There are 3 major drugstore chains in the Us: Walgreens, Cvs, and Rite Aid. Below are some key statistics about the 3 major drugstore chains as of 2012:
1. Walgreens ranks first with market cap of .51 Billion, .2 Billion in 2011 total income (.1B from prescribe revenues), and an S&P rating of A. Agreeing to Walgreens, 75% of the Us people lives within 3 miles from its stores. In April 2010, it acquired 258 Duane Reade drug market in New York Metropolitan area which brings a total of 7841 drug market Walgreens operates as of February 2012, along with 137 hospital on-site pharmacies.
2. Cvs ranks second with market cap of .56 Billion, 7.1 Billion in income (.5 Billion from Cvs prescribe revenues and .1B from its Caremark prescribe mail order revenue), and an S&P rating of Bbb+. As of December 31, 2011, Cvs operates 7404 drug stores.
3. Rite Aid ranks third (fourth, behind Walmart in terms of prescribe revenues) with market cap of .49 Billion, .1 Billion in income (.1B from prescribe revenues), operates 4714 drug market as of February 2011 and has an S&P rating of B-.
Investors buy properties busy by these drugstore chains for the following reasons:
1. The drugstore enterprise is very recession-insensitive. people need rehabilitation when they are sick, regardless of the state of the economy. Both rich and poor people in the Us have access to medicine. Some even argue that low-income people use more rehabilitation due to free or low-cost drugs offered by government-assisted programs. So the tenants should do well during tough time and have money to pay rent to landlords.
2. The drugstore enterprise has a good prospect in the Us:
· people are living longer and need more rehabilitation to sustain longevity, e.g. Actonel for osteoporosis, Aricept for Alzheimer's symptoms. Older people tend to use more rehabilitation than younger ones as they often have more curative problems. As the 78 million baby boomers are getting closer to retiring age beginning from 2008, the drugstore chains anticipate the query for rehabilitation to growth in next 20 years.
· The drug market continues to improve as the Us people continues to grow. More and more Americans suffer from assorted diseases. The estimate of Americans suffers from seasonal allergies doubled in the last 15 years to 37 million people per Fortune magazine. They spent .4 Billion in 2009 for allergy drugs. As their waist lines balloon (75% of Americans are forecasted to be whether overweight or obese by 2020), more Americans are diagnosed with diabetes, along with high cholesterol at younger and younger ages. In addition, doctors also recommend treating assorted diseases sooner than later due to great understanding about the diseases. For example, doctors now prescribe antiretroviral drugs for patients soon after infected with Hiv virus instead of waiting for the infection to come to be Aids. More doctors consolidate insulin with oral medicines to treat type-2 Diabetes instead of just oral medicines alone. All these factors growth the size of the drug market.
· improve in genetic engineering has introduced assorted new genetic Dna testing kits which allow the genetic pathology of vulnerabilities to inherited diseases and disorders. Genetic testing is currently the top growth segment in the diagnostics industry. Some of these genetic tests will probably transform into direct-to-consumer testing kits ready in drug market in the near future.Upon Fda approval, these new products will potentially bring in added income for drug stores.
· Using a new recipe of tailoring molecules called structure-based design; drug fellowships come up with new medicines that they might not have discovered otherwise, e.g. Xalkori by Pfizer to treat lung cancer.
· The duct of condition Care Reform Bill on March 23, 2010 provides assurance coverage to an estimated 33 million more American. This is a great gift to the drugstore industry.
· There are new drugs to treat previously untreatable illnesses, and new diseases, e.g. Viagra for men's unhappiness, Avastin for colon cancer, Herceptin for breast cancer,. The new medicines are very expensive, e.g. A year's supply of Avastin costs about ,000. Eli Lilly has sold about .8 billion of Zyprexa in 2007 for schizophrenia and yet most people have never heard of this medicine.
· There are existing drugs now approved to treat new illnesses and thus growth their sales revenue. For example, Lyrica was originally intended to treat pain caused by nerve damagein people with diabetes. It is now approved by Fda to treat Fibromyalgia which affects 5.8 million Americans per WebMd.
· Big advances in genetics, biology and stem cells explore are foreseen, to produce a new class of drugs to treat diabetes, Parkinson's and assorted rare genetic disorders. For example the new drug Ilaris from Novartis targets genetic causes of an inherited disorder that there are only 7000 known cases worldwide. However, Novartis hopes to gradually broaden its drugs to a blockbuster drug to more tasteless disorders caused by similar genetics.
