Ease Perm Damage With Vinegar Rinse
Q. I just got my hair permed and I am so scared that I will lose my hair. It will not dry. It feels like mush, and when I barely touch it, a whole clump of it just sticks to my fingers. Oh man! What do I do? Please help me. - Debbie, Connecticut
A. The first thing to do is to immediately mix 3 ounces of apple cider vinegar with 2 ounces of water. Put it on your hair. Do not rinse for at least 20 minutes. Then rinse with lukewarm water. Vinegar will stop any chemical reaction going on in the hair shaft. But because of the state of your hair, you must do this four times a week until you feel your hair getting stronger. This will not happen overnight. It is going to take some real patience!
Another thing that will help is Infusium hair treatment (not the shampoo, but the hair treatment). Gently wash your hair, then do your vinegar and water mix. Then rinse. Apply the Infusium. Don’t use too much. The most important thing for you to do is to not wash your hair every day.
Another product that will really help your hair is made by Sunglitz. It is a green conditioner that has vinegar, protein, and silk in it. It’s called Sun Sealer.
Just be calm and remember that it will take time, but the vinegar will help you tremendously. It will also stop severe breakage. I also recommend that you do not chemically treat your hair for at least eight or nine months. Or just stop perming your hair altogether.
Q. I am a gentleman that really doesn’t like the gray moving in on my sides. So I got the guts up to dye my hair. My hair is very dark, so of course I picked out a color that on the box really came close to mine. I went home to do it, and read the directions and did them exactly, except the test strand that they talk about. The timer went off and I washed my hair. Then I dried it. What a disaster! I now have purple hair where my gray was. It is so bright. What do I do? - Carl, Oregon
A. That is the major problem with gray hair, Dan. It grabs the base color. So you have to mix the color with a natural based color, too. In other words, you have to mix two colors together to get a natural color for gray hair.
What you need to do for right now is go to a salon that specializes in color, and have them fix that purple fast! Then while you are there ask them what level hair color you have. I’m going to guess that it is a level four or five. That is pretty dark. You will have two choices of what you would like to do from now on about your color:
Keep getting it colored at the salon or, go to a beauty supply house that is open to the public. Choose a name brand of color you would like to use. Then, since you’re new at this, I am going to suggest that you go with a semi-permanent color. It gradually washes out and is safer when you first start coloring your hair. The other suggestion I have is to go one level lighter than your natural. So if it is a level four go with a five. You know what I mean. Then because the darker levels have so much red in them, get a natural base five (if that is what you are going with) and an ash base five (again if that is what you are going with). Then you would mix it either half and half, or 3/4 of the ash and 1/4 of the natural.
But I am going to caution you that before you do any color, you must do a patch test to make sure you are not allergic to the color. Also, do a strand test to make sure that is the color you want to see. Please make sure you do this before you proceed with the coloring of your hair! Remember: have a salon fix the purple first. This is something you should not do on your own.