How old were you when you got your first perm?

About how old were you when you got your first perm?

  • Straight out the womb!

    Votes: 3 0.6%
  • 1-5 years old

    Votes: 54 11.0%
  • 5-8 years old

    Votes: 82 16.6%
  • 8-12 years old

    Votes: 155 31.4%
  • 12-15 years old

    Votes: 120 24.3%
  • 15-20 years old

    Votes: 59 12.0%
  • Over 20 years old

    Votes: 14 2.8%
  • Never had a perm

    Votes: 6 1.2%

  • Total voters
    493
My mother relaxed my hair at 10 years old. I recall her saying it was so thick and long that she developed severe cramps in her hands from doing it everyday. It remaind long until I got to high school and started doing my own hair.:nono:
 
I was about 6-7 yrs. old...oo how i cried b4 i got it in, i cried while it was in, and i cried when, my mom rinsed it out....i was sooooooooo nappyheaded and it was a relief from press'n but i tell you what, she followed them dogg on directions but burnt the heck out my scalp in the process when she took down my braids for the creemy crack!
 
I got one at 17 after the girl that was my play sister growing up got one. She was 13 I think and her brother and I are only two weeks apart (Hence her being my play sister as he was my play brother). Anyway, she had the same type I had mostly and she got a perm two weeks before I did. I never wanted a perm because my granny said my hair would fall out. Well my silly ass saw her with one and my first thought was "Hey, her hair didn't fall out and her's is like mine-maybe I can get one!" :wallbash:Not realizing it was in only two weeks and the effects wouldn't happen right away...
So I got one and for the first two years or so my hair was fine...well eventually it started shedding and breaking. Some of it was my fault though as I stopped going to get it done on a regular basics...It was expensive and I did have a kid at the time. The first time I went into transition I was 20 I think but it was too hard for me and I did perms again-myself most of the time. I think the last perm I had I was 25 and did the big chop soon after that. My hair should be a lot longer than it is now but I haven't really been taking care of it (lazy and using school as an excuse:nono:). But that's about to change......:yep:
 
I was doing my own perms when I was 14. Bad mistake. Everything that I could have done wrong, I was doing! It was my sister's old perm, and when my hair wouldn't look so straight anymore; I would do it over. Yes, my entire head! I was back in braids in no time! :lachen:
 
I was seven with a big lion's mane and a TENDER head :nono: my mother just simply could not take the hours of fighting i put up...hopefully i wont succumb with my child :rolleyes:
 
I was turning 12. My mom relaxed my hair about 2 weeks after we moved to FL. Between sweating and the pool, she was just overwhelmed. When I was contemplating the decision to go natural, I kept wondering why my mom had put the relaxer in my hair to begin with. I understand where she was coming from and don't regret the experience at all.
 
I was either 4 or 5 my mom isn't sure. She says that my hair was getting to thick and long and she was having trouble pressing it and dealing with it so to make her life easier she just permed it. :ohwell:


My mother too. She said I was about five. My hair was really long and very thick so she said, "I had to perm that stuff.":ohwell:
 
i was around 12.
i remember it burned so bad because i've always been a scratcher.

i wish so much that my rents had not done that! :wallbash:

but, alas, i finally broke free of the creamy crack in 02 and never looked back...it's so hard to remember what it was even like to perm my hair.

but i do remember the one time it all fell out.

never again! :nono:
 
I had to have been 5 at the oldest. I remember being like getting touch ups..

I never had any issues with breakage when i was younger.. My hair was always well kept... Then when i got to H.S. I started doing mean things to my hair and that was all she wrote.:look:
 
I was only 4 years old but my moms a stylist so my hair was in good hands. My hair didnt go downhill till I turned 18 and wanted a glue in weave. I did it my self and ruined my own hair.
 
6 yrs old my mother didnt like the elasticity of my curls and got my first perm in Haiti they smack some adult strong relaxer and BURNed all my edges.
 
I was in elementary school, my mother was a hairstylist for like 20 yrs and she was young so I was the experiment lol!!! at first I had a jerry curl, because my natural hair was too wiry curly for her to deal and she couldn't braid to save her life. so the jerry curl made it easier (and no it wasn't no messy drippy curl lol!!! my moms has skills) as I got older she turned the jerry curl into a perm so it's been a looooooooong time with relaxers and i've always had extremely healthy thick hair. I also use to be her hair model when she did demos at salons to get the jobs so I was always getting the best hair treatments :)
 
I was 21:ohwell: my mother wouldn't allow us the get relaxers, I begged and begged, so I did it behind her back while I was away at college, big mistake. I permed for a few years after that point and went back natural.
 
I clicked on the wrong choice. :hide: I thought 17 lay somewhere between 12 and 15. Sorry for screwing up the poll. Anyone that hasn't voted and that falls between 12 and 15, please pick 17 coz I picked for you. I'ma tiptoe out of thread now....
 
I was 11 years old. My mom went to work and I had to start doing my own hair so I got a perm. I permed my hair until I was 18. By then it was starting to look pretty tore up! LOL.
 
I was about 14 and wanted to be down wit the crowd, mom was totally against it, in retrospect I understand why:nono: it took me only 4 yrs of being relaxed to decide to go natural for good:yep:
 
I think I was 6 or 7 years old. My mom says that my hair was easier to handle than it seems like it is now, so I don't really understand why she did it...but oh well...

cj
 
I got my first one after school on the last day of 3rd grade. I was so happy because earlier that day in class, I commented to another black girl that we had the same hairstyle (ponytails all over twisted with barrettes on the ends) and she rolled her eyes and said her hair looks nothing like my nappy head. I thought having straight hair would make me more popular. Didn't work out that way :| Kids are cruel, plain and simple.

My sister also got her first perm that day. She was only 5. That was a terrible decision that caused her years of bad hair. She decided to go natural at 13 and her hair has never been healthier. In my case, I never had any issues with relaxers, so I continued to use them for the next 17/18 years. I finally decided to go back to natural earlier this year. Seeing all the possibilities that natural hair has, I wish I had never had a relaxer and that my mom knew some of the things I now know about managing my hair.
 
Back
Top