· Technology and contemporary life introduce and wish new products, e.g. Pregnancy test kits, Lamisil for stronger clearer toe nails, Latisse for longer & thicker eyelashes, Propecia for male hair loss, Premarin for menopausal symptoms, diabetic monitors, electronic toothbrushes, caress lenses, lenses cleaners, diet pills, vitamins, birth-control pills, Iuds, food supplements and Cholesterol-lowering pills (Americans spent nearly B in 2006 on Cholesterol medications alone per Ims Health, a Connecticut-based consulting enterprise that monitors pharmaceutical sales.)
· Before the customers can get to the rehabilitation aisles or pharmacy counters, they have to pass by chocolates, sodas, digital cameras, watches, toys, dolls, beers and wines, cosmetics, video games, flowers, fragrances, and greeting cards. Drug market hope you use the one-hour photos services there. The market also carry seasonal items, e.g. Halloween costumes, and "As Seen on Tv" merchandise, e.g. Shamwow. As a result, customers buy more than their prescriptions and rehabilitation in these drugstores. Cvs reported that non-pharmacy sales represented 30% of the company's total sales in January of 2007. The outline for Walgreens is 34% and 37% for Rite Aid. Many pharmacy locations are in ensue convenience market especially ones that are in residential or rural areas. And so Walgreens hopes that customers also pick up Wd-40, and screwdrivers at its market instead of at Home Depot; Thai Jasmine rice, and fish sauce to avoid a trip to Safeway or Kroger Supermarkets. during the recession, sales of these non-drug items are down as customers buy what they need and not what they want. Walgreens tries to reduce the estimate of items by 4000. It also introduces its own hidden label which has higher behalf margins.
· There are more and more generic medications on the market as a estimate of enormously beloved brand-name blockbusters lose their 20-year long patents, e.g. Lipitor (best selling drug in the world to lower cholesterol) in 2010, Viagra (you know what it's for) in 2012. Drugstores prefer to sell generic drugs to customers due to higher behalf margins than the brand-name medications.
· Many people are addicted to pain killers, e.g. Hydrocodone/Oxycodone. Per the Dea in 2012, there are 1.5 million American addicted to cocaine but 7 million addicted to prescribe drugs.
· This author estimates that at least 10% of the dispensed prescribe drugs are not used at all and sit idle in the rehabilitation cabinets. They are ultimately expired and thrown away.
3. These fellowships sign very long-term Nnn leases, guaranteed by their corporate assets. This makes the venture in the underlying asset fairly low risk, especially for Walgreens with a S&P "A" rating. In fact, these properties are sometimes referred to as investment-grade properties. Once the drugstore chains sign the lease, they pay the rent right away and timely. This author is not aware of any properties leased by one of these drugstore chains in which the tenants failed to pay rents. Even when the market are fulfilled, due to weak sales (Walgreens fulfilled, 119 market in 2007), these fellowships may sublease the properties to other companies, e.g. improve Auto Parts and continue to pay rents on the specialist leases.
· A typical Walgreens lease consists of 20-25 year traditional term plus 8-10 five-year options. during traditional term and options, there will be no rent increases in most of the leases. This is the main disadvantage of investing in Walgreens drugstores.
· A typical Cvs lease consists of 20-25 year traditional term plus 4-5 five-year options. The rent is commonly flat during the traditional term and then there is a 2.5%-10% rent growth in each 5-year option.
· A typical Rite Aid lease consists of 20-25 year traditional term plus 4-8 five-year options. The lease often has a rent growth every 5-10 years.
Investment Risks
Although the pharmacy enterprise in normal is recession-insensitive, there are risks involved in your investment:
1) The main downside about investing in pharmacies is there is slight or no rent bump for a long time, e.g. 20-50 years, especially for Walgreens. So the rent is effectively reduced after inflation is factored in. This is one of the main reasons these properties do not request for retrial to younger investors, especially when the cap rate is low.
