How to explain what kind of permanent wave you would like how curly it should be

The trick is being very clear about what you want and making sure that your professional stylist understand your request exactly, without hurting his or her professional pride. I know, it's very tricky!

• Assuming that you have a relationship with the hair professional, ask his or her suggestions about a perm. Observing the reactions should give you some interesting hints. Watch the person's attitude, pay attention to the body language and the facial expressions. This should help you know if a stylist is uncomfortable dealing with, or doesn't know how to perm fine hair. If the hairdresser is unsure, do not force the issue risk offending his or her professionalism. You can always continue being a client but look elsewhere for a perm for your fine hair.
• Get a consultation with another professional, most hairdressers offer one for free.
• If you have color-treated hair, you want to make sure that they will wrap in a special protein. There are lots of good protein protectors out there that work wonders if you have highlights throughout your hair. This is VERY IMPORTANT.
• Be very clear, but at the same time, be reasonable about your expectations. Too many questions and suggestions would alert the stylist's memory of unpleasant and never-satisfied clients and get you nowhere.
• If you get through the consultation and decide to book a appointment, show up with a smile on your face that lets your stylist know that you trust him. Please bear with us, we are artistic and, generally, very sensitive people. If you don't have confidence in your stylist it shows, even if you try to conceal it.
• Some hairdressers prefer to cut the hair before the perm while other favor cutting it afterwards. Please note that cutting after the perm to get rid of the bad ends is not good. Good perms means no bad ends so, waiting to cut after can simply be a shortcut, as one uses the longer hair to wrap around a larger rod rather than a smaller one.
• Defining the size of the curl is very straightforward: the smaller the rod, the smaller the curl. However, if you want something other than a wave, you need some smaller rods at least, here and there, to give some support and some lift to your style.
• The more rods one uses, the better. It is easy to put a large amount of hair in each rod but this is never good. It is best to use as many rods as possible, making thin partings and rolling the hair into lots and lots of rods. This would give your fine hair a lot of base or, in other words, fullness and lift without fuzzy ends. Tell your stylist that you want a lot of rods. Just say something like: Oh by the way, could I have lots of rods please? It makes my perms come out better".
• Now, let the hairdresser proceed to wrapping the perm. Do not act too concerned, you need to protect the hairdresser's ego. If you feel any pulling in the rod after it is in place though, say that they are pulling too much. Hair breakage can be a result of too much pulling during a perm. It is advisable to wrap loosely around the rod rather than too tightly. Just remember, wrapping too tightly means more breakage, and too much hair in each rod means a lot of frizz.
• Make sure that the stylist puts cream and cotton around the face and neck. Ask to change it if it gets soaking wet. This should be done anyway to protect your skin, but if the hairdresser doesn't do it, you should ask for it. After you are saturated and they put you away, keep track of the time yourself. Call the stylist back after just five minutes and ask to please check it right away. Tell him or her that you process very quickly and need frequent checking. If the stylist says that the perm is self-timing, answer that self-timing it does not work for your hair. Insist that your fine hair does not react like regular hair and must be checked often. If the stylist goes away into the back room, get up and go looking for him or her. Your fine hair NEEDS to be checked frequently.
• At this point, you are ready for the rods to be rinsed. this is another important part since human hair needs lots of rinsing. The hairdresser should then be towel blotting, followed by the neutralizer.
• Neutralizing on fine hair is very important. Almost all perms call for a five minutes of neutralization. Fine hair tends to over-process during this phase so, I suggest watching the time from the very moment that your stylist starts putting on the neutralizer rather than from the time he or she completes the application. It would be best start removing the rods after just three minutes. This way you are sure that your hair won't over-process. You should ask the stylist's assistant to rinse and get the neutralizer out first.

The above are tips to help you get a good perm notwithstanding your delicate fine hair. Please, try to be very careful not to embarrass your stylist if he or she does not specialize in fine hair. If you are concerned, you may want to write this down and say it was the advice of your previous hairdresser.