Just like black folks the world over call relaxers 'perms' when perms curl the hair, not take the kink out...but we all know what we mean when we hear perm coming from a black person, don't we?
Don't kill me, but I love language so can't help it when I see something I wanna discuss.
That "perms" actually curl hair is really just a deduction from what perms were initially created for. The word "perm" came from "permanent wave" and indeed perms
permanently changed the structure of hair strands of people with straight hair to make it curly/wavy. Since I suppose that was the first hair texture change to be made permanent, then getting a perm came to be associated with curling one's hair, and for a lot of people, it still does.
But when hair is permanently changed from curly/coily to straight, it is also being
permanently changed, so in time, as language evolved, perms came to include permanently straightening hair.
In the UK, I remember having to state at the salon whether I wanted a straight perm (relaxer) or a curly perm (jheri curl) when I went to see a stylist to get my virgin hair chemically processed.
If you look up the word "perm", you will see its current definition is to give hair a "permanent".
And if you look up the word permanent, you will see some of these definitions, which I found interesting coz even one that includes "making hair straight" still refers to perming as being also known as "permanent
wave":
- Any of several long-lasting hair styles usually achieved by chemical applications which straighten, curl, or wave the hair. (Source)
- A long-lasting hair wave or straightening produced by mechanical and chemical means —called also permanent wave (Source)