The Japanese Straight Perm
Written by: geemegan
Ok I have to admit, before I googled “Japanese straight perm”, I did not realise what a huge phenomenon it has become all around the world. A few of my friends at school have been getting these straight perms which I thought all looked great, so I figured I should look it up and write about it. But it turns out there’s already a lot of stuff out there about it…
The technicalities of the straightening process are a tad dull so I won’t elaborate too much on it. Basically from what I’ve heard from my friend, it takes ages to get done; they have to flatten your hair little by little and they have to shampoo your hair a lot as well and apply a lot of different treatments. It takes hours. But it is totally worth it.
The result of the straight perm is awesome. It leaves your hair sleek, shiny, healthy looking and very, very manageable. It makes your hair…really straight. Well obviously, but like crazily straight. And it doesn’t feel yucky when you wake up in the morning or wash your hair. It’s close to the perfect perm. Your hair looks very pretty blowing in the wind and shining in the sun.
However the straight perm is very expensive. Especially if you get it done at a more professional salon. And time consuming. But it lasts until you chop it off, so it may be a good investment, depending on how you like to splash your money about. And it also may depend on where you live: for example here in Sydney, it costs about $80 but I found one U.S. website charging $700 (which is mental).
Ask around before you get your hair permed though; it’s good to get different opinions and a wider choice of salons to go to. I would so get a straight perm if I could afford it…but for now, I just play with my friends’ straight perms and fawn over how pretty and abnormally straight their hair is. Comment below!!
Comments24
Minnie says:
November 18, 2011 at 7:48 am
I’ve straight perm my hair before, and it does take up a whole lot of time. I started at like 7 or 6 in the morning untill 3 pm in the afternoon. It does leave your hair stick straight but it doesn’t give a lot of volume unless you have have super-volumed-hair xD
justine says:
July 11, 2011 at 11:30 am
i had my hair relaxed around last year and i think its almost the same as the japanese straight perm because they also had to put lots of stuff on my hair and wash it out it did take hours… and after a while my hair was just too straight and flat it had no volume what so ever and i don`t think it`s that good to do straight perms on your hair (since it uses chemicals) and being asian i already had straight hair but it was kinda wavy so i tried relaxing it and i don`t think i`d wanna do it again.. ^___^”
just a personal opinion ^__^
Courtney says:
August 25, 2010 at 6:38 am
I got my hair rebonded last year which was GREAT. Im not sure if rebonding is the same as japanese straight perm. but I really didn’t like the first couple of months which left my hair with like zero lift and it was really hard to style untill a few months after.
It was cheap to >.< but thats because I got it done in philippines but now back in Australia with my unstraight hair T.T
Kyle says:
June 26, 2010 at 8:29 am
I got a straight perm done on my hair while I was in Japan last fall as an exchange student. I got a great deal on it (only about $100 USD) and I was all done after about two hours or so. I should point out I’m a (white) male which may disqualify me, but anyway…
I have very wavy hair, and the straight perm definitely worked. It didn’t ruin my hair, either. However, I will not be doing it again. Although it made my hair really soft and smooth, it was flat as hell. Seriously, I just could NOT get any reasonable lift out of my hair for pretty much the entire time I had it permed. It was way too flat and just didn’t look good.
I’d strongly suggest for guys to use an iron instead. In my experience a good straightener will leave the hair a little rough, making it easier to move around and stick in place. I got this Remington Frizz Therapy straighter which works great – it’s not expensive and it does a great job of keeping the hair straight even if it gets sweat or humidity on it.
geemegan says:
June 26, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Hey thanks so much for commenting! Now the other guys who have been wondering whether they should get it done know (: Since obviously I wouldn’t be able to give out credible advice.