Ever since high school, I’ve always wanted to get a digital perm after learning about them from the Soompi forums. (I spent a lot of time on Soompi back in high school.) But as a non-working high schooler, it was way out of my budget and when college rolled around, I completely forgot about it.

Then a few months ago, I was watching Alice Gao’s Instagram stories and I saw that she had been getting a digital perm with short hair. In the past, I had always assumed that a digital perm would only look good with long hair, and at this point in my life, I’ve come to terms that I do not like dealing with long hair.

I really loved how Alice’s hair looked, especially since the curls add so much volume. I really love having my hair on the shorter end, but one thing I’ve always had an issue with is how flat and thin it is. I’ve had super thin, straight hair my entire life and sometimes hair stylists ask me if I’m balding because my hair is so thin and lacks volume 🙁

After doing some research on salons in New York City, I made an appointment with Haruka at Hayato Salon in Flatiron. Since Haruka is at the director level, the price of the digital perm at the time of writing this blog post is $240 + tax and gratuity. I also got a haircut, which was included in the price.

Getting a digital perm is a very involved process and long process! I arrived at 11am and we didn’t finish until 1:30pm. The first step was getting my hair washed and cut. Then a chemical was applied to my hair and I had to wait a little bit before getting my hair washed again. Then a heat protectant was added and my hair stylist and her assistant wrapped my hair in the rollers.

Haruka did warn me that it would be a little heavy because of all the things they were putting on my head and it was definitely a noticeable amount of weight. They let the machine turn on and heat for 20 minutes and it was really hot. There was steam coming from my head, but Haruka and her assistant did a good job with adding cushion so that it wasn’t too uncomfortable. Fortunately the 20 minutes passed by quickly and after they unrolled my hair, they then sprayed down my curls with another liquid. After one more washing and blow drying, the perm was done!

I am in love with my hair and how the digital perm turned out! I love that my hair is short and now also has volume and texture. I can’t wash my hair for two days, so I’m currently not sure how time consuming or how much effort the maintenance and care will be, but I’ll put together another blog post for that.

Hayato New York
125 East 23rd Street, 2F
New York, NY 10010