Pinup Hairstyles for a Cool Summer Matching Hairstyles for Your Facial Shape Don't Pluck Out White Hairs, Experts Advise The Secrets of A Movie Star's Hair

The perm was invented by Karl Nessler, a German hairdresser, who gave the first public demonstration of his perm machine at his salon in London in 1906. He experimented on his wife Katharina, whose hair was saturated with sodium hydroxide and heated by 12 brass rods connected to an electric chandelier. Each rod was 30 centimeters long and weighed 900 grams, so Katharina had sit under more than 10 kg of metal heated to 100 degrees Celsius for five hours before emerging with a brand-new head of curls.

Perm styles illustrated in magazines from the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s (from left)

It was not until 1937 that the perm came to Korea, and it immediately became all the rage. The "early adopters" here had one thing in common: they were so-called new women ­ actresses, novelists and academics. Their perm cost them W5-6, which was enough to buy two 72kg bags of rice. In the early 1940s, the perm was banned under a prohibition order for all luxury goods on the grounds that the new hairstyle was a decadent trend imported from the West. But among women from wealthy families it remained in vogue.

In the 50s and 60s, after liberation from Japanese colonial rule, the nation saw the introduction of the "charcoal perm," which used charcoal to heat the rods instead of the scantily available electricity. Once heated, the rolls were wrapped in tinfoil and fixed into the hair. Lee On-suk (73), a veteran hairdresser with 52 years experience, recalls, "At the time, poorer women had their hair permed every six months or once a year, and they would tell me to roll their hair as tightly as I can so that it stayed permed as long as possible."

One famous salon of the time had so many customers that women who wanted to do their hair at the shop had to wait in a queue several hundred meters long, number tickets in hand, from dawn to late at night. The fashion in the 1960s was a perm that made the crown as voluminous as possible. Yook Young-soo, the first lady of president Park Chung-hee, is still remembered for that style.

Actresses Kim Tae-hee (left) in wave perm and Jeon Ji-hyun in a magic straight perm

But it was the 80s when the perm really came into its own in Korea. Women wanted waves, no matter if their hair was long or short. Hairstyling products such as mousse, gel and spray proliferated, and more and more women also started to dye their hair any color other than black.

Famous local hair stylist Park Jun says there have been no sweeping perm trends since. Instead, women pursued their own hairstyle. The so-called "straight perm" emerged in the 90s, allowing women to straighten wavy hair almost permanently, especially when the "magic straight perm" appeared in 1999. The style fit in with the natural look popular at the time, straightening hair just like ironing smoothes rumpled clothes. It was forbiddingly expensive, costing from W100,000 (US$100) to W200,000, and salons were able to make huge profits.

What is the secret behind the enduring popularity of the perm that still sends women into hours of discomfort under the helmet, most recently for dainty shepherdess' curls ? Lee On-suk says the perm is simply the basic element that allows women to do whatever they want with their hair. "What's more, permed hair looks beautiful," she adds. "If it didn't, it wouldn't have been popular for so long."

(englishnews@chosun.com )