Permanent Waving For Hair Relaxation

Permanent waving, the chemical redox process, has been very popular among consumers with straight hair for many years. However, permanent waving was long thought to be impossible, for those with excessively curly hair. Therefore, it was considered a virtual miracle when a product was marketed in the late '70s to give permanent curls to excessively curly hair. The earliest "curly perms," as they were commonly called, were very drying and produced frizzy-looking curls.

Heavy daily usage of glycerin-based sprays and lotions, known as curl activators, was necessary to maintain the hair and minimize breakage. Rather quickly, the perm process was significantly improved by straightening the hair first with thioglycolic acid creams before wrapping the hair onto perm rods.

Maintenance products were improved, as well, so that the hair did not look as greasy and wet. Because of these product refinements, the ethnic hair care market experienced another tremendous growth spurt that continued well into the 1980s. A multitude of men and women enjoyed care-free styles, which required little maintenance. However, associated problems caused the curly perm markets' maturity and eventual decline:

>Ammonium thioglycolate, the active ingredient in permanent waves, is extremely drying to hair. For moisturization, consumers still had to apply rather large amounts of glycerin and propylene glycol-rich sprays, creams, lotions and/or gels on a daily basis. These products stained clothing collars and pillows, and gave the hair a sticky, greasy feel.

>Repeated perm applications were necessary every 12 weeks or so, to treat the new growth of hair near the scalp. Each repeat treatment caused the previously permed hair to lose additional cystine bonds and incur greater damage. The hair became ever dryer, and previously permed hair ends became straight and stringy, or broke off altogether.

>Single application kits, prevalent in the general market, were not accepted in the ethnic hair care arena by cosmetologists. Therefore, manufacturers packaged the professional perm processing components in bulk sizes. Over time, with exposure to air, thioglycolic acid loses its efficacy. Therefore, salon permanent wave products were subject to inconsistent performance, yielding unpredictable results.

>Styling versatility was restricted to curly and wavy looks. As sleeker styles came into vogue, permed hair could not make the transition nearly as well as relaxed hair. What is more, permed hair could not be relaxed effectively by the standard formulas because sodium hydroxide and guanidine hydroxide react very rapidly on permed hair, inducing excessive damage. This meant that a consumer had to grow enough new hair to cut off the permed portion before relaxing.

However, despite the popularity decline of perms in recent years, there remains a loyal core of users.

The redox (perming) process has two basic phases: reduction and oxidation. During the reduction phase, approximately 20% of the hair's cystine bonds are cleaved (broken) into cysteine bonds. It is in this phase that the hair assumes its new configuration. In the oxidation phase, 80 to 90% of the broken bonds are reformed to lock in the new curl formations.