How2Day: Permanent Wave Techniques

Adding waves to hair give styles texture and body. hair style image by Mat Hayward from Fotolia.com
Waves are a styling technique that adds volume and body to any length of hair. Plastic rollers and curling irons can provide temporary solutions, but permanent techniques can last up to three months. Beauticians use a mixture of chemicals and curling rods to create the right wave in any texture hair. Another technique includes the use of special headgear and heated rollers, which can help straight, layered locks to achieve a wavy, tousled effect.

Permanent hair curling comes in two forms: spiral curls and body waves. Spiral perms use chemicals and small curling rods to produce tighter curls. The same technique is used for body waves--the only difference is that larger curlers are used to add a rippling effect instead of ringlets. To create the permanent wave, the hair must be prepared with a deep cleansing or neutralizing shampoo, both of which can help the hair accept the permanent chemicals. The hair is then wet with a solution that helps to ensure it remains damp through the permanent process. Then either an acidic or alkaline perm is applied by the beautician, before the hair is wrapped around rods. When the curl is set, the hair is gingerly removed from the rods---it should form a J shape at the ends.

Some hairstyles require perming only part of the head, providing lift, volume and texture to a designated area. Women with shorter cuts, such as the pixie, can benefit from this waving technique, which can add texture only to the head's crown, leaving the sides to lie straight and flat. Other times a partial perm can be used to add texture to new growth, leaving previously treated hair untouched. When applying this technique, only some of the hair is chemically treated, but all of the hair is put on rollers. This way even the untreated hair will fall in a similar hair pattern as the chemically altered hair, making the overall style seem more natural.

The digital perm, sometimes called the ionic or thermal reconditioning perm, is a technique that was started in Asia, and it targets women with extremely straight hair. The method uses similar chemical techniques as western permanent waving treatments---the difference is in the curlers. This thermal curling method of waving uses a large four-pronged head contraption, which secures a series of long vertical rods. At the end of each rod is a heated curler, which is what the chemically treated hair is curled onto. The extremely hot curlers can't be handled by hand, hence the elaborate headpiece, and must be remain some distance from the scalp, thus only the ends of the hair are treated. Though the headgear might vary in different salons, the general principle remains the same. This technique works on extremely long hair, and the result is cascading waves from around the middle of the head downward to the tip.

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