Have you ever planned a particular hairdo for ages and ages? To the point where it gets built up in your mind as some kind of huge treat (or possibly ordeal?) A little while back I was planning to get myself a spiral perm. (Don’t judge me!) I know it’s a massively outdated style – it was a massively outdated style even then to be honest. But I'd been intending to do it for ages, and I wasn't about to give up on my plans just because I'd look like an anachronistic clueless old bag with a waterfall of corkscrews down her back. So I asked around friends for a recommendation, and was generally advised that Jam Hair in Headingley, Leeds 6, knew what they were doing regarding a perm, and would probably not require a mortgage and my firstborn in order to finance the bill.
I made my appointment and waited. I was excited! My plans were finally coming to fruition! (Largely because I'd finally done something about them.) When the big day came I was totally hyper!
My other half dropped me off at Jam Hair and went off to do a bit of window shopping while I did girly stuff like have someone tinker with my hair and give me tinkerbell curls. The establishment itself is clearly one of those 'trendy' hair places. Glass fronted building, light and mirrors everywhere, wooden floors and young, carefully coiffured stylists. (Yes, you'd think that'd be the case everywhere, but it does vary according to the establishment. Never get a cut from someone with bad hair!)
What's It Like Having A Perm?
I cannot honestly say that my initial impressions were all that great. To begin with, I was kept waiting an awfully long time. Now, being kept waiting is one thing, but on the other hand, being kept waiting with no subsequent apology or mention of how long you've waited is another. A bit off, I thought. I was offered a cuppa, at least, so I have to give credit as far as that goes.
Once we did get down to business, though, I revised my incipent opinions. The hairwashing apprentice was thorough, careful and listened when I asked her to dial down the temperature of the water. (How many times have you almost had your scalp burned at the hairdressers!) And when it came to the cut and perm, the stylist clearly was extremely technically able and knew exactly what she was doing.
Having a perm is never a pleasant experience, I think it's fair to say. The nature – okay, the stinkiness – of the perming solutions, plus the intricate and time consuming nature of the project, makes it something of an ordeal for the person having the perm done. (And probably for the person doing it, too.) However, I did survive the experience. Then I only had to wait with baited breath while it went through a final drying and styling and I could examine the finished result.
So, how was the finished result? Well, it was a spiral perm (surprise, surprise!) You know what a spiral perm looks like! (And if you don't, have a scoot over to flickr, and put '80s hair' in the search engine. And laugh.) It was a technically accomplished, perfectly realized spiral perm, and I had no complaints to make. The cost wasn't exactly cheap, but on the other hand it wasn't exactly unreasonable either considering the level of expertise involved. You get what you pay for! So Jam Hair did a good job and I can recommend them if you're considering them. Their aftercare advice was also excellent (inevitably accompanied by the attempt to sell me more product, but you get that everywhere.) If only I had followed it, then I might have maintained that salon look with my spiral perm for longer than a couple of weeks, but that's a whole different story...
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