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How Does A Perm Work?

How Does A Perm Work?

how does a perm work | Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser Trigg Scarborough Northe Beach Karrinyup Carine

Ever asked yourself how does a perm work?

Well wether you wondered or not, today’s post will answer this question.

I have previously described how we can temporarily reshape the hair through styling by changing the physical (otherwise known as the temporary) bonds of the hair with heat or moisture into the desired shape. What if we wanted a permanent curl or to remove the curl to create straigtness, from the hair for good?

Yes that’s right, a “perm” can be used to straighten curly hair too!

When we curl or straighten the hair permanently we also work with bonds in the hair. Instead of the physical ones, we work on the chemical ones. We wind the hair and place in the shape we wish it to take, for example different sized rollers for alternative shapes or flat boards for straighness. Then we apply a solution that literally breaks apart the hairs chemical bonds.

Once enough bonds have broken, the hair is rinsed for approximately 10 minutes to remove the solution from the hair. In addition to this, the oxygen from the water starts the rebonding process which creates the curl shape, then a new solution called neutraliser, is applied to make the new shape permanent.

It’s sounds aggressive because it is!

We literally break the hair apart to reshape so there is always at least a little loss of moisture and/or strength, as well as breaking of bonds that do not reconnect.

I bet not many of you have perms these days but it’s important to know that these bonds in the hair can be sensitised by too much colouring, bad home care and also your styling regime.

The good news is that we now have special bond treatments in salon to help protect them at the time of colouring/perming as well as being able to upkeep at home to help prevent all that damage that happens at home.

I will share more about bond treatments next time but for today I hope you enjoyed the answer to ‘How Does A Perm Work?’

If you’d like to book an appointment to give your hair some love I’d be happy to talk through it’s current condition as part of your initial consultation. All the details to make a booking can be found here.

I guess the really important thing to tell you though is that I don’t offer perms of any type!

Understand Why Your Curls Drop

Maintaining Hair Styles – Understand Why Your Curls Drop!

Understand Why Your Curls Drop | Sam Macdonald Hair | Hairdresser Trigg North Beach Scarborough Karrinyup | Maintaining Hair Styles

Do you remember when the weekly set was a thing? Hard to imagine a curly style that would last you a week these days isn’t it?

If you’re a lover of curls then you’ve probably often asked why they can drop out when you’ve put in so much effort to get them in your hair in the first place.

In today’s post I’ll help you understand why your curls drop out.

When we style hair there are 2 things that effect us getting a temporary change in the hair in terms of style.

Firstly hot to cold.

Think hot rollers for example, they start off hot and we put them in dry hair until the rollers are completely cool and woo hoo, we have curls or waves. In some hair types this will only last a day, if that, and we do get a great style for a short time. Another example of this is our straightener we use for curling, we use a hot straighter to style into the shape we like, let it cool and we have waves.

Now think back to our weekly set which is lasting a whole week…

The second way of holding a shape in hair is wet to dry.

When we do a set, we roll wet hair into a curl shape and dry it on the roller, this is a stronger result than the hot to cold option and therefore lasts longer.

The reason for all of this is we are reshaping what we call the physical bonds of the hair. Physical just means temporary because as soon as we wet our hair we have to start all over again.

Now you can see why a permanent wave is called a perm, short for permanent.

Hope that has helped you understand why your curls drop out.

If you’d like to book an appointment to give your hair some love I’d be happy to talk through it’s current condition as part of your initial consultation. All the details to make a booking can be found here.

Hair Loss

Hair Loss Facts!

Sam Macdonald Hair | Hair Loss Facts | Hairdresser Trigg North Beach Scarborough Karrinyup

Hair loss!

We all occasionally suffer from a bit of hair loss and I thought I would share a few of the reasons why…

At any one time, approximately 10% of our hair is in Telogen, which is the phase where I can fall out easily with no pain as its ready to come out.

Sometimes when we have a big shock or major stress in our lives, it can show up approximately 10 weeks after the event as extra hair loss. This is because it takes that long from where the hair begins to grow to falling out. We call this Telogen effluvium and is because the hairs natural growing phases are impacted. This condition will fix itself with time though can happen repeatedly if you don’t look after yourself.

Sometimes hair loss can be caused by external elements and happens at the other ends of the hair from the roots, that’s right we call it breakage and is usually caused by to much heat, chemicals and not enough good hair care. I will go into this one further next week.

In summary, these are just a few of the main reasons for some hair loss but there are many more related to hormones.

If you ever want to discuss concerns with me, please contact me to book a time and if I can’t assist you, I do know a specialist that can help.