Permed Grey Hairstyles

Permed Grey Hairstyles Perming (and hair styling in general) is a tricky thing – you usually understand that it might do some damage but you absolutely want to do it anyway.  

It’s somewhat reminding of those scenes in cartoons or movies where you have a tiny angel on one shoulder and a similarly small devil on the other.

The angel’s telling you about how you should care for your hair and make sure that you don’t regret perming it later on.

The devil is the voice in you that wants to look as good as possible right now and thinks that everything else is secondary. 

If devil believes that perming can bring your hair appearance to perfection then nothing else matters for him right now.

Can You Perm Grey Hair?

Gray hair is often resistant to perms. If you decide to try one on your gray hair, it’s important to talk to your stylist about how to prepare your hair for the process, or to choose a perm that’s safe for gray hair if you’re applying it yourself.

A perm that’s strong enough to add curl or body to your hair, but gentle enough to prevent breakage or dryness, is essential.

According to Sally Beauty, it’s important to choose a formula that has a brightening agent so that your hair won’t yellow as it’s permed.

How To Perm Grey Hair?

1. Purchase an alkaline perm that’s designed for gray hair from a local beauty supply store. It’ll help to give uniform curl to gray hair that’s especially coarse and resistant. Or, talk to your stylist about alkaline perms available in the salon that are specially formulated for gray hair and will prevent discoloration.
2. Ask your stylist to perform a strand test before applying the perm to your whole head, or perform the strand test yourself if you’re putting the perm in at home. It may take longer than usual for gray hair to perm, but you’ll also need to make sure that the perm isn’t too strong for your hair.
3. Apply the perm according to the instructions, or have your stylist do so. Keeping the chemicals in your hair a few minutes longer than the package directions recommend may help the perm to “take.”
4. Make sure your hair is washed with a shampoo created for gray hair so it won’t have a green or yellow tint. A shampoo with a dark-purple or violet base color will help to balance your hair color and take any unattractive tint away. The perm should be completely washed from your hair before conditioning.
5. Make certain that a quality conditioner is applied to your hair after perming. It’ll lock in moisture and keep your gray hair from appearing brittle. Put a leave-in conditioner in your hair at least once a week as well; it’ll make the hair softer, less resistant to curl and less frizzy, all problems after hair turns gray.

I Have Coarse, Gray Hair: What is The Best Perm For me?

Gray hair is usually very resistant, so your stylist will probably use an alkaline type perm, either a cold perm or an “exothermic” perm.

Alkaline perms give a well-defined curl to coarse, resistant hair. An exothermic perm has an extra ingredient that is added to the perm solution and produces a gentle heat during the perming process to give the perm extra strength. There are formulas specifically for gray hair that also have special brighteners to prevent yellowing.

How To Bring Permed Hair Back To Gray?

Dyeing your gray hair helps you maintain a youthful appearance, but it can also be an expensive and time-consuming process.

By returning to your natural silvery locks, you’ll save cash and have more time to do the things that matter to you.

As your gray roots grow back in, they may contrast with the color of your dyed strands. To ease this transition, go gray a little at a time or get rid of the color all at once.

Step 1

Stop coloring your full head of hair. Have a stylist color only your part and your hairline with semi-permanent dye, and let the gray hairs grow in everywhere else. When gray roots start growing in, use a root concealer or semi-permanent dye to blend the grays and colored hairs together. As more grays grow in, the color will gradually fade away. It may take up to 28 shampoos to remove the dye. Eventually, you’ll go totally gray.

Step 2

Shave your head if you’re in a hurry to go back to gray. Wear a wig that’s the same color as your dyed hair was, then wait for the grays to grow back in. When your gray hair is as long as you’d like, get rid of the wig and visit a salon for a stylish cut.

Step 3

Let your gray hair grow back in naturally if you don’t mind the two-toned color look. Cut off the colored parts once your gray hair has grown long enough.