2) The 3 drugstore chains now have a new formidable competitor, Walmart. Walmart sells prescribe drugs in more than 4000 Walmart, Sam's Club and Neighborhood market market in 49 states. As of 2012, Walmart is the third largest drug retailer with .4B in prescribe sales, just ahead of Rite Aid with .1B in prescribe sales. The retail giant is known for launching in 2006 a highly-publicized generic prescribe drug program which now sells 350 generic medications for a 30-day supply. The actual estimate of medications is less as the medications with dissimilar strengths are counted as dissimilar medications. For example, Metformin 500 mg, 850 mg, and 1000 mg are counted as 3 medications. Walmart probably makes very slight profits on these medications if any. However, the marketing campaign--created by Bill Simon, the President and Ceo of Walmart Us, generates a lot of publicity for Walmart. Walmart hopes to draw customers to its market with other prescriptions where it has higher behalf margins. In an unscientific discover with just one brand-name prescribe of Lyrica, this author finds the bottom price at Costco, the top price at Walgreens and Walmart at the middle. Other drug chains try to counter Walmart in dissimilar ways. Target now offers the same 350 generic medications for for a 30-day supply. Walgreens has a prescribe drugs club with membership fee which offers 1400 generic medications for as slight as /week. Cvs says it will match any offers from its competitors.
3) Chief enterprise Correspondent Rick Newman from Us World & News report foreseen, that Rite Aid might not survive in 2009. Rite Aid is still colse to in 2012. The prediction seems to go away in 2012 as Rite Aid as it was able to refinance the long terms debts and sales income has increased.
4) Drugs are also sold in thousands of supermarkets, Target stores, and Costco warehouses. However, there are no drive-through windows at these market or Walmart to conveniently drop off the prescriptions and pick up medicines. Customers will not be able to pick up their prescriptions during lunch hour or after 7Pm at Target market or supermarkets. They need to have membership to buy medicines at Costco. Others may not fill their prescriptions at Walmart because they don't want to mingle with typical Walmart customers who are in lower income brackets. And some baby boomers don't want their prescriptions filled at Target or Walmart because there are no comfortable chairs for them to sit down and wait for their medicines.
5) Drugs retail enterprise to some degree is controlled by the Pharmacy Benefits Managers (Pbms). Customers commonly get prescribe coverage from their condition assurance companies, e.g. Blue Cross. These Pbm carry on prescribe benefits on behalf of the assurance companies. In 2012 Walgreens lost a ageement valued at over Billion with Express Scripts, a major Pbm. Walgreen income was immediately fallen in the first quarter of 2012 as Express Scripts customers cannot fill their prescriptions at Walgreens. The Pbms are also in the drugs retail enterprise via mail orders which do not wish leasing costly retail spaces. The prescribe mail orders currently capture over 20% market share of the total prescribe revenue. Should customers convert their prescribe buy habits to mail orders (there is no such evidence in 2012), it could have negative impact to the enterprise of drugstore chains.
6) Many leases in areas with hurricanes and tornadoes are Nnn leases with the irregularity of roof and structure. So if the roof is damaged, you will have to pay for the expenses.
7) The tenant may move to a new location down the road or across the road when the lease expires. This risk is high when the asset is located in small town where there is low barrier for entry, i.e. Lots of vacant & developable land.
8) The tenant may ask for rent concession to enhance its bottom line during tough times. The possibility is higher if the tenant is Rite Aid and if the store has low sales income and/or higher than market rent.
9) More Americans are walking away from their prescriptions, especially the most costly brand-name medicines. This may have negative impact on the sales income and profits of drug market and consequently may cause drug store closures. Agreeing to Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solution, a health-care data company, nearly 1 in 10 new prescriptions for brand-name drugs were abandoned by people with commercial condition plans in 2010. This is up 88% compared to 4 years ago just before the stepping back began. This trend is driven in part by higher and higher co-pays for brand name drugs as employers are shifting more assurance costs to their employees.
Among 3 drugstore chains, Walgreens and Cvs pharmacies in normal have the best locations-at major intersections while Rite Aid has less than excellent locations. Walgreens tends to hire only the top graduates from pharmacy schools while Rite Aid settles with bottom graduates to save costs. When possible, all drugstore chains try to fill the prescriptions with generic medications which have higher behalf margins.
1) Walgreens: the enterprise was founded in 1901 by Charles Walgreen, Sr. In Chicago. While the enterprise has existed for more than 100 years, most market are only 5-10 years old. This is the best managed enterprise among the three drugstore chains and also among the most admired public fellowships in the Us. The enterprise has been run by executives with proven track records and hires the top graduates from universities. Due to its first-rate financial strength--S&P A rating-- and excellent irreplaceable locations, properties with leases from Walgreens get the top price per quadrilateral foot and/or the bottom cap rate among the 3 drugstore chains. In addition, Walgreens gets flat rent or very low rent increases for 20 to 60 years. The cap rate is often in the low 5% to 6.5% range in 2012. Investors who buy Walgreens tend to be more mature, i.e. Closer to withdrawal age. They are seeing for a safe venture where it's more prominent to get the rent check than to get appreciation. They often correlate the returns on their Walgreens venture with the lower returns from Us treasury bonds or Certificate of Deposits from banks. Walgreens opened many new market in 2008 and 2009 and thus you see many new Walgreens market for sale. It will slow down this expansion in 2010 and beyond and focus on renewal of existing market instead.
