Men's perm aftercare, week by week

Nearly every man who leaves my chair with a new perm has been given the same single instruction somewhere online: do not wash it for 48 hours. That instruction is correct, and on its own it is nowhere near enough. The 48 hours decide whether the perm sets. The weeks after decide whether you still have it in March.

So this is the longer version. What is happening to your hair at each stage, what to do about it, and the handful of things that quietly shorten a perm by a month or two without anyone warning you.

If you have not had the perm yet, my flow perm guide covers the appointment itself, and loose, wavy or Korean perm covers choosing the result you want. This post picks up the moment you walk out of the door.

First, what you are actually looking after

A perm works by breaking the bonds that hold your hair in its own shape, holding it in a new shape while that happens, and then locking the new shape in with a neutraliser. The locking in is not instant. It carries on quietly for a couple of days after you leave, which is the whole reason for the famous 48 hours.

After that, nothing more is setting. From then on your job changes completely: you are no longer protecting a chemical process, you are looking after hair that has been through one. Permed hair holds less moisture than it did and it holds a shape that water and weight can pull out of it. Almost all good aftercare is those two things, moisture and weight, and nothing more complicated.

Days one and two: do nothing, carefully

For the first 48 hours, leave it completely alone.

No washing, and no getting it wet in any other way either. That includes rain, the gym, a hot shower with the hair not covered, and a swimming pool. Sweat is water as far as your hair is concerned.

No tying it back, no headband, no sunglasses pushed up on your head and no tight hat or beanie. Anything that presses a line into the hair can press that line in permanently at this stage.

No sleeping on it wet, and if you can manage it, no lying flat on one side all night on freshly permed hair. A flattened patch on day one is the one aftercare mistake I see that cannot be fixed with a wash.

No brush and no comb. If you must move it, use your fingers, gently, and only to put it where you want it.

If it does get wet by accident, do not panic and do not start styling it. Let it dry on its own, do not touch it while it dries, and carry on as normal afterwards. One soaking is not the end of a perm. Rubbing it dry with a towel and then combing it might be.

Days three to seven: the first wash, and the week it looks strange

Around the third day you can wash it. Use a hydrating shampoo rather than a clarifying or deep cleansing one, and go gently: squeeze the shampoo through the hair rather than scrubbing at it like you would a short cut.

Condition the mid lengths and ends every wash from now on. Permed hair is drier than it was, and this is the cheapest thing you can do for it.

Then dry it properly, which for a perm means one of two things. Either leave it to air dry and keep your hands off it while it does, or use a diffuser on a low heat and a low speed, cupping the hair upwards towards the scalp rather than blasting at it from above. A diffuser is not a girls' tool. It is the single biggest difference between hair that looks like your perm and hair that looks like a frizzy accident, and it takes about four minutes.

Expect the first week to feel odd. The shape has not settled into how you wear it yet, and a perm genuinely does look better on day two after a wash than on day one. Most men I see are a little unsure in week one and completely sold by week three.

One thing people ask constantly: does the curl get tighter after the first wash? Often it looks that way, yes. Water lets the hair take up its new shape fully for the first time, so the wave can look more defined after a wash than it did when you left. That is the perm doing what it should, not a problem.

Weeks two to four: find your routine

By now you can stop treating it carefully and start treating it like your hair. The aim for this stretch is to find the smallest routine that works, because a routine you cannot be bothered with on a Tuesday is not a routine.

Wash less than you think. Two or three times a week is plenty for most men, and permed hair looks better on the second day than the first. Washing every morning strips moisture out of hair that is already drier than it was and relaxes the shape faster.

One product, on damp hair. A light curl cream, a leave in conditioner or a sea salt spray, worked through damp hair, scrunched, then left alone. That is the whole routine.

Skip anything that promises hold. Heavy waxes, gels, clays and firm hold pastes flatten texture. They are built to make hair sit still, which is the opposite of what you just paid for. If you want more definition, use more of a light product rather than any of a heavy one.

Stop touching it. Running your hands through permed hair all day separates the wave and roughs up the surface. It is the most common reason a perm looks great in the morning and tired by the afternoon.

Month two: the maintenance that matters

Two things in month two keep a perm looking right rather than merely present.

Book the trim. Every six weeks or so. The perm itself lasts three to five months, but the cut drops out long before the wave does, and a flow shape that has grown out by a month looks heavy and shapeless even with perfect texture still in the ends. Most of the men who tell me their perm "went flat" after eight weeks have a perfectly good perm and an overgrown haircut.

Watch for dryness. If it starts to feel rough, straw like or frizzier than it did, add moisture rather than product. A hydrating mask once a week, or an Olaplex treatment added to your next cut, puts some of the broken bonds back and keeps the texture springy instead of brittle. This is worth doing as a matter of course on fine hair and on anything that has been coloured.

Months three to five: the long grow out

A perm does not fall out, it relaxes. Somewhere in this window the wave softens, and because your hair is also growing, you end up with textured ends and straighter new growth at the root. There is no hard line and no bad month, as long as you keep the trims going: each six weekly cut takes a little of the older permed length off, and by the third one the mismatch has gone on its own.

This is also the point to decide what you want next. Most men book another perm, usually once there is enough fresh length that we are perming new hair rather than re-perming old. I will not perm over hair that still has plenty of wave in it just because the calendar says it is time, and I will tell you if we should wait a few weeks.

What quietly shortens a perm

In rough order of how often I see it:

Washing every day. More than anything else on this list.

A clarifying or anti dandruff shampoo used long term. Both strip moisture out efficiently. If you need a medicated shampoo for your scalp, use it and condition afterwards, and tell me at your consultation so I can factor it in.

Heat. Straighteners obviously, but also a hot dryer held close with no diffuser.

Caps and helmets worn daily. A cycling helmet or a work hard hat every day presses the shape out over weeks. Not a reason to avoid a perm, just a reason to expect a little less life from it.

Chlorine. A swimming pool twice a week will take months off a perm. Wet the hair with clean water and put conditioner through it before you get in, and rinse properly afterwards.

Skipping trims. Not strictly the perm, but it is what makes people think the perm has gone.

When to ring me rather than guess

If the hair feels gummy or stretchy when wet, or snaps when you pull a strand gently, stop using anything on it and get in touch. That is not a styling problem and it is not something to fix with product.

If one area has gone much looser than the rest in the first week, tell me early. Early is when it is easy.

And if you are simply not getting it to look the way it did when you left, that is usually drying technique rather than the perm, and it is a two minute thing to show you. I would far rather you asked.

Booking

Men's perms and cuts are done in my home salon in Yelling, about ten minutes from St Neots, and as a home visit across Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. Everything about the appointment itself, including the hair length you need, is on my men's perm page, and men's cuts and perms are on my services list. Prices are on the booking page.

I have been cutting hair for twenty years and trained with Vidal Sassoon, and perm aftercare is the part of the appointment I spend the longest on, because it is the part that decides what you get for your money. If you want to see the result it is all protecting, there is a soft perm and flow cut from start to finish on my TikTok, and a loose perm on straight hair that has been watched over two million times.

Book a perm online. Due a trim, or not sure whether your perm needs reviving or replacing? Send me a photo and I will tell you straight.