Chapter 6 - Perms, waves and curls
Some fifty years ago, only the bravest of the fair ventured into dungeon-like beauty parlors to submit to the tortures of Mr. Nessler's new-fangled invention—the permanent wave. Swoons from the fumes were the order of the day, and the heaters which hung down from the red-hot "Iron Maiden" were so heavy only a few curls could be administered at a time.
After a full day of exquisite agony, a lady made her way into the light and took the first trolley or carriage home to show off her newly-acquired scalp burns or perhaps even a bald spot or two.
It was not at all unusual for a pad to be baked right on the victim's hair. When this occurred, the highly unskilled operator hit the heater with a hammer, then pried the pad loose with a nutcracker. Whether or not the lady's hair came off with the pad was up to the gods.
And for this valiantly acquired steel wool the ladies gladly paid as much as one hundred dollars a curl.
Today's permanents are a treatment as well as a wave and contain just about everything from milk, olive oil and a vitamin called F to ingredients so secret only their formulating chemists know exactly what they are.
There are "moisturizer" permanents to prevent dryness and frizz, "protein" permanents to prevent brittleness and breaks, and new "low alkaline" permanents to "prevent permanent-wave shock on frazzled hair which never could have been waved before."
There are permanents for tinted hair, dyed hair, bleached hair, damaged hair, lighter than ash-blonde hair, sun-bleached hair, and even permanents for normal hair —not to overlook the omnipresent body permanent.
Or as a spokesman for one of the three major permanent-wave manufacturers explains, "With forty million women now coloring their hair, the industry has had to change radically in the past five years. A normal head of hair doesn't exist anymore."
Today, when a woman gets a permanent what she's really paying for is to look as though she had never had one. A few years ago she expected to wait at least two weeks before her hair settled down to something manageable. Now, a permanent-wave expert can make her hair look touched only by nature the very first day.
The answer is the body permanent. Body perms are recommended to discipline coarse hair, to give fine hair the illusion of more bulk, and to keep straight hair from looking lank even when you are planning to wear your hair in a perfectly straight style.
But ask twelve stylists what body is, and you get twelve different definitions, ranging from elasticity to resilience.
Fortunately, the principle of the permanent is a very simple one. The Egyptians almost had it although they didn't know the chemical and physical whys and wherefores. Ladies of the Nile wrapped their hair around small sticks, covered the whole with mud and then sat out in the sun to bake. Their curls and waves usually lasted until the first damp breeze came in off the river.
Pick a hair, any hair. Now immerse it in water. It may be difficult to observe but healthy hair is capable of holding up to one-third of its weight in added moisture.
Take another hair, moisten it, and roll it around a pencil as you stretch. When it dries, the resulting curl will have exactly the same diameter as the pencil and will hold its shape until remoistened.
Healthy hair, then, has two qualities which make the water wave and the permanent possible. It is elastic. It holds moisture. Hair derives its elasticity from its simple chemical structure—mostly keratin protein molecules, each of which is physiochemically attracted to the next to form chains as long as your hair. Hair cannot be curled until this linkage is dissolved. Water temporarily relaxes the natural affinity. Chemicals dissolve the bonds for even longer periods, then reform them with a minimum of damage.
Actually, a permanent and a gelatin dessert have much in common. Add water to gelatin and you break down the attractive forces between the gelatin bits, thus causing them to separate. A mold shapes the dessert as the curler shapes your hair. Air, water or another chemical sets a curl. The cold air of your refrigerator makes the gelatin take the shape of the mold.
By combining the wig makers' art of waving hair with a hot alkali solution and the principle of Marcel's curling iron, Nessler created the first permanent-wave machine. The action of steam in the presence of alkali softened the hair. The shape of the curlers inside the heaters waved it. In 1930, the first cold wave was introduced. It achieved the same results as Nessler's machine, but at room temperature. This new method not only eliminated discomfort and scalp burns, it also made it possible for stylists to wave hair nearer the scalp and give a more lasting wave. Then in 1940, thioglyconate, still used as the active principle, was introduced.