2) Cvs Pharmacy: Cvs Corporation was founded in 1963 in Lowell, Ma by Stanley Goldstein, Sidney Goldstein, and Ralph Hoagland. The name Cvs stands for "Consumer Value Stores". As of 2009, Cvs has about 6300 market in the Us, mostly straight through acquisitions. In 2004, Cvs bought 1,200 Eckerd Drugstores mostly in Texas and Florida. In 2006, Cvs bought 700 Savon and Osco drugstores mostly in Southern California. And in 2008 Cvs acquired 521 Longs Drugs market in California, Hawaii, Nevada and Arizona for .9B dollars. The acquisition of Long Drugs appears to be a good one as it Cvs did not have any market in Northern Ca and Arizona. Besides, the price also included real estate. It is also bought Caremark, one of the largest Pbms and changed the corporation name to Cvs Caremark. When Cvs bought 1,200 Eckerd stores, it formed a single-entity Llc (Limited Liability Company) to own each Eckerd store. Each Llc signs the lease with the asset owner. In the event of a default, the owner can only legally go after the assets of the Llc and not from any other Cvs-owned assets. Although the owner loses the guaranty security from Cvs corporate assets, this author is not aware of any incident where Cvs closes a store and does not pay rent.
3) Rite-Aid: Rite Aid was founded by Alex Grass (he just passed away on Aug 27, 2009 at the age of 82) and opened its first store in 1962 as "Thrif D allowance Center" in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It officially incorporated as Rite Aid Corporation and went public in 1968. By the time Alex Grassstepped down as the company's chairman and chief executive officer in 1995, Rite Aid was the nation's largest drugstore chain in terms of total market and No. 2 in terms of revenue. His son, Martin Grass, took over but was ousted in 1999 for overstatement of Rite Aid's income in the late 1990s. Rite Aid is now the weakest financially among the 3 drugstore chains. In 2007, Rite-Aid acquired about 1,850 Brooks and Eckerd drugstores, mostly along the East coast to catch up with Walgreens and Cvs. In the process, it added a huge long term debt and is the most leveraged drugstore chain based on its market value. The integration of Brooks and Eckerd did not seem to go well. income from some of these market went down as much as 20% after they convert the sign to Rite Aid. In 2009, Rite-Aid had over 4900 market and over Billion in revenues. The figures went down in 2010 to 4780 market and .53 billion in revenue. On January 21, 2009 Moody's Investor Services downgraded Rite Aid from "Caa1" to "Caa2", eight notches below venture grade. Both ratings are "junk" which indicate very high prestige risk. Rite Aid contacted a estimate of its landlords in 2009 trying to get rent concession to enhance the bottom line. In June 2009, Rite Aid successfully completed refinancing .9 Billion of its debts. In 2012, Rite Aid benefits from Walgreens ageement qoute with Express Scripts. Same store sales increased 2.2%, 3.2%, and 3.6% for January, February and March of 2012, respectively. Rite Aid is still losing money in fiscal year 2012 which ended in March 3, 2012. However, it is losing less, .43 per share in 2012 versus .64 per share in fiscal year 2011. The enterprise expects great outlook in fiscal year 2013.
Things to consider when invested in a pharmacy
If you are concerned in investing in a asset leased by drugstore chains, here are a few things to consider:
1. If you want a low risk investment, go with Walgreens. In carport or growing areas, the degree of security is the same whether the asset is in California where you get a 5.5% cap or Texas where you may get a 6.5% cap. So, there is no principal benefit to spend in properties in California as the asset value is based primarily on the cap rate. In 2012, the offered cap rate for Walgreens seems to come down from 7.5%-8.4% in 2009 to 5.5%-6.5% for new stores.
2. If you are willing to take more risk, then go with Rite-Aid. Some properties outside of California may offer up to 9% cap rate in 2012. However, among the 3 drug chains, Rite Aid has 10.5% occasion of going under in 2010. Should it declare bankruptcy, Rite Aid has the selection to pick and choose which locations to keep open and which locations to quit the lease. To minimize the risk that the store is shuttered, choose a location with strong sales and low rent to income ratio.
