I always wondered how the hair is able to stay curled for so long. What do they use and why does it work??
In: Chemistry
Hair is basically a big structure of tangled up proteins (long thin molecules). Imagine you take a bowl of cooked spaghettti, toss it all with some jello, arrange it in a big rope shape, and let it dry…that’s kind of like hair. If you let it dry straight, it’ll stay straight-ish, if you let it dry in a circle it’ll stay curled-ish.
A perm is basically dissolving the glue, reshaping the hair in a different shape, then re-gluing it in the new shape. You’re literally reshaping the hair fibers from straight to curly.
First, add a chemical to break down the bonds between hair proteins. Wrap the hair in curlers so it’s the shape you want. Add chemicals to rebuilt the bonds between hair proteins, still in the curled state. Let it all set. Remove curlers. Tah dah…curled hair. It will stay that way “forever”. BUT…the hair follicles don’t know you did that. They continue growing whatever hair they always did, so the perm will grow out, that’s why you have to redo it periodically, to recurl the new hair (and reset the already curled hair to match).
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