Top 5 Tips to Care for Your Permed Hair
A perm hairstyle adds curls and volume to your hair. However, it needs extra care to maintain its appearance.
These proper care tips can keep the curls looking great and keep your hair healthy and strong. Here are the top 5 tips for permed hair.
Avoid Perming Your Hair After Colouring It
Perming your hair is a chemical process that alters its structure, making it more susceptible to damage. Adding another chemical treatment, like hair colouring, can weaken your hair. Combining perming and colouring can cause hair to become dry, brittle, and overall poor health.
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Why It's Important
- Chemical Stress: Perming and colouring can damage your hair by removing its natural moisture and weakening its structure.
- Double Damage: Two treatments can damage your hair. This can lead to split ends and breakage.
- Care Required: The management of permed hair is already hard enough. Colouring can complicate everything and add to the time and effort spent in caring for your hair.
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Do this instead
Wait at least a month after perming before colouring your hair. This way, your hair gets some time to recover.
Natural colouring methods—like natural henna—are kinder to your hair. Opt for highlights or lowlights instead of getting a full head of colour.
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Be Gentle with the Shampoo
To wash your permed hair, shampoo it gently. Harsh shampoos strip your hair of natural oils and leave it dry and brittle, making it harsh on your hair.
Why It's Important- Curl Preservation: Vigorous shampooing will loosen your curls and make your hair frizzy.
- Gentle Shampoo: Using a gentle shampoo helps spread oils in your hair, keeping it moisturised and looking healthy.
- Reduced Breakage: Gently handling hair makes it less prone to breakage, which is common for treated hair.
- Use a sulphate-free shampoo and one meant for curly or treated hair.
- Dilute your shampoo with water to reduce its concentration and harshness on hair.
- Massage your scalp gently with your fingertips instead of rubbing your hair in between your palms.
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Deep Condition
Deep conditioning is key to the health and look of permed hair.
Why It's Important- Hydration: Permed hair is usually drier than non-permed hair.
- Deep conditioning: can help add moisture back to your hair.
- Strength: Conditioning treatments deliver strength to your hair, making it much more resilient to breakage.
- Shine: Deep-conditioned hair boasts a natural shine that complements your curls.
Use a deep conditioning mask or treatment once a week. The even application should cover from the root to the tips, and leave it on for at least 20 minutes. To help absorption, apply a shower cap over the hair and apply heat over it with a hairdryer.
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Pat, Don't Rub
How you towel-dry your hair after washing it goes a long way to determine the health and look of your hair.
Rubbing your hair with your towel promotes friction and, in turn, encourages frizz and breakage. Instead, patting your hair dry is a gentler way to handle your hair and maintain the integrity of your curls.
Why It's Important- To Control Frizz: Rubbing is known to disrupt the curl pattern and lead to the formation of frizz.
- Reduced Damage: Plopping your hair reduces the mechanical damage that occurs when drying your hair.
- Proof of Curl: Gently drying will help your hair to hold shape and definition.
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Proper Hair Drying Techniques
Use a microfiber towel or a soft cotton t-shirt while patting your hair dry. Wring out the excess water by actually pressing the towel to your hair. Never rub a towel over your hair to dry it; this will cause further tangles and breakage.
Avoid Tight HairstylesPonytails and buns can damage permed hair, causing breakage and loss of curls because of the tightness of the hairstyles. A loose hairstyle will ensure that your hair is always healthy and looks fabulous.
Why It's Important- Stress Reduction: Tight hairstyles can put a lot of stress on single hair strands, leading to breakage.
- Retained Curl: Looser, relaxed styles will allow your curls to appear in their natural texture and shape.
- Scalp Health: Lessening tension on your scalp will prevent irritation and potential hair loss.
Loose ponytails or buns with scrunchies and soft hair bands are good to try. Wear your hair in loose, gentle braids or ponytails. Leave the hair free whenever possible to reduce the amount of tension applied.
Conclusion
Permed hair looks great when kept healthy, and your effort will be well paid off. To keep your hair healthy, avoid colouring it. Be gentle when washing your hair. Use a deep conditioner weekly.
Pat your hair dry gently. Avoid tight hairstyles. Follow these tips for permed hair, and you can have fabulous curls with strong, healthy hair.
After perming, if you are suffering excessive hair loss then consider seeking professional advice. When looking for hair treatment make sure you take treatment that treats your hair loss from the root.
At Dr Batra's®, Our hair doctors take the time to understand your medical history, lifestyle, and regular habits. They thoroughly examine the root cause of your hair loss and create a personalised treatment plan just for you. Join 1.5M satisfied hair patients with a 96.6% success rate in hair growth. Contact us for more information.