🪮 Long, Beautiful Hair Shining, Gleaming Streaming, Flaxen, Waxen 🪞
Curls are having a moment again, and the current wave — sorry — owes more to hairdressing history than most trend pieces let on. Before diffusers and curl creams, there was the permanent wave, and before that, the finger wave. Both are worth understanding if you want to know what today's curl revival is actually reviving.
The Permanent, Properly Explained
A classic perm restructures the hair's internal bonds rather than just shaping it temporarily. Stylists section damp hair around rollers of a chosen diameter, then apply an alkaline lotion — historically ammonium thioglycolate — that softens the hair's protein bonds. After processing under heat or time, a neutralizer resets those bonds around the new curled shape. The roller size determines the curl: small rods produce tight coils, while larger ones create loose waves. Done professionally, it's a chemistry lesson as much as a styling appointment.
Finger waves predate the perm's chemical approach entirely. A stylist combs setting lotion or gel through damp hair, then uses a comb and fingers to press the hair into S-shaped ridges, pinning each wave in place until it dries. No rods, no chemicals — just controlled tension and patience. The look defined much of early 20th-century glamour and is enjoying its own quiet resurgence alongside the broader curl trend.
What's New on the Shelf
Modern curl enhancement leans heavily on product rather than process. Curl creams and gels with flaxseed or aloe build a cast that locks a curl pattern without heat. Diffuser attachments distribute airflow to reduce frizz while drying. Leave-in stylers with lightweight polymers offer perm-like hold without the ammonia. The throughline from perm to product is the same: define the curl, then stabilize it.
The tools changed. The goal — hair that holds its shape without heat — never did.
Long before curl creams existed, home stylists made do with what was in the kitchen drawer. Drinking straws, cut to length and used as makeshift rollers, could set surprisingly tight ringlets when hair was wound around them and secured. A stiff-hold setting spray — often referred to informally as shellac for its glossy, lacquered finish — locked the curl in place as the hair dried. It's an unglamorous method by modern standards, but it's the direct ancestor of every curl-defining product sold today!
