Is there any way to GET RID of a perm? I’ve recently had a crisis with my stylist, and now I look like that girl from Felicity! I tried washing my hair repeatedly the day I got the perm. No luck. Can anyone help me? I can’t wear a hat forever!
“Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true” -Albert Einstein
Sure. Snip. 
Your Quadell
I had a perm once that turned bad on me. I just waited a couple of weeks and the hair naturally “relaxed.”
I have heard (don’t know if these people were pulling my leg though) some women say that they ironed their hair to make it straight. Of course, that might be inadvisable to do with permed hair.
I can help you.
What you’ve gotta do is go to the drugstore and get yourself a cheap perm. Then, you basically give yourself another perm, but without the curlers.
Squirt the stinky perm solution on your hair, and then GENTLY comb through with a wide-tooth comb. As you comb, your permed curls will relax. (This is a drippy process, by the way).
Once you’ve got all your curls combed out, rinse your hair, and apply the neutralizer solution. Wait five minutes and shampoo. Voila! Perm gone.
Note that you are following one chemical process with another chemical process, so you want to be gentle when you comb. And if it’s already ‘fried’ on the ends (all split up and gnarly), then you may want to wait a while before doing this.
I’ve had more than a few of those poodle perms inflicted on me before. My hair takes a curl very fast, and if they leave it on the normal length of time, WHAMMO.
Heavy conditioners help, regularly. Lots. Find some that you can leave in as well. Wash it daily. Use conditioner every time.
Don’t cut it yet, especially if your hair is long, or the curl will get WORSE (unless, of course, you just shave your head). The weight of your hair can pull a perm down and out, but when you shorten the hair, it allows it to bounce and spring and cause all sorts of havoc.
Anyone know if Time4Trim is on this board? She’s usually great with help like this.
Your best bet is to seek out another stylist.
You shouldn’t use a chemical treatment too soon after another. Someone that has been trained in this will know how to best “treat” your do with minimal damage. You would hate to end up with no hair…
Or maybe you could just put on a stylish collar and a sweater?
Is that French poodle cut?
Try the store & see if they have any straighteners, it wouldn’t surprise me if they do.
In general, this is true. You shouldn’t color or bleach out your hair right before or after a perm.
This, however, is slightly different. If you use a perm solution to gently pull the curl from your hair, you are likely to do little damage. The chemical will not be on your head for more than five or ten minutes–the time it takes for you to comb gently through. Rinsing thoroughly and neutralizing stops all the chemical action. (Neutralizer, by the way, is a diluted solution of conditioners and hydrogen peroxide–very gentle to your hair.)
No. A straightener contains the very same chemicals as a perm, (most often it’s thioglycolic acid) only much stronger. You don’t need that strength, and it could be very damaging.
I tried to get a perm once. It didn’t take and I went back to have her redo it.
The bitch stylist was mad that I was asking her to do it over and admitted afterward that “I should have had an afro after what she did to my hair” but it still came out straight as a board.
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The OP took me back to 4th grade, when the poodle perm was actually in fashion. Still hated it.
If by “bad”, you mean too much curl, before applying more chemicals or going to yet another stylist, try to find one of those curling iron thingies with the brush-blow feature. These things will really smooth out curls and frizz.
Or do the extra conditioning (or hot oil treatment).
If you decide to try the blower thing, use Therma-Silk shampoo and conditioner – it’s great.
You have my sympathy. Good stylists are hard to find. My favorite just got divorced and moved 200 miles away.
Thank you, everyone!!!
“Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true” -Albert Einstein
If you follow the combing out the perm using more solution technique, be VERY careful NOT to comb your hair flat aginst your head pull it straight, or make finger waves so that it relaxes while it is up off your scalp.
Life can be just as terrible when you look like Kramer with a low-flow shower head.
Trust me. I know.
That should read
If you follow the combing out the perm using more solution technique, be VERY careful NOT to comb your hair flat aginst your head**.**
Pull it straight, or make finger waves so that it relaxes while it is up off your scalp.
Two words: Sinead O’Connor.
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Get one of those little diamond chokers. 
Yours truly,
aha
Here I am! I suggest you go back and talk to your stylist. I am against people doing any corrections on their hair by themselves for these reasons: 1) professional products are different from what is sold in stores, so if you use one on top of another they may not “mesh” and you may have problems.
In fact, when people have something done somewhere else and don’t like it and come to us for help, we urge them to go back to whoever did it. If they refuse to do that, then we tell them that we’ll help them but can’t guarantee the results.
DO NOT use a store bought straightener. As a poster said, the chemicals are strong and very different from perms and you’re pretty much asking for trouble.
I cannot tell you how many people I’ve had to help because they tried to fix things and were worse off than before they tried to do anything about it (I could write a book on color corrections alone!).
So, my advice is to go back to the stylist. I’ve had perms take too well. It happens. Every head is different and if a stylist has never done your hair before, the first time doing a perm is almost trial and error (note I said “almost”). I don’t get mad when they come back for that reason (or if the opposite happened and it didn’t take).
MaryAnn
“I don’t care if it’s the queen!”