How to Determine If Your Hair Has Perm Damage

If you have naturally straight hair and have wanted masses of wavy hair, you may have taken the plunge and gotten a perm. Unfortunately, one of the biggest disadvantages of adding perm chemicals to your hair is damage and with a poorly done perm the damage can be considerable. Even though your hair may look deceptively healthy, you can still have dryness, breakage, and porosity as a result of over perming. How can you tell if you have significant perm damage to your hair? In most cases, if you’ve used chemicals on your hair for any length of time, some damage is to be expected, which may be partially improved by deep conditioning treatments and cutting back on the use of chemical treatments. Here are some ways to test the health of your hair strands to determine if you have perm damage:

Visually Inspect Your Hair

Take an honest look at your hair in the mirror under a good light. Does it look dull and dry in appearance? Do you notice a lot of fly away strands? These are all signs of perm damage and over processing. Look at the ends of your hair closely. Do you see split ends? While a few split ends here and there are not a cause for concern, if they’re numerous, you probably have a significant degree of perm damage. How does your hair feel? If it feels dry, like straw, your hair is seriously moisture deprived.

Do the Pull Test

Cut off a single strand of hair. Hold it firmly between the fingers of two hands and pull. If the hair strand snaps quickly with tugging, your hair is deprived of moisture and needs a deep moisturizing or hot oil treatment to moisturize the hair shaft. Healthy hair is usually difficult to break in this manner. If the hair strand stretches excessively when you pull on it can mean damage to the protein structure of the hair due to the over processing from perm chemicals.

See if it Floats

Cut off a strand of hair and place it into a sink filled with water. Healthy hair without perm damage will tend to float on the surface as it’s nonporous and doesn’t absorb the water. If the hair sinks to the bottom, the hair is porous and over processed from perming and needs an acid based conditioner to reduce porosity and close the hair shaft.

If you find that your hair fails these simple tests to determine perm damage, you may want to consult your hair dresser. Together you can devise a plan for repairing your dry, porous hair and preventing future damage.