Expert: Dana Sear - 6/25/2009

Question
Dear Dana
I have recently had my hair permed and it has gone drasically wrong. I ask the salon to do me a very loose wavy perm and it turned out very curly and very over processed normally the perming solution is left on about 20 minutes which is ok for my hair but the lady left it on for 45 minutes that the end of my hair are very dry. For the last 2 days i have being washing my hair and leaving in conditioner to try and restore balance to my hair. Please can you tell me if i can have a relaxer put on my hair if so how long should i wait or will this cause further damaged. Also i have coloured treated hair which is normally dark brown the perm has lightened my hair colour to light brown which does not normally happen.

Best wishes
Sharon

Answer
Hiya Sharon,

If the perm was left on 45 minutes, you should not have any curl at all. What you need to do, before you do anything else, is call the salon where you got your hair done, and tell them what you told me. They need to make it right. If you don't feel comfortable going back to the same stylist ask for another.

I wouldn't recommend putting a relaxer on it. You need salon treatments to get it back into shape first. It would not be unreasonable for you to ask them to do something about the color either. They should have told you the perm would do that.

The important thing is that you don't do anything else to your hair and call right away. The longer you wait, the less responsible they will feel to do anything about it.

Good luck,

dana