Sam White at the Woo Salon, Southend, curling a client's hair

IT'S back. The decade that style forgot and the rest of us would perhaps like to.

Thanks largely to television show Ashes to Ashes, all things 80s are back in fashion.

The BBC show, stars Keeley Hawes as a contemporary London detective who travels through time back to 1981, and finds herself with a rather fetching perm.

Now it seems life is set to imitate art, as fashion insiders predict that the perm is about to return.

Style bible Vogue recently declared the 80s was back, but the effects aren't just being felt in high fashion circles. The High Street is also noticing the trend.

Superdrug say that sales of their home perm kits have risen by 50 per cent compared to the same time last year. They've also seen a rise in the sales of hair crimpers.

"When Vogue magazine said that 1980s beauty was back we thought we may see a slight increase but have been amazed at how our customers have easily slipped back a couple of decades, says Peter Newbould, Superdrug director of toiletries.

"Today's vintage eighties look is less about capturing the Lady Diana look and more about copying the tongue-in-cheek retro magpie style of new icons such as Agyness Deyn and Alexa Chung," he says.

Sam Bright, who runs Woo Hair and Beauty in Clifftown Road, Southend, says its a trend they've already started to notice.

"Over the last year and a half we have had people ask for perms, plus curls done by straighteners, she says.

"It first started to make a comeback in late 2006 when the catwalks introduced this soft, sexy wave to the hair. Then the celebs were ditching the straight look and coming out with more movement, and from this everyone came in asking for curls."

Although Sam is careful to point out it's not the 80s corkscrew look, but something a lot more subtle.

"Curls are very versatile and suit a lot of different hair types but we recommend that you always seek advice from a stylist to weather a perm would suit you and your hair. So I wouldn't be ditching those hair straighteners just yet especially because you can create curls with them to stop your hair from looking flat and dead."

Heidi Bannister, who trained as a hairdresser in the 80s and now teaches hairdressing at the Central Training Group, Southend, isn't as convinced.

Heidi, who was doing six perms a day when she first started hairdressing, says they have gone out of fashion to such an extent that trainees no longer have to learn how to do them.

"They've been saying perms are coming back for the past five years and it doesn't seem to have taken off so far," she says.

"Although things do go round on a loop, so they may come back eventually. I'm not convinced it's going to happen anytime soon though."

Why perms shouldn't come back - by someone who knows

by Kate Eshmade

Kylie Minogue has got a lot to answer for.

Well, I've got to blame someone for the fact I spent the majority of my early teenage years looking like I'd stuck my fingers in a plug socket.

Before that time I was perfectly happy with my straight hair. It was low maintenance, in fact it just sat there, leaving me more time for more important things like learning the latest Bros lyrics from Smash Hits.

Then along came Kylie, who not only got to kiss Jason Donovan on a regular basis, but she also got to launch a pop career. If a head of curly locks could do that for her, then maybe, just maybe, my fortunes would change.

Then something even more significant happened. My best friend got her hair permed. Now when you're 11, a friend has far more influence on your sense of style than Kate Moss could ever dream of. So the fact that she had one, made it the top of my to do list.

If only I had been stronger. What started as a copycat whim, led to years of suffering and a lifetime of embarrassing photographic evidence.

Looking back there was nothing good about having a perm. The process took several mind numbing hours. During which you'd pray no-one from school would be passing as you sat looking like an old granny, covered in rollers and eye-stinging chemicals.

Afterwards, I didn't look like Kylie or land my very own Jason Donovan lookalike, but I kept doing it to myself. Although I do think my mum should take some of the blame for helping to fund this self-destruction.

The after care was equally as time consuming. Curls weren't allowed to be soft at that time. Half a can of mousse was applied every morning to make the hair as crispy as possible.

While I might just have got away with it in those early years. Once my eyesight started failing me, so did my perm.

As soon as I started wearing glasses my perm went from Kylie to Deidre. My now shorter perm, teamed up with my new spectacles, made me look like Deidre Barlow. Not a good look for a 40 plus woman let alone a teenage girl.

I eventually let the last of my perms grow out and thankfully time has healed the worst of the memories, but I could never condone the use of perms.

They might be big, but they're definitely not clever.

1:32pm Thursday 27th March 2008

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