That time a perm went wrong at the state fair and taught me to test first

Back in 2018 I was doing perms at a booth during the Minnesota State Fair, 14 hour days. A woman came in wanting tight curls on her already processed hair, I skipped my usual strand test because we were slammed. Her hair started snapping off mid-wrap and I had to stop everything, apologize, and refund her $85 on the spot. After that I swore I'd never skip a test again no matter how busy, and I even started keeping a little timer in my kit. Has anyone else had a busy event change how you handle a standard service?

3 comments

3 Comments

sarah1981mo ago

Actually, a perm that snaps hair off mid-wrap isn't just a skipped strand test issue... it sounds like the hair was already overprocessed before she sat down. Tight curls on previously processed hair almost always need a porosity check first, not just a strand test for timing. A quick test on the weakest spot could have saved her hair and your kit timer.

sarah1981mo ago

Three years back I watched a stylist test a perm on a client who had box dye from two months prior. The hair turned to mush right there in the bowl. She did a porosity check first by floating a strand in water and it sank immediately. That one simple step told her the cuticle was blown wide open. If she had skipped it and wrapped anyway, we would have been looking at a full scalp melt. Everyone acts like strand tests are enough but porosity is the real game changer on damaged hair.

henrygrant1mo ago

Yeah, the "porosity check" thing is something people just skip all the time. It's like that whole pattern where everyone wants the quick fix instead of taking two minutes to see what they're actually working with. Same goes for stuff like checking tire pressure or even just reading instructions before you start something.