That time a perm left a client with fried ends and I had to fix it

Last Tuesday I had a perm go sideways on me for the first time in years. A regular client wanted tight curls from root to tip, but her hair was already processed from a color job six months back. I did a test strand, it looked fine, so I went ahead. Twenty minutes into processing I could smell that weird burning smell and the ends started looking like wet string. I rinsed it out immediately but the damage was done. I ended up doing a deep protein treatment and cutting off about two inches of fried ends just to save the rest. She was understanding but I felt like garbage watching her leave with shorter hair than she wanted. Has anyone else had a perm go wrong on previously colored hair and found a way to avoid it?

2 comments

2 Comments

ninas709h ago

Hate that you went through this, it's such a gut punch when you think you did everything right. I've had it happen with highlights before and it's just the worst feeling watching them leave.

lisa8391h ago

Yeah I actually just read this article about how stylists are trained to do color corrections but they don't always tell you the upkeep is way different. Like with highlights you can just let them grow out but with a full color job you're stuck touching up roots every 4 weeks or it looks awful. I guess that's the thing they don't warn you about until you're already sitting in the chair with foil in your hair. It's kind of a bummer because you think you're getting a fresh start and instead you're just signing up for a whole new set of problems.