African American Women: How to Give Your Daughter Her First Home Perm

Many African American women start giving their children perms at very young ages. The reason why is because it usually helps to make the hair a lot more manageable. But before you apply any perm to your child's hair there are some basic rules and precautions that you will want to take. First you will not even want to think about giving your daughter a perm unless she is over the age of eight years old. Any younger and you can actually cause more damage than you think. The next thing you will want to do is make sure you do your research on finding which perm is best for your child. Most stores now carry perms that are made just for kids. These perms usually have chemicals that are weaker than some of the chemicals in perms used for adult hair. Once you have found one that you fill is suitable for your daughter you will then want to make sure that you thoroughly read through all of the directions. Even if you think you already know how to apply the perm you still will want to read and follow all of the instructions. This will not only serve as a protection for your daughter but will also make you feel more comfortable when applying the perm. 

When you are ready to begin make sure that you use the latex gloves that come in most perm boxes. If for some reason there are not gloves in your box you will want to purchase some gloves prior to beginning your daughters hair. You can cause serious damage to your hands if you do not use the gloves. Most of these type of at home perms come with all the ingredients needed for the perm in separate containers. you will have to mix most of the chemicals together in order to activate the perm. Make sure that you mix it properly and thoroughly. Once this is done, you want to add the protective gel to your daughters scalp. Sometimes they forget to include the gel in the box, or they only give you a very small packet. If this happens then you can use Vaseline on your daughter scalp.