Cheap Curls for the Soon-to-be Mama

A few weeks ago, I decided to get a perm in order to make post-partum hair-care simple... Because we're not fans of spending big bucks at salons though (we both cut our own hair at home for the most part), Hugh was slightly blown away at how much the average perm costs (they don't ring in around here for any less than $65). So he suggested that I look into one of the cosmetology schools in our area.

Normally, I probably would have been slightly nervous to get something as serious and chemically-harsh done at a cosmetology school, but I was feeling oh-so-desperate since my straight hair was at an awkward growing-out length which required a 15-20 minute style daily to look decent. :( So I called the newer cosmetology school, and they said that they would do a perm for $30 (that's less than half price!!). When I asked how soon they could schedule me, the receptionist said that I could name the time that very day and they could do it... So I threw any concerns I had to the wind and told her that I'd be there in an hour.

To make a long story short, I was not initially impressed with the "supervising" teacher who said that they couldn't roll the bottom layers of my hair (from the top of my ears down) since it was too short to fit on the big rollers. I had a very sweet student rolling my hair though, and she eventually convinced the teacher to let her roll it on smaller rollers after I expressed concern that my super-straight hair would look quite strange below super-curly hair, even if the teacher did "blend it in really good." :) Anyway, she ended up rolling all of my layers, and 4 hours later, I was quite pleased with how the perm turned out. Now, obviously a perm shouldn't really take more than 1.5-2 hours to complete on short hair, but the student who rolled my hair was a little slow still, so with my discounted price came a slightly longer time commitment. That's something I'm willing to do though to save money, and I was quite impressed with how well the student did. :) My overall experience was positive, and I would definitely do it again!

Here's a pic of the new curls and the growing bump at 37.5 weeks: