Ferm: March 2009 Archives

Since some of you may have some general questions lingering about permanent waving, I'll quickly go over some generalities that might some common issues:

Let us take a look at the basic chemistry of permanent waving (technically called the "redox" process) to understand how hair is permanently curled or waved.

The redox process has two basic phases: reduction and oxidation. During the reduction phase, approximately 20% of the hair's cystine bonds are broken into cysteine (or half cystine bonds). It is in this phase that the hair assumes its new configuration. In the oxidation phase, 80-90% of the broken bonds are reformed to lock in the new curl formations.

I recently received a request for more information about permanent waving, which I must admit, was a bit of a surprise since I haven't noticed many stylists performing the permanent wave service lately.

Avlon's permanent wave system is the Ferm Permanent Waving System, which consists of a 4-step system along with various maintenance products depending on the need.

I figured that it would be nice to start a mini-series on the topic and cover the topic more in-depth.

But before getting down to the chemistry of permanent waving, which is technically my favorite part, its probably a good idea to quickly go over the history of the permanent wave.