Hair Raising Results

Last night was the big night. I had an appointment last night to get my hair done. Before I left I made sure to take a photo for a "before" photo. Unfortunately I hadn't really done anything to my hair but I figured that it would still be a decent representation of my natural hair.

I went to my regular stylist, Devin, at Design One
and brought in two photos from the ones that I posted. The two photos that received the most votes were #1 and #3. I showed them to Devin and we discussed that she would do her best but that it probably wouldn't look exactly like the photo.

After hearing about her experience with a perm last year and failed expectations, I decided to still take the plunge. I promised her that if I hated it, I wouldn't blame her and that if everyone else hated it I wouldn't tell them that Devin did it.

Her assistant (I totally forgot her name and feel terrible that I did) took me to the sinks and washed my hair. Then I had to sit there with a stripping agent on my hair for 5 minutes waiting for my hair to become "virgin". Basically it got all the build up and crap out of my hair.

Then I was taken to the color/perm area. There were a couple of other women that were getting their hair colored but I was the only one getting a perm.

One thing that happened that I thought was interesting was that one of the local news anchorwomen (Susan something) came in while I was there to get her highlights done. People always say that TV personalities look better or worse in person. She looked exactly the same.

Devin started to roll my hair into the perm rods. I was looking at a People magazine and talking about random people in the magazine. We discussed which celebrities we thought were beautiful and which ones we thought were train wrecks. I think that this point I told Devin that I had changed my mind and wanted to go with a Britney buzz cut. She laughed and said "I'm not doing it".

Finally the rolling was done and Devin's assitant was kind enough to take photos. I told her that I planned on putting them on my blog and she thought that was pretty cool that I has a blog.

Up to this point, most all of it was fun and games. Now the smelly part began. I had forgotten how foul a perm solution smelled. I had to sit in the noxious fumes for 20 minutes. Poor Devin is 3 months pregnant and kept having to walk away because the fumes didn't sit well with her. I totally empathized with her as I had REALLY strong aversions to some odors (garlic among them) when I was pregnant.

Then came the wet part. Devin's assitant had to rinse my head with the hottest water I could stand for five minutes. I swear I thought I was going to get blisters. I was able to tolerate it though and fortunately came away with no blisters. I did end up getting a slight chemical burn on my forehead so it was slightly red where the cotton had been but it is already gone.

Five more minutes with the setting solution, another 5 minute rinse and it was all done. They took out the rods and then I went to my final chair station and Devin cut my hair, shaped it and diffused it until it was about ½ dry. A bit of hairspray and some curl restore stuff and I was all done.

At first I was worried that it might turn out too curly.

I should never have worried though. Devin has been doing my hair for at least 4 years and knows it almost as well as I do.

I ended up spending $170 including tip for a perm, cut, style, diffuser and 1 product. I think that it was worth every penny.

P.S. You can click on the photos to get a close-up shot to see more detail.