Do it yourself perm?

[VintageJess]

Perm horror stories -- brrr! I'm another child of the Toni Generation, and my mother used to sit my sister and me down in an old high chair in the kitchen and -- experiment on us. And then we'd end up having to get it cut really short to cover up for the mistakes.

I thought a professional perm couldn't be worse -- but then I went to one of those mall places that was offering a special price, and ended up getting some poor kid just out of beauty school, and lucky me, I was her first perm client. And it all went fine until she got called away from the chair to take a phone call from her boyfriend, who figured calling her at work would be the best way to break up with her. So she finished me off barely able to see thru the tears.

As a result, I spent that winter looking like Roseanne Roseannadanna. No more perms for Lizzie.

Oh Lizzie, you CRACK me up once again! lol
(But laughing with you, not at you!)

 

[Miss Brill]

I give myself perms sometimes. I don't think it is that much trouble, and I've never had any problems with burnt hair or skin or anything.

My best perm was a few months ago when I used old t-shirts as rollers. You would not believe how perfect the waves were. It wasn't too tight or frizzy, it was perfect. The only problem was I didn't have enough solution to really soak it, so some of the underside wasn't curled at all.

To make the rollers I just cut strips to use as end papers & rolled it up on a pencil with a long strip of the tee in the middle to tie it off. I used to just use the regular perm rods, but never really got the waves I'd wanted.

 

[imoldfashioned]

I read this thread title and had a visceral reaction;

"NOOOOOOO!!!"

That's just for me though--my hair needs about a teaspoon of permanent solution to make me look like Harpo Marx. My hat's off to you ladies who can do it at home and have it look good. I definitely need a professional!