My Digiperm Experience at Tony & Jackey

Just a short intro. One of my life frustrations is having curly locks, being born with straight but unruly hair. I had wanted to get a digiperm from the first time I heard about it, but the high cost is pretty inhibiting. Not to mention, the lack of salons experienced with the service in my general vicinity. Thankfully, Tony & Jackey opened a branch at the local SM a coupla years ago and the price for the procedure has gone down a bit. They currently have a promo, which I initially wanted to avail:

I inquired a few days ago if this particular promo was available at the SM Batangas City branch and they replied that it indeed was. However, the client’s hair is still subject to assessment if it can withstand the damage without the help of other treatments. So basically, this is for those with natural, untreated, chemically-virgin hair. Like me. 😛 Haha. So I was pretty much set on availing the promo. On Saturday, I went there to finally(!) achieve my childhood dream of having curly locks, like so:

However, upon inquiry I discovered that there’s another ongoing promo for a digiperm package for P2,100. That includes the digital perm plus keratin treatment, which normally costs P1,500 for long hair like mine. I went for the package since I figured my hair could use the extra pampering and so it would not be as dry (I read that the procedure kinda dries out the hair). The stylist cut off a good couple of inches of my long hair and then layered it so the resulting curls would be more pronounced. Here are some pictures after the requisite shampooing:

I wasn’t able to fully keep track of the entire procedure since my daughter was there and kept raising a ruckus. 😀 What I do remember is that they first put in “medicine” on my hair after shampooing then wrapped my hair with cling wrap. I think that’s for weakening the bond of the hair to make it hold curls. Then it was “cured” in the helmet-like machine in the second photo. It took around 20 minutes, then the machine and was removed and but the cling wrap remained for another ten minutes or so. I guess my hair is quite resistant to the chemical, that’s why. A couple of times the stylist checked strands of my hair to see if it would hold curls before she finally assessed that it’s sufficient and the chemical was washed off my hair. Then my hair was sectioned then wrapped around the barrels and attached to the “octopus machine” in the photos. 😛 The timer was set for just 13 minutes. Then my hair was allowed to cool still attached to the machine. Then when the curling rods were removed, the stylist sprayed neutralizer on the curls. Then it was washed once more after around 10 minutes then finally dried and styled. The end result?

The curls were pretty and very natural-looking but much looser than I initially anticipated. After all, the stylist said she’d give me smaller curls which would loosen with time. I’m afraid with curls this loose, I’d be back to having straight hair sooner than I’m supposed to. She also advised me not to wash my hair for at least 2 days, then taught me how to style my hair. Here’s what my hair looked like the day after:

I twisted and scrunched it as per the stylist’s advice and so far, so good. However, I think that not washing my hair is weighing the curls down. And I think I was partly right as evidenced by how it looked the next day, still not washed:

That’s my beloved mother and digiperm sponsor right there. 😉

This morning, I finally washed my hair. I was afraid that the curls would vanish, but that’s just me and my paranoia. I followed the advice of other bloggers who had digipermed hair to just use condition on the initial wash. I still have half a tube of my Human ♥ Nature conditioner so I used that, even sectioning and twisting my locks while soaked with the conditioner. Then I used Monea Curl Defining Milk Lotion (thanks sis Mimi for the info!) to enhance the curls. Here’s how my hair looks like right now:

Hindi po ako galit. 😛

Sorry for that, I just couldn’t get a good angle to show the curls–or lack thereof. I was expecting a bit more curls or at least waves on the upper half of my hair. As you can see, only the lower half of my hair is now curled. 😐 And that’s with near-constant twisting and scrunching. I’m not sure if the stylist intended this style for me, or if my hair is just really resistant to the procedure, or what. I am not quite sure if I am satisfied with the results or not. On one hand my hair still looks natural despite the curly difference and has escaped relatively undamaged, on the other it’s not as curly as I would have wanted. Hmmm… What do you think?

Update:
You can find the products I use to maintain my curls here. 🙂