My 8 year old has poker straight hair and wants curls. I don't want to ruin her hair for life. What would you do? would you allow her to get a perm?

By Colette on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 05:28 am:

No. I would not put all of those chemicals on her head. I would let her use rollers or find some attractive straight hair styles.

By Feona on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 06:23 am:

Did you tell her people pay $500 to have that hair temporary? Japanese straightening method....

I got my hair permed... I had long hair- they ruined my hair.... I looked like shirley temple.... after...


Rarely I see a good perm... Her hair is too young for a perm. Too thin... Don't you think?

By Trina~moderator on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 06:38 am:

I agree with Colette. Have you tried wet braiding? That's what my DD likes to do. I would use rollers or a curling iron before giving a child a perm.

By Vicki on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 06:39 am:

Dd is 10 and got a perm a few months ago. She has very poker straight, thin hair and she has always worn it up in a pony tail because if she ever wore it down, it would get very stringy looking. I should also add it is pretty long. Couldn't convince her to cut it shorter to make it look a little fuller. So she got a loose body perm in December so she could wear it down and it would look nicer. Must say it turned out very cute!! There are lots of girls in dd's school that have perms and some even hightlights! Some battles aren't worth the fight and I see nothing wrong with a perm compared to make up and some of the clothes out there!!

By Reeciecup on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 08:58 am:

I would take her in for a consult with a salon. They can look at her hair texture and give advice on what would work and what wouldn't. I think cut can be just as important as any perm done. Good luck!

By Cat on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 09:05 am:

I got my first perm at about 7. I had painfully straight hair. Of course, it was a home perm and the top didn't take so I looked like Bozo (picture the top straight across horizontally and the sides all frizzy! lol). It calmed down after a day or two and I kept getting perms for years, usually just to add some body. I'd definately try wet braiding or rollers first. Then if she doesn't like it you can just wet it out. But if she does I really don't see anything wrong with it. Like Vicki said, is this really a battle you want to choose? If this is something she really wants. There'll be much bigger battles to fight, imho.

By Vicki on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 09:27 am:

LOL..we tried rollers.. took me over an hour to get them in and then about 10 minutes after she laid down to go to bed, she said she couldn't sleep with them in so they all came out!!! I tried using the curling iron and such on it and it would turn out nice, but only last about a hour or so and took sooo long to do.

By Jann on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 02:33 pm:

I would try the wet braid first too.

By Tonya on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 02:46 pm:

I can remember sleeping in those things after the 1st couple of times you get use to it and it is like they are not even there.