The Easiest BodyWave in History

Unfortunately, my family has not been blessed with curly or wavy hair. We have the straightest hair one could possibly have. There have been mornings I stood in front of the mirror for 30 minutes curling my hair only to have the curls fall out by the time I hit the front door. To get our hair to even bend is a major accomplishment!

My youngest daughter has the same hair - board straight. In order to give her some curly locks I have spent many a night braiding her hair to give her waves that will last most of the day. She kept asking for a perm but besides the price at the salon - I'm not sure I could roll her hair correctly. And if you've ever had a frizzy perm its likely from the hair not being rolled properly - so that thought was definitely out!

One morning though I had an epiphany! We had just un-braided her hair and she had the most beautiful waves. I thought - hmmm-- If her hair will wave after braiding it I bet if I put a perm solution on her braided hair the waves would stay!

I went to the drug store and bought a home perm for $12.95 and proceeded to experiment on my child's hair. 40 minutes later - waves that stayed! HA!! It worked.

All the years of women (myself included) who sat in a chair for hours to get their hair rolled and permed and it only took one lazy, cheap housewife to figure out an easier way to perm.

Now let me say - there are no big loopy curls. This is a wave - adds some movement and body to her hair but no actual curls. That's OK for us though - it looks exactly like it does when you un-braid your hair after several hours and that is the look we were going for. So - success!

As I've said this is the easiest home perm you can imagine. There are some things to keep in mind though -

• Follow directions on box for preparing hair and times. Hair must be damp when permed so it needs to be fairly wet when braiding.
• When braiding wet hair it can tend to become bunched - use a comb to help keep the hair as straight and free of tangles as possible.
• A detangling comb is best used on wet hair - do not use conditioner on hair before perm (see box directions). I bought the comb at the dollar store. Cheap and great for wet heads.
• Make sure you get the entire braid saturated thru with perm and neutralizer solution.
• Rinse very well to get all solutions out of braids.
• The box says to unroll a strand of hair to check for curl - do at your own discretion. I did not un-braid to check for curls as I felt it would be too difficult to get the braid back in original position.

That's it! Have fun!