Perm Resistant Hair

Twisty perm rods — Photo: Sascha Preussner/Shutterstock

Q: I got a perm at a salon using spongy, twisty rods (I don't know exactly what they're called) and it looked great the day and day after the perm. After that, it started coming out in the back and at the ends. They were completely straight. I didn't wash it too soon, comb it or do anything that would cause it to straighten. My salon called a couple days later to see how I liked it and I told her what happened.

She immediately made another appointment, at no charge, to fix my hair. When I went in, my stylist said my hair looked very healthy (it was before the perm too) and recommended a piggy-back perm with small, hard rods this time. Everything went well and my hair looked great and even curlier than the first perm.

By the end of the day, I could see that it was coming out again! My hair has never been hard to perm. What could cause one's hair to be so resistant to a perm when it never has been before?

A: There could be problems caused by a number of factors. Ranging from environmental contaminants to the fact that sometimes the ends of the hair wears out from repetitive styling. If your hair is permed often, then look at the fact that the last few inches of the hair will have been permed many, many more times than the hair at the top of the head.

It may simply be a matter of the ends of the hair becoming "worn out" from styling damage. Being unable to visually examine the hair myself and not knowing everything in your life that could cause such a problem, I can only offer this as a possible cause.

The stylist's initial reaction was probably that the previous wrap of the perm service had resulted in the ends not being fully saturated by the perm solution and that the piggy back wrap would allow the hair to be more evenly saturated.

This was a good attempt, but if even this has not been successful, it may mean that your hair needs to be trimmed to remove the dead ends.

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See also: Perms