IT may have fallen out of favour in recent years, but the permanent wave, beloved of '70s footballers and '80s soap stars, is making a comeback!

The Return of the Perm follows more than a decade of poker straight hair and is believed to have been inspired by actress Keeley Hawes, who plays DI Alex Drake in the TV series Ashes to Ashes, which is set in the early 1980s.

And last month Vogue magazine heralded the return of essential '80s beauty products including the humble home perm kit.

Peter Newbould, a spokesman for Superdrug, said sales of home perm kits had risen by 50 per cent compared to the same time last year.

"We sold more home perm kits in the last week than we sold during the whole of February," he said.

"The overwhelming majority of home perm kits are being sold to women, though - it seems the modern man has yet to embrace one of the most iconic hair styles of all time - the Kevin Keegan bubble perm."

Hairdresser Adrian Simmons, who runs Studio 56 in Christchurch, was one of the first to make waves with his curly barnet when he was a student more than 20 years ago.

"I was bullied into it because it was the fashionable thing to do - I liked it at the time, although my mother hated it. I used to have fairly curly hair anyway, so you can imagine what I looked like!

"I think the problem these days is how the perm is perceived. People immediately think of Kevin Keegan and Deirdre Barlow. We still do perms at the salon - not the tight Keegan curls but the big bouncy waves."

Simone Nig, a senior stylist at the Robin James Salon in Poole who has naturally curly hair, said she was pleased to be back in fashion again.

"Straight hair got a bit boring, to be honest, and for a long time many clients wouldn't even entertain the idea of wearing their hair any other way.

"The look now is a softer more natural version of the '80s perm - I don't think we will be seeing a return of the big bubble curls just yet."

But Louise Voysey, who runs the Ashleigh Harford Salon in Bournemouth, was not so keen.

"I'm not a big fan of perms and I don't think we will go back to setting the hair just yet," she said. "People like to have their hair curled for a special occasion. We actually use GHDs (straightening irons) to curl people's hair as much we use them to straighten it now."

  • The headline for this story came from presenter Paul Bunker on the Paul Bunker Show on 2CR FM.