A perm for afro-textured hair.

[ebzonix]

There's always a confusion between a relaxer and perm when I'm talking to some of my friends and family about hair. All the time they call a relaxer a perm, when a perm is a chemical way of making your hair curly, correct? Well, if I'm wrong someone please inform me; and that leads me to my question. If your hair is already natural and curly, but you want more curls, what would a perm do to your already curly curl pattern?

 

[Forever in Bloom]

Perm is short for permanent. If we did perm our hair, we'd be making our curls more permanent instead of relaxing them away

 

[DSP]

Perms don't make your hair curly. The perm solution (ammonium thioglycolate) breaks the hair's sulfur bonds just like a relaxer (sodium hydroxide) does, but it's liquid and can saturate hair wrapped around a perm rod. Once you apply the perm neutralizing solution, it re-hardens the hair's bonds to the shape of whatever sized perm rods you're using. The bigger the rod's diameter, the larger the curl pattern.

Some people with type 2 or 3 curls use thio perm solution without the perm rods to straighten their curls. They just saturate the hair with perm solution, comb the hair straight, let it process, then neutralize. Since perm solution is so light and won't weigh down the hair, it's not an effective way to straighten tightly curled hair.

 

[Solitude]

good info!

 

[anon123]

Perms don't make your hair curly. The perm solution (ammonium thioglycolate) breaks the hair's sulfur bonds just like a relaxer (sodium hydroxide) does, but it's liquid and can saturate hair wrapped around a perm rod. Once you apply the perm neutralizing solution, it re-hardens the hair's bonds to the shape of whatever sized perm rods you're using. The bigger the rod's diameter, the larger the curl pattern.

Some people with type 2 or 3 curls use thio perm solution without the perm rods to straighten their curls. They just saturate the hair with perm solution, comb the hair straight, let it process, then neutralize. Since perm solution is so light and won't weigh down the hair, it's not an effective way to straighten tightly curled hair.

I still use "perm" too. It is a perm, a permanent. I might call them straight perms or curly perms. But like DSP said, I think they are fundamentally the same thing. It breaks down and reforms the bonds either way. Just with a straight one you smooth the hair straight so that the shape is formed is for straighter hair, while with a curly one you put the hair on rollers so that the shape that is formed is a curled one.

 

[ravenmerlita]

Perms don't make your hair curly. The perm solution (ammonium thioglycolate) breaks the hair's sulfur bonds just like a relaxer (sodium hydroxide) does, but it's liquid and can saturate hair wrapped around a perm rod. Once you apply the perm neutralizing solution, it re-hardens the hair's bonds to the shape of whatever sized perm rods you're using. Some people with type 2 or 3 curls use thio perm solution without the perm rods to straighten their curls. The just saturate the hair with perm solution, comb the hair straight, let it process, then neutralize.

For years I thought of the relaxer/perm difference as described by the OP. Then I started looking for an alternative gentler option to straighten my hair and came across "straight perms" based on thio or cysteamine. I do wonder how the words relaxer and perm became so commonly used to signify getting your hair straight or curly, when that is not necessarily the case.

 

[Neith]

This discussion reminds me of that member that texturized her hair while she was wearing mini twists. It came out looking like a twistout.

Still, even though they are similar and can technically do the same thing, they are used differently and usually contain different active ingredients. So for me, a perm is a perm and a relaxer is a relaxer.