As important as the chemistry of the cold wave is its simple basic physics. Both the diameter of the curler and the diameter of the hair being curled determine the tightness of the resultant curl.
Diameter Of The Curler: The larger the curler, the looser the wave; the tighter the curler, the tighter the wave. When properly rolled on healthy hair, the diameter of the curl should be the same as that of the curler.
Large curlers also produce less tension on hair than smaller curlers. And since all conditions which increase strain on hair also increase the speed of permanent waving, professional stylists adjust the amount of tension they put on each curl as they roll. For example, they put more tension on coarse hair than they would on fine hair.
Diameter Of Hair: Coarse hair, with a more abundant supply of cortex—the hair's inner layer—has a larger diameter than fine hair. While coarse hair is initially more difficult to wave—it requires a stronger permanent wave lotion—it eventually takes a longer-lasting curl, thanks to its ample cortex. Fine hair requires only the gentlest of lotions, but straightens more rapidly because it lacks adequate cortex support.
There are several essential steps to a fine permanent wave:
1. A detergent or equally effective shampoo which will remove all obstructive film from the hair.
2. Proper sectioning.
3. Correct wrapping with just the right amount of tension.
4. A rinse to remove excess lotion.
5. A neutralizer to remove any leftover lotion and completely halt waving action. Certain types of waving lotion—pin curl permanents excluded—when left on too long can completely dissolve hair.
6. A final rinse.
7. No rearrangement of hair—and definitely not with a wet comb—until several hours after the comb-out of your finished style.
Which Permanent Wave Is For You?
FINE HAIR: While most experts recommend the gentlest solution, large curlers and a salon permanent, Miss Renee, Charles of the Ritz permanent expert, advocates smaller curlers, gently rolled, for a more lasting permanent. When well rolled, she assures, there will be no frizz.
COARSE HAIR: Takes the strongest lotion and the best wave of all.
TINTED OR BLEACHED HAIR: With too strong a permanent-wave solution, hair can go almost straight. Exceptionally fine and fragile, slightly bleached, tinted or damaged hair requires a 25 per cent dilution of average-strength waving lotion. Average bleached, tinted or extremely porous hair requires a 50 per cent dilution.
LIMP HAIR: More than normally porous, it requires a gentle wave lotion as hair is easily penetrated. Overper-manented, it can go straight and it is seriously damaged by too-strong solutions.
STRAIGHT HAIR: Set in smartly draped and swirled styles, it also demands a body permanent to keep it from drooping. Victor Sabatino, a permanent-wave expert, says straight hair should be permanented close to the scalp to make it look attractively stand-offish. Be patient, however; try more than one permanent until you find the one which does the most for your texture and condition of hair.
Treatments
Before you get a permanent wave, you will probably need a conditioning, corrective or protective treatment.
Conditioning Treatment: Necessary for dry, faded, abused, limp, fine, fragile, bleached, tinted or over-processed hair. Applied with a heat cap, they are designed to penetrate hair shafts, remain there and strengthen them. Also recommended for hair which will not take or hold a permanent wave.
Protective Treatment: Applied to ends of hair which have remains of a previous permanent, bleach or tipping. And then there are the special types of permanent wave:
Protein Lotion: Hair is almost 100 per cent protein and a sizable percentage is destroyed in the waving process. Protein waves are formulated to put back what the normal waving process removes.
Olive-Oil Lotions: Helps lubricate hairs as they curl.
Moisturizing Lotion: Does for your hair what moisturizers do for the skin; puts back youth-giving moisture.
Low-Alkali Lotion: Is more gentle to hair and scalp with its acid mantle.
If your permanent does not last as long in the summer as it does in the winter, you have humidity working against you. Some shops advertise dehumidity perms which may make waves last longer in hot, humid weather.
Most permanents are given over the entire head. But there are also end permanents for long-haired styles like pageboys and spot permanents for bangs, etc. Especially popular in these days of smooth, sleek styles are under permanents. These work the same way a starched petticoat does. Only under layers are waved to bolster the smoother, straighter hair on top.
