The Amazing Korean Setting Perm

Hi everyone,

Long time no see. Yeah, I've been sick like a dog thanked to a viral infection. Last week, I could barely sit up but today I feel a lot better. Still a little bit of swelling and marks here and there but at least I no longer have fever. Yeah, roseola is a pain in the you-know-what and I'm glad to come at the tail end of it!

But alas, I digressed. About 2 weeks ago, right before I got sick, I went out to get my first hair perm ever! Well, technically, I got my first perm when I was a kid but for some reasons, my hair did not take the perm solution and I ended up having straight hair. This time around, the L'Oreal Professionnel salon near my place had a perm sale. What was supposed to be a $50 chemical process only cost me 37 bucks. And that included a cut, wash, and style. Score!

Unlike the traditional type of perm where you have to soak your hair in those smelly and yucky perm solutions, Korean setting perm is quick and pretty much odorless. It is also the least maintenance perm that looks natural. Just think about Angelina Jolie's naturally wavy hair. Yup, the setting perm is going to give you awesome hair like that. It's like a straight haired girl's dream come true, you know.

So I settled down, got a quick consultation, and a hair wash before the fun began. First, a hair stylist applied a cream to the area she wanted to curl, which was from my ear down to the tip of my hair. Then, I waited for about 20-25 minutes for my hair to stretch before she washed it. After that, I had my Matrix moment: they hooked me into the machine, yo!

At one point, 3 people were working on my hair. They dried it before winding each section into the heat rods. Those rods are similar to your hot rollers but they are bigger and made of ceramics. Those hair ladies wound my hair really really tight and by the end, I had about 30 curls all over my head. They also put insulating pads over the rollers to make sure the hair is curled up nicely.

I felt like Lion King, if Simba chose to perm his hair and such. This was a moment before the nice hair lady came back with a couple sets of wires to hook me into the Matrix.

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I don't know if you can see it or not but there were wires hanging out from each ceramic rod. These rods are like hot rollers on steroid! There's a place to hook it into the electricity. Once hooked, the rod will heat up the same way hot rollers do. The difference is I had to sit there and wait for 25 minutes while the heat cooked up my hair nice and crispy!

Really, I was kidding about the crispy part but yeah, it was incredibly hot and heavy. My head felt like it weighed a ton thanked to all the rods and wires. Luckily, 25 minutes went away pretty quickly and the hair techs came to unhook me from The Matrix. Then came the perm solution and I waited for another 10-15 minutes before I came to get the last rinse. Since my hair just got permed, the technician only washed my hair with water and conditioner. I got a quick face massage as a bonus.

Then, I got a haircut and 2 people simultaneously blew dry and styled the crap out of my hair. The total number of people who worked on my head that day was 6 and I paid 37 bucks. Not a bad deal after all!

Here's the end result, 2 weeks after I did the perm:

 Natural-looking wavy hair, yeah? And no, I didn't color my hair. That's my natural hair color with natural highlights and all :)

No, really. People may spend 200 bucks to have hair colored like that but I don't. That's how my hair really is. I spent about 2 years to color and highlighted the crap out of my hair to make it look like that but in actuality, it already does. That's why it's hard to convince me to color my hair these days. I already have the color that I want!

Cascading curls after cascading curls! It's official: I'm in love with my hair!

Ooh, shiny!

One thing I do notice is the staggering amount of volume I have after getting the perm. It's like I have twice the hair or something. On top of that, my hair does not feel damaged at all! The only change I have to live with is to set the hair in sponge curlers about 1/2 hour before going to bed. But that's not mandatory as I only do so after I wash my hair. Also, the 48 hours after the perm is crucial as I was not allowed to wet my hair. I use all the hair products as I did before, although stuff that promises to add moisture seems to be better to keep the ends nice and moist.

I got a ton of compliments on my new hair. Compared to the other types of perms, setting perm keeps the hair wavy for about 5 months. Once you get a haircut, you need to redo the perm as well. From the way I see it, I would do it twice a year to keep my hair nice-looking and healthy as well. Other people who want the tight and spiral kind of curls may want to try digital perm, which is more expensive. To me, this is nice enough and I make sure to keep myself loaded to get my perms twice a year :)

That's all for now, folks! Have you permed your hair or tried setting perm before? Please let me know. I'll be back once I feel better.

With love,
Dao xoxo


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