Perm Resistant Hair
I am being told the straightness is because her hair is too long and weighing it down and making the ends straight. Wouldn't it be weighing it down and pulling from the top and taking the curl out from there?
A: You are exactly right in thinking that if the weight of the hair's length was pulling out the curl it would mean that the hair at the scalp area would be straighter, not the hair at the ends. It sounds to me as though your daughter has resistant hair and that the hair was not processed long enough during the perming procedure.
The stylist should have performed a test curl on your daughter's hair prior to perming to determine how long she needed to let the waving lotion process on the hair. If this wasn't done, you have more reason to suspect that lack of processing was the cause.
The good news is that unless your daughter's hair was damaged by the perming process, she should be able to have another perm to correct the problem as soon as she desires. I would recommend speaking to the salon owner/manager where she had the perm done and ask what they are willing to do to make your daughter's hair right.
You may not want to return to the salon where you received bad service, however, and that would be understandable, but unless you allow them to make good on the service that was paid for, you may have no other recourse for getting satisfaction.
Whatever you choose to do - go to a new salon, or retry the previous one - you might suggest to the stylist who will perform your new perm that your hair be rolled in a "Piggyback Wrap". The piggyback wrap uses two tools per slice of hair and winds half of the length on each.
Using the piggyback wrap distributes the hair over a greater number of tools, meaning there is less hair on each, and the hair is then easier to saturate with waving lotion and gives you better processing.
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See also:
Perms and perming
What is the difference between a normal perm and a piggyback perm?
When should you start to time the perm processing time?