NEW YORK - (Reuters), New York banker Michele Levy squeezes in a hair appointment during lunch break at least twice a week to get her hair blow-dried stick straight.
After shelling out $80 (50 pounds) weekly just to defriz her long wavy hair, Michele, 30, consulted a posh New York salon to get a new kind of straight perm, using a Japanese ironing technology of thermal reconditioning that lasts four to six months.
"I thought it would be worth paying $700 if it lasts that long," Brazilian born Levy said. "Straight hair offsets looking too serious in the office with that touch of sexiness."
She is not alone among fashion-obsessed New York women who would be relieved to be spared of that one extra hour before zipping off to work.
"It saves them so much time blow-drying their hair every day," said Edward Tricome, a part owner of Warren-Tricome, a high-end Manhattan beauty salon chain.
"We doubled our sales this year so far from the 'magic perm'," said Shige Kosuda, a New York-based hair stylist who said that upscale New York hair salons -- hit by shaken consumer confidence after the Sept. 11 attacks -- are rushing to offer the straightening perm to cash in on the trend.
Ellen Payne, executive managing director for Glamour magazine, says actresses like Jennifer Aniston starring in hit TV show "Friends" have sparked the trend.
"My 14 year-old and her friends all want straight hair. It is a celebrity thing. It also makes us think we can look young (with straight hair)," Payne told Reuters.
The Japanese hair straightening treatment introduced to New York nearly three years ago outperforms conventional hair relaxers in many ways: a safer, long-lasting method involving coating the hair with chemicals and ironing them in small sections that still leaves a lustrous shine. It is also labour intensive, taking up to six hours long in a salon.
"It looks so much better pin straight," mused jewellery designer Randy Leder, 33, after a five-hour sitting that cost her $800. "I was miserable with my hair. I love it!"
A LATE BOOM?
When marketed in Japan over six years ago, it ignited a mini fashion boom for women who wanted their shiny black mane to be even straighter.
But in New York, people are flocking to the salons out of desperation to rid of one of women's most vexing beauty hassles, said Shizuya Nishida, a distributor for one of major Japanese hair relaxers.
As a president of Shinbi International Corp, he has seen orders skyrocket in the U.S. market for the past year.
"We have supplied our product and trained over 1,000 salons in the United States," said Nishida.
That is up from 600 last year, with the majority initially marketed for salons catering to Japanese and Asian clientele, whose sturdier hair is normally more receptive to perms and treatments.
"American salons are catching up with the trend, but they charge more because they have to deal with overwhelmingly varying hairstyles, especially delicate blond hair," said Nishida.
Nishida said salons in the Unites States on average charge $300 to $500 or more for the four-to-five hour long process of hair ironing. In Manhattan, top-end salons charge more than $1,000 using the same product.
NOT A CURE-ALL
To be sure, the Japanese method of thermal reconditioning is not a cure-all for all locks of hair from all walks of life.
"I consult clients every day but I have to reject a chunk of them who have highlights in their hair. Theirs are too brittle and fragile for the treatment," said Sei Hamada, a hair stylist at Warren-Tricome.
"If the hair is too frizzy and tight-curled, the effect is not as outstanding and the roots have to be retouched sooner," said another stylist Mina, who declined to identify her salon.
Reservations are booked for months for the $220-plus-tip treatment at her Japanese salon in Manhattan, which keeps priced relatively low to match prices at its headshop salon in Tokyo.
In Tokyo, where getting a manicure costs triple New York standard of around $10-12, taming hard-to-manage waves makes one exception from every other costly pampering offered in Japan's fashion capital.
Many salons in Japan offer half-off discounts for the treatment -- now that they are available anywhere -- for a little more than a $100.
"You think some New York salons are ripping you off?" Kosuda suggests. "The U.S. market must be over 10 times larger than Japan's."
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