Featuring my favorite witching sister, Giulia.

And a new kind of witchery, but not so different from the previous.

Once upon a time, a small baby Tegan had thick and full hair.

But once upon a later time, aging and genetics fulfilled their destiny, and the hair became very, very thin.

Both thin, and lacking.

Not many strands. Not much bulk to them.

To the point where the last time I had an actual haircut at an actual hairdresser -which was more than 5 years ago and in Berlin- the hairdresser spent the full 20 minutes commenting repeatedly about how little hair I have.

I like the idea of more volume, but lack the patience to do daily fruuffing kind of updo things.

Enter the idea of an 80s Permanent Wave.

And associated neon glow.

The idea is not a particularly new one to me. About 5 years ago, my sister and I went into a hairdresser in Perth, and asked the hairdresser about poodle-ifying me. He replied by effectively backing away from me like a cat from a feisty pigeon, and told me something in the spirit of ‘if you perm that hair it will crack right off’.

So about 4 years ago, in an attempt to alleviate the miserable boredom of Covid and with a certain ‘devil may care as we’re never leaving the house again’ attitude, I took to perming my hair myself.

It didn’t work.

Probably because I didn’t take the whole thing very seriously, and presumably missed a step. Or rinsed too early.

2024 rolls ’round, and it’s time for Take II.

This time, accompanied by a very clever and cautious instruction reader and video watcher who stepped my hair through the various combs, pins, drenches and rinses over a 4ish hour period one Saturday afternoon.

Step 1.

Wash hair (with clarifying shampoo). Comb.

Step 2.

Divide into three parts, and carefully apply curling rods.

(This is the most time consuming part, but also the part that you can’t really duck up).

Step 3.

Cover face in cotton and body in binbags. Start the timer and apply really bad smelling perm lotion.

Check a bit throughout to see if it’s curling. Also, go stand on the balcony a bit throughout so the fumes don’t kill you.

Step 4.

Get washed down like a dog. Allow hair to dry in rollers. Apply neutralizing solution (also timed), then carefully unroll rods and put on more neutralizing solution.

This also smells, but in more of a sickly sweet way than an ‘oh god my hair is burning way’.

Rinse again like a dog.

Step 5.

Be very surprised your hair is… still kind of curly after all the rinsing????

Step 6.

Get your friend with real curly hair to show you how to towel (t-shirt) dry and diffuse your hair. Get your man-friend to take photos of hair, and all go out to dinner to celebrate the success!

Bonus step: If possible, take photos in new Yayoi sculpture near a tube station.

Ok, here’s the 80s Glam Pose:

And two more from that night:

You have to leave the perm without washing for about 72 hours. I made it until Tuesday, then did a full shampoo and condition, and was delighted to see that there was still a lot of bounce!

Here are some more shots throughout the week, when wet, after washing, and after a few days of sleeping on it:

Not perfect ringlets, sure, but a nice amount of volume, and some proper curl if fluffed and massaged just right after washing (a process I still have to learn a bit about).

All up, a resounding success in my books! A massive thanks to Giulia, who actually did all the work, and who will now have to put up with me sending her photos of my hair every few days for the next 6-8 weeks or however long this lasts.

Saturday 28th September, 2024