According to Pinterest, the Asia Pacific territory has seen an influx of people searching for ‘hair perms’ in the last year at 205 per cent.
Hair experts tell us why
Rapunzel’s silky golden mane has for ages been the epitome of healthy, bouncy hair. However, there was a switch in loyalties with the popularity of the ’70s afros, the ’80s perms and the wavy hair-dos of the ’90s. And while we have always been obsessed with jet black locks, social media pinboards predict a different story for 2018. Read on for more curly tales.
Could hair perms make a comeback?
Pinterest has now replaced that personal diary, where words have made way for pictures and users curate their pages with content that they like and aspire to experiment with. It examined hair trends for 2018 from across the globe and discovered that the French love the fringe, while Americans adore braids. Canadians are all for blonde highlights and Mexicans are rooting for ‘balayage brunettes’. Asia Pacific, meanwhile, has found a new love for hair perms. We asked hair experts if it holds true for Indian women, too.
Aspirations v/s reality
Considering straight, healthy mane is believed to be an ideal standard of beauty, one can’t help but wonder why there’s a huge spike in searches for hair perms here. Hair expert and senior consultant at Team Vanity, Perri Patel says, “The search for perms has increased this year as a lot of people spend time on Pinterest and Instagram. They aspire to have beautiful curls someday. However, the reality is that not many are opting for hair perms. The top choice for most clients is still hair colour. One of the primary reasons for this is that the weather in India is not conducive for curly locks. The humidity makes the tresses too frizzy and ruins the look they often seek. Before opting for a hair perm, people have to become confident about managing it well as it requires a lot of care and attention.” And that’s probably why curls may trend online, but it’s temporary waves that women usually settle for.
Waves over curls
Aspirational hairstyles do not always translate into successful hair-dos and the primary reasons for this is hair texture, weather and lack of hair care. Style director JCB, Preeti Lulla explains, “In the international arena, perm has made a comeback in 2018. For a voluminous and textured look, it’s mostly bob length or shoulder length. More natural beachy-looking waves have caught on. In India, though women mostly have a curly and frizzy texture. So, here it’s not so much in demand as perm needs a lot of aftercare and application of the right hair products. Hence, temporary waves are more preferred here.”
That probably explains why curls are hot online but when it comes to sporting them, there’s some hesitation. You are most likely to see hair perms on Bollywood celebs for a shoot or a role as in the case of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan who looked amazing for a photoshoot with her flaming curly hair-do. Anushka Sharma, too, recently sported a permed look in Sanju.
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