That certification class in Portland changed how I do perms

Back in 2018 I went to a weekend workshop at the Paul Mitchell school in Portland and it completely flipped my approach to perming. The instructor, a woman named Diane who had been doing hair since the 70s, showed me how to wrap for volume instead of just curl. Now I hardly ever do a traditional perm rod set, and my clients last twice as long. Has anyone else picked up a technique from a random class that stuck with you?

2 comments

2 Comments

leo_mason7d ago

The thing nobody talks about is how perming technique changed after the whole "curly girl method" blew up. Diane sounds like a unicorn (someone who actually adapted instead of just doing the same old thing). I took a class in 2019 from a guy who specialized in "dry perming" for damaged hair and it saved my butt when clients came in begging for curls after bleaching. The irony is I got more perm business during the pandemic because people were tired of heat styling at home. That volume-over-curl approach works especially well on finer hair types, which most stylists just default to giving tight ringlets that fall out in two weeks.

skylerm557d ago

Leo_mason hit it right about the volume-over-curl thing. My finer haired clients used to come back looking flat after a week with tight rods. Now I wrap bigger sections with less tension and it gives them that lasting body they actually want. The dry perming thing is smart too, I picked up a similar trick for bleached hair from a random YouTube tutorial that saved a few nightmares. That pandemic boom was wild, I had people booking perm appointments just to get some life back after months of looking at their own sad ponytails.