3. Financing should be an prominent consideration. While the cap rate is lower for Walgreens than Rite Aid, you will be able to get the best rates and terms for Walgreens.
4. If you are not a conservative investor or risk taker, you may want to consider a Cvs pharmacy. It has Bbb+ S&P prestige rating. Its cap rate is higher than Walgreens but lower than Rite Aid. Some leases may offer great rent bumps. On the other hand, some Cvs leases, especially for properties in hurricane areas, e.g. Florida are not truly Nnn leases where landlords are responsible for the roof and structure. So make sure you adjust the cap rate down accordingly. Some of the Cvs locations have onsite Minuteclinic staffed by registered nurses. Since this clinic idea was introduced recently, it's not clear having a clinic inside Cvs is a plus or minus to the bottom line of the store.
5. All 3 drugstore chains have similar requirements. They all want highly visible, standalone, rectangular asset colse to 10,000 - 14,500 Sf on a 1.5 - 2 acre lot, preferably at a corner with about 75 - 80 parking spaces in a growing and high traffic location. They all wish the asset to have a drive-through. Hence, you should avoid purchasing an inline property, i.e. Not standalone and asset with no drive-through windows. There is a occasion that these drugstores may not want to renew the lease unless the asset is located in a densely-populated area with no vacant land nearby. In addition, if you procure a asset that does not meet the new requirements, for example a drive-through, you may have a qoute getting financing as lenders are aware of these requirements.
6. If the pharmacy is opened 24 hours a day, it is in a great location. Drugstore chains do not open the store 24 hours day unless the location draws customers.
7. Many properties may have a division lease, i.e. The landlord can get added rent when the store's yearly income exceeds a inevitable figure, e.g. M. However, the income used to compute division rent often excludes a page-long list of items, e.g. Wine and sodas, tobacco products, items sold after 10 Pm, drugs paid by governmental programs. The excluded sales income could catalogue for as much as 70% of store's gross revenue. As a result, this author has seen only 2 market in which the landlord is able to procure added division rent. The store with a division rent is required to report its yearly sales to the landlord. As an investors, you want to spend in a store with strong gross sales, e.g. Over 0 per quadrilateral foot a year. In addition, you also want to check the rent to income ratio. If the outline is in the 2-4% range, the store is likely to be very profitable so the occasion the store is shut down is low.
8. It does not matter how good the tenants are, avoid investing in declining, e.g. Detroit and/or low-income areas or small towns with less than 30,000 residents within 5 miles ring. In a small town, it may be the only drug store in town and captures most of the market share. However, if a competitor opens a new location in the area, income may be severely affected. In addition, the tenant can always moves to a new location down the road when the lease expires since there is low barrier to entry in a small town. These properties are easy to buy now and hard to sell later. When the prestige market is tight, you may have problems seeing a lender to finance these properties.
9. Many properties have an existing loan that the buyer must assume. If you have a 1031 exchange, think twice about buying this property. You should clearly understand loan assumption requirements of the lenders before piquant forward. Should you fail to assume the existing loan (assuming an existing loan is a lot more difficult than getting a new loan), you may run out of time for a 1031 change and may be liable to pay capital gain.
10. With few exceptions, drugstore chains do not own the market they occupy for several reasons. Here are just a consolidate of them:
- They know the pharmacy enterprise but don't know real estate. Stock investors also don't want Walgreens to come to be a real estate venture company.
- Owning the real estate will wish them to carry lots of long term debts which is not a great idea for a publicly-traded company.
11. About 10% of the drugstore properties for sale and typically Cvs pharmacies wish very small estimate of equity to acquire, e.g. 10% of the buy price. However, you are required to assume an existing fully-amortized loan with zero cash flow. That is, all of the rent paid by the tenant must be used to pay down the loan. The cap rate may be in the 7-9% range, and the interest rate on the loan could be piquant in the 5.5% to 6% range. Hence, the investor pays off the loan in 10 to 20 years. However, you have no inevitable cash flow. This requires you to come up with outside cash to pay income tax on the rental profits (the discrepancy between the rent and mortgage interest). The longer you own the property, the more outside cash you will need to pay income taxes as the mortgage interest will get less and less toward the end. So who would buy this kind of property?
- The investors who have sizable losses from other venture properties. By acquiring this zero cash flow property, they may offset the income from the drugstore tenant against the losses from other venture properties. For example, a asset has 5,000 of rental profits a year, and the investor also has losses of 0,000 from other properties. As a result, the combined taxable profits are only ,000.
