Korea Has Tamed the Beast!

This past Friday, I mustered up the courage to get my hair “magic permed”. Here, whether you’re going for a straight or curly look, everything is called a perm. In my case I went for the straightening treatment. I am fairly certain it was the same process I had done when I lived in Japan two years ago. My hair was not poker straight nor did it dry that way, but the frizz was gone and it became much more manageable than the lion’s mane I had to deal with before.

This time I went in to a salon near my apartment after work at 5:30pm. About four hours later I emerged looking fab with super straight, super long hair. Honestly, I have had many different hair styles in my life (short, long, medium, bangs, no bangs, curly, straight, etc.), but it has never been this long before. Lately, my hair’s unruly nature made me sweep it up in a bun or messy ponytail, so I guess I didn’t realize how long it had gotten.

All Diana Ross after a blow dry (pre magic perm)

The poor salon workers must have had a heart-attack when they saw all my hair. It really has a life of its own, like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors going “feed me!” I was asked twice if I had a perm (curly) but I assured them it was natural, to which they responded in a chorus of oooohs and aaaaaahs. It was like they honestly couldn’t believe a person could possess curly hair like that naturally, as if everyone on the planet has straight hair. Oh Korea. Well, I certainly made them work. To be fair, I told them I didn’t have an appointment and asked if I could still have it done that day. They could have had me come back in the morning, but hey, they went for it.

There was a moment of panic in the beginning where I thought, “What if they think my foreign locks are so alien that they leave the chemical on longer than usual and I walk out with broken hair that’s falling out in clumps?!?!?” Even though I have a TON of hair, each individual strand is medium to fine, so a chemical as strong as this could be quite damaging if done wrong. Thank goodness I was in the experienced hands of the Korean equivalent of Vidal Sassoon (not really) but it all worked out. I had three people blow drying my hair at one point and it still took about 15min. I also had two people flat-ironing inch sections of my hair which took FOREVER! And I mean forever. Imagine the kid in the movie The Sandlot repeating the words “forever” over and over. Seriously, it took about two hours just for the flat-ironing.

"magic"

In the end though, my sore bum was a small price to pay for having silky smooth, manageable hair. And I am thankful to say the price hardly left a dent in my wallet. In the states, a treatment like this would have set me back at least $500. Some places charge up to $1000 which is absolutely ridiculous. In Korea, I only had to shell out a hundred bucks. Can’t beat it! If there is anyone out there with hair like mine considering this process, I say go for it! Who wants to waste hours of their life fixing their hair? Thank you Korea, for saving me the time and money. Thank you.