After getting hair permed at salons, many people will find it is pretty hard to achieve the same look after a thorough hair washing at home. Without a skilled stylist, how can we maintain our perms perfectly with a regular hair dryer? I believe this question is the most important for people who just permed their hair.
We’ve got your back! Check out these stylist-approved hacks for blow drying permed hair, so you can get your perms perfect quickly without going to salons.
How to Blow Dry Loose Permed Hair
If you have beach waves or curls on the hair ends, this solution is for you. After washing your hair, roughly dry your hair till your hair is not dripping water. You can use a towel to gently wide off the water on your hair, or you can use your hair dryer and set it to the low setting to get your hair 50% dry. When using your blow dryer, keep a nice distance so that the shapes of the perms won’t be affected by the strong airflow.
When your permed hair is nice and damp, you can separate it into several sections. You can decide how many sections you are going to have according to your hair volume. Parting your hair is for shortening the drying time and making your perms and curls more defined.
And then start twisting one hair section with your fingers. You can make it outside or inside based on what style you love. After the hair section is in one bundle, move on to the next section.
When all the hair sections are done, start blow-drying your hair with your blow dryer. You can start on your hair roots and scrunch your hair roots while drying. When blow-drying your permed hair in a bunch, you should hold the hair section up and direct hot airflow to it to get more volume and bounce. Slightly shake the hair section while blow drying so the perms can be more springy.
If you feel your hair is almost dry, untwist every hair sections with your fingers. And the last step is to style the perms to make them more natural and blow-dry all your hair with cold settings to lock in the style.
How to Blow Dry Spiral Permed Hair
If you have very curly permed hair, it is actually easier to define your perms. But it is only under the premise that your hair dryer comes with a diffuser.
After getting your hair fully washed, roughly dry your hair with your blow dryer and scrunch it up to get more hair volume on your permed hair. Detangle your hair if you have some knots or twists on your hair.
To get more volume, you can flip your head upside down and use the diffuser to hold your perms up against the head while blow-drying. The key to making your curly permed hair stay attractive and bouncy is to keep moving the hair dryer around and keep moving your perms around. Don’t let your curls stay in one position for a long time, or they will be dull and stiff.
As for the hair roots, you can blow dry them regularly while scrunching them up. The diffuser will not deliver very powerful concentrated airflow but gentle and even air, so it won’t flatten the hair roots flat.
“I don’t have a diffuser nozzle around? Can I give my perms a nice blowout?”. It is possible, but you need to spend more time and more work in the drying process. See our tutorial on how to correctly blow dry curly hair without a diffuser here.
Hair Products for Blow Drying Permed Hair
When choosing the hair products for permed hair, the best option would be lightweight hair products. Since we don’t want our hair to be weighed down, you can purchase those heat protectants or hair primers that are designed for curly permed hair. They can provide permed hair great heat protection without losing the ability to keep your perms voluminous. If you want to keep the beautiful permed hair for a longer period after the blow drying process, there are also some hairsprays that are specially made for keeping curls and waves defined.