What is Karma perm (Also Known As: Parting perm)?
Karma perm is one of the trendiest and time tested perms that has been popular in Korea for a long time. Karma means parting in English, so Karma perm means permed hair with parting of hairs in the frontside. The classic Karma perm is 5:5 ratio for where the parting of your hair is going to be. So for 5:5 the parting of the hair is going to be right in the middle. However, that also means you will show basically all of your forehead, which can make it little bit uncomfortable for some. Most Koreans go for 6:4 or 7:3 position for parting so that you show less of your forehead.
Let’s see some pictures to see how Karma perm looks like:
You can see that it exposes a lot of your forehead when you do 5:5.
It is angled so more difficult to tell but the ratio seems like 7:3 here and it shows much less of the forehead.
All of the ratios honestly look great, but it depends a lot on your face shape if you can pull the different ratios off.
What kind of looks does it give?
Karma perm gives off a neat and fancy look. It goes really well with any formal occasion clothes and casual clothes as well. Moreover, depending on how much wave you give to your hair for Karma perm, you can give off a warm, dandy feel or more formal and clean feel.
What facial shape fits best with it?
Egg face – almost all Asian hairstyles go really well with this face shape
Edged Face – it can give off a warm feel to edged faces due to the wave of the perm
What facial shape should avoid it?
Round face – depending on how you get Karma perm it can be different but since the front hair falls on to your side, it can make your head look horizontally bigger.
Long face – you are exposing your forehead which makes your head look even longer, but if you do a 7:3 or even 8:2 ratio instead it may look great like the following picture:
Please take a look at Edge perm(link here) if you want Karma perm but have a long face.
How much does it cost?
I have called around 10 places in California and it costs around $100 for the perm. More expensive if you go higher end ($150). Make sure the cost includes the cut for the hair
How to Properly maintain it after getting it
Maintenance Score – Low.
perm cream and regular combing, it does take some minimal tasks to take care of the hair. So if you are a guy who has at least a little time to maintain your hair, Karma perm is a time tested choice.