Perm Rod Set on Transitioning Hair

Curly styles are a great option when transitioning from relaxed to natural hair. Maintaining them can be a little tricky but we’ll get to that. Last week I went to get a perm rod set on my transitioning hair for my birthday. My hairdresser put in the teeny tiny spirals and it came out way too small for my liking, almost like a straw set. I hate a straw set. See:

This was me trying to find a cute way to pin it up so I could head out. The plan was to stretch it a bit for the birthday dinner the following day. I ended up pinning it all back out my face and the next day it looked something like

Better, but I still didn’t like how small it was. So I spent the entire day running my fingers through the spirals separating and fluffing…it felt so great! This was a great use of my fingers since I have hand-in-hair syndrome. I ended up with

Perm Rod Set on Transitioning Hair

Perfect! I love it! Still not a big poufy curly fro but I was really feeling the curls. I’m still not a fan of a small spiral set. If I go back, I’ll definitely request bigger curls, but this hairstyle was alright. My hair was nice and soft, word to Maureen my hairdresser for the hookup. These perm rod set hairstyles can come out very stiff and crunchy but thanks to her I couldn’t keep my hands out of it the entire time.

However, maintenance. Knots galore, which I did nothing to help by always trying to separate the spirals, so I feel I lost a lot more hair than I needed to. If you do get this hairstyle, after the initial separating of curls, keep your fingers out your hair! And of course, wear a satin bonnet over it at night to keep it soft and fresh. I love this one because it’s big enough to hold all my curls.

Anyone else out there transitioning? What are your go-to styles? Read about my transitioning frustrations here and some life-saving transitioning products I use.