have to blow it out which> takes a long time since my hair is very thick and> heavy. I like it after blowing it out, but it is hard> work. And I do miss curls.Here's my question: What is> more damaging....perming colored hair or blowing it> out almost daily? (And I smooth the ends w/ a large> iron...)Oh yes, the hair is all one length. Thanks in> advance for any input. *jen*To Jen;I am assuming that you have used a permanent hair color to achieve several levels of 'lift' to get to the current color that you have now. With the considerable amounts of grey that you have and to continue to keep the 'lighter' color this is damaging in various degrees. I can't tell from your post if this is the first time you have colored your hair or if it has been done several times. The perming of long hair to start with is something that anyone thinking about having it done should approach carefully. And even more so if the hair has been colored. Today there are many good perms on the market for 'colored' hair, that just simply were non existant a few years ago. The real problem with long permed hair and coloring is not the process itsself, but finding the right very experienced pro to do it for you. You should search out the most experienced pro that you can find, don't settle for a quick phone call to find out 'if they do long hair', get some references, ask someone that you like their hair. Many stylists new to the trade are dying to get their hands on a long healthy head of hair to work on. Unfortunatly, their enthusasiam is usually accompanied by lack of true experience with this length of hair, much less colored and 'longer' hair. I know that I am going to catch a lot of flak over this statement from young stylists. However, getting a more 'experienced older stylist' is certainly not a guarrantee of good results either. What you need is a 'Long Hair Specialist'. Someone who has a passion for creating beautiful curls, colors and cuts on longer hair. This is a hard person to find, but if you search hard enough, it will be worthwhile. This is not to knock stylists as a whole, but to encourage you to commit to the search. Most stylists are competant to do common lengths of hair down to midlengths, but when long, thick, colored hair comes into play, the techniques for protecting and insuring the results of coloring, perming and even cutting this type of hair changes greatly due to varying porosity, age of the hair, and amounts of grey, to name a few. The winding of the hair onto the perm rods is very important in doing long hair perms, much thinner partings, piggybacking of different size of rods to compensate for the 'weight' of the hair and how it affects the overall percieved 'look' of the finished perm are a few things the stylist must take into consideration. This is a time consuming process and is expensive. However I need to shut up and let someone else state their views. I personally believe that a 'properly done' perm and coloring is less hard on the hair than all of the 'hot, heat styling' that you currently put your hair through now, daily. The easiest thing for your hair, in my opinion, would be to go back to your 'natural color 'level' with Redken Shades, toning it to suit your tastes, and then perming it, doing the perm first, and always retouching/reperming only the new growth, and reperming the entire length maybe once every 10-12 months, refreshing the Shades as ness to cover the grey and to take care of new growth. When properly done on your length of hair, with a very light layering cut,with a piggyback perm, the hair can be towel dried, apply only a very small amount of spray gel and tossed into place only with the fingers, will literally fall into place with almost no blowdrying.william

> Hi Everyone...great site. I have long hair,3/4 down to> my waist. It is naturally dk. brown w/ lots of grey,> but it is colored...a biege-ish medium blond. I used> to keep it permed, ringlet-type thing, but have grown> the perm out and wear it straight now. If I let it> air-dry, it is kind of wavy, but not curly. I do not> like this look on me. So, if I am going to wear it> down, which I often do, I have to blow it out which> takes a long time since my hair is very thick and> heavy. I like it after blowing it out, but it is hard> work. And I do miss curls.Here's my question: What is> more damaging....perming colored hair or blowing it> out almost daily? (And I smooth the ends w/ a large> iron...)Oh yes, the hair is all one length. Thanks in> advanceTHANK YOU WILLIAM AND PAULA!!!!!!