Step 4

Get a professional haircut every six to eight weeks to keep your gray hair looking nice. Opt for a clean, modern cut that looks good with gray.

Step 5

Wash your hair with a shampoo that’s formulated for gray locks at least once or twice monthly. Gray hair often develops a yellow hue, and this shampoo helps counteract that. Every other day, use a shampoo that contains antioxidants to shield your hair from UV damage.

Pros and Cons of Permed Grey Hairstyles

In order to understand if you want to side with the white and fluffy angel or become devil’s advocate, you need to weigh all the pros and cons of perming hair. Well, consider yourself lucky because that’s exactly what the next several paragraphs will do for you.

This means that after reading them, you will be equipped with all the essential info you need to make a cold-blooded decision.

The Pros of Permed Grey Hairstyles

Let’s start with the pros to keep the tension low for a while.

• 1) It will make your hair look better (at least you think it will) – the simplest and most important reason why people perm their hair is that they like the way it looks and don’t want to wear straight hair anymore. They have probably starred at their mirrors for hours imagining how they would look with permed hair. Or maybe even tried some virtual online hair stylers to get a better idea. Regardless of how exactly they came to this decision, many of these people are reading this right now and thinking about how useless and obvious this first advantage is.
• 2) It will bulk up your hair. This is actually more like a sub-point of the previous paragraph but it’s a very important one. If your goal is to boost the volume then perming can definitely help. It’s no secret that girls with thin hair often do it in order to make hair bigger (but keep in mind that perms actually work better on thick hair, not thin).
• 3) It will reduce the need of styling your hair. Think about all the things you won’t need to do if you get a perm. Curling iron is something that falls into this category – you can save a lot of time every day and get more sleep instead of trying to fix your “bed head” every morning. No more putting perm rods in your hair every evening – that’s a privilege that many girls would love to have. Tired of straightening the problematic areas of your hair that look awful every time you wake up in the morning? Girls with permed hair don’t have that kind of problems.

The Cons of Permed Grey Hairstyles

Now, that I got you excited about perming your hair, let me bring you back to earth a little bit.

• 1) You can’t wash hair right away. It isn’t allowed to wash your hair at least a day or two after perming it. That’s the rule if you don’t want to loosen the curls you just got. Even though this may be just a small disadvantage, it can still cause some inconvenience because hair often smells weird after perming and it’s only natural that you might want to get rid of the strange odor as soon as possible.
• 2) Your hair can become dry and frizzy. If you already have dry and brittle hair then don’t even think about perming because it will dry your hair out even more. Perming chemically damages the outer layer of your hair which means that hair dryness and frizz would become parts of your everyday life. However, I have to admit that women with natural curls are even more likely to be dealing with frizz than those with permed hair, if that makes you feel any better about it.
• 3) You won’t be able to change styles easily. I would suggest you to get used to the way you look after getting a perm because that’s how you will look basically all the time from that point on. Simple things like tying your hair at the back of your head in a tail or a plait will become much more complicated. So, you better be sure that permed hair looks really good on you because you won’t be able to arrange it nowhere near as easily as before perming.
• 4) Your hair can be weakened. Speaking in scientific terms – permed hair is especially weak because the S-S protein bonds of your hair are reformed when exposed to perm chemicals. What it actually means are possible hair breakage, more split ends and less natural moisture for your hair. You have to understand that any chemical treatment that changes the pattern of your hair will take its toll.

Conclusion:

My goal isn’t to convince you to get a perm and I also don’t mean to stop you from doing it. Actually, the goal is to make sure you know exactly how to Permed Grey Hairstyles and what you’re doing when experimenting with your hair. 

You can read more articles like this but the final decision will still be up to you and I hope that this piece can help you with making this decision.

Even though the cons may sound bad, remember that nowadays there are different perming techniques and some of them are a lot less harmful than others, especially if done by professional hair stylists.

Do you have any pros or cons to add? Would you suggest perming as the best option for girls who are tired of having straight hair?