New Hairstyle - Digital Perm

Indulge me as I launch into a very lengthy and detailed post about my hair.  This past weekend, I tried something new.  I guess it is inevitable that if you have straight hair, you want curly hair, and vice versa.  I've always had straight hair, with no perming, dying or any chemical treatment of any sort.  After 29 years, you can conclude that the hair is pretty healthy (or at least undamaged) and also that I am pretty bored of it.  So I decided to get a digital perm.  

Basically, the digital perm leaves your hair with bigger, looser ringlets, and is only done on the bottom half.  It appealed to me because it's supposed to be very low maintenance (I could never do the blow drying, curling iron, wax/gel/mousse maintenance thing) but still give you curls that look like they've just been styled.  Think Kate Middleton on a humbler scale.

I asked one of the secretaries at work where she got her hair done, because I loved her curls.  She recommended her longtime salon and senior stylist at Salon Mis, a branch of the Il Colpo group, out in Kwun Tong.  It was a nice salon with individual television screens embedded in the mirror to keep you entertained and a tea lady that asked if you wanted any beverages upon your arrival.  And of course, a ton of magazines.

The whole process took nearly four hours.  I had to get my hair washed, cut, treated, rinsed, rolled, permed, sprayed, rinsed, blow dried.  I was bored stiff.  I never thought that it'd be hard to sit and be on the receiving end of a beauty treatment, but it is.  It's really tiring.  Here are some pictures that I tried to take during the process to amuse myself:

Before

The first of many washes

After the haircut, before the chemicals

 

The contraption

 

Hooked up - a digital timer counts down as it cooks your hair

Getting impatient - are we done yet??

In big curls

I was starving after the hair treatment so didn't take the time to get a few good pictures immediately after the stylist blew out the hair and applied wax to the tips.  In retrospect that was really unfortunate, as it's pretty much impossible for me to get that post-salon blow out look.  Oh well.  This was taken the night of:

After

It has taken a while to get used to this hair.  You're not supposed to comb the ends where the curls are and you really can't towel dry it by rubbing it back and forth (leads to frizz city).   I tend to lose volume and curl as the day wears on, but it curls up again once I spray it or wash it.  Overall, I'd say that while the hairstyle is relatively low maintenance, it isn't that low maintenance.  I had to get curl-enhancing shampoo and conditioner, as well as a curling creme.  It takes some care and coaxing, especially after the gym or in the morning.