- The uninformed investors who fail to consider that they have to raise added cash to pay income taxes.
Out of the Box Thinking
If you put too much weight on the S&P rating of the tenants, you may end up whether taking a lot of risks or passing up good opportunities.
A Good location should be the key in your decision on which drug store to spend in. It's often said a lousy enterprise should do well at a great location while the best tenant will fail at a lousy location. A Walgreens store that is fulfilled, down later on (yes, Walgreens fulfilled, 119 market in 2007) is still a bad venture even though Walgreens continues paying rent on time. So you don't want to blindly spend in a drug store plainly because it has a Walgreens sign on the building.
No enterprise is crazy enough to close a profitable location. It does not take rocket science to understand that a financially-weak enterprise like Rite Aid will make every exertion to keep a profitable location open. On the other hand, a financially-strong Walgreens will need justifications to keep an unprofitable location open. So how do you conclude if a drug store location is profitable or not if the tenant is not required to disclose its behalf & loss statement? The retort is you cannot. However, you can make an educated guess based on the store's yearly gross income which is often reported to the landlord as required by the division clause in the lease. With the gross revenue, you can conclude the rent to income ratio. The lower the ratio, the more likely the store is profitable. For example, if the yearly base rent is 0,000 while the store's gross income is M then the rent to income ratio is 5%. As a rule of thumb, it's hard to make a behalf if this ratio is more than 8%. So if you see a Rite Aid with 3% rent to income ratio then you know it's likely a very profitable location. In the event Rite Aid declares bankruptcy, it will keep this location open and continue paying rent. If you see a Rite Aid drug store with 3% rent to income ratio contribution 10% cap, chances are it's a low risk venture with good returns and the tenant will most likely to renew the lease. The frailness of corporate guaranty from Rite Aid is probably not as principal and the risk of having Rite Aid as a tenant is not for real that significant.
Drug market with new 25 years leases tend to sell at lower cap, e.g. 6-7% cap on new market versus 8.0-8.5% cap on established locations with 5-10 years remaining on the lease. This is because investors are afraid that the tenants may not renew the leases. Unfortunately, lenders also have the same fear! As a result, many lenders will not finance drug market with 2-3 years left on the leases. The fact that drugstores with new leases have a excellent on the price means they have potential of 20% depreciation (buying new at 6% cap and selling at 7.5% cap when the leases have 8 year left). Some investors will not consider investing in drug market with 5-10 years left on the lease. They might plainly ignore the fact that the established market may be at irreplaceable locations with very strong sales. Tenants plainly have no other choices other than renewing the lease.
There are some things you should reconsider before doing your own perm at home. If your hair is color treated, fine and fragile, damaged, doesn't have good elasticity, or if you've tried perming your hair before and it didn't take well, I would strongly advise that you go to your professional stylist to get your perm and not do it at home. If you try to do it at home, it could cause severe fading of your color and/or hair breakage if you use the wrong perm or time it incorrectly.
Once you've decided that your hair is wholesome and you can perm your own hair at home, you'll need to rule what kind of a perm you'd like. Are you going for a completely new style? Do you just want to add a slight texture to the style you have? Do you want something super curly? A perm is great if you have simply level hair and you want to be able to do more styles with it. A perm makes hard to curl hair more versatile and easier to manage. You'll still be able to wear it level if you'd like, but if you like to shake things up a slight sometimes and go curly, the perm will make your hair more pliable and will help it to hold whatever style you can dream up. It also works well if your hair is too curly. Perming your hair using a larger rod will reshape your curls into something more manageable.
Now that you've decided how you want your hair to look, you'll need supplies! The things you'll need to do a perm at home are perming rods, wrapping papers, a plastic tail comb, plastic hair clips, old towels, a perming kit, and a good friend! Wrapping a perm can be lively by yourself. The type of perming rods you'll need depend on what shape curl you want. It's mostly tasteless sense: A skinnier rod will give you tighter curls whereas a larger rod will give you bigger curls. If you're not sure what size to get, you can do some experimenting to get an idea. Pick up some perming rods in the size you think you'll like, and after shampooing your hair add some styling product and wrap up a section or two of your hair Let it dry and then remove the rod. The size curl you see will be a good indication of what your perm will look like. You can also do a test curl if you want to pick up an extra perming kit. Instead of doing your entire head, just do one rod and see how it turns out. You can adjust the size of the rod your going to use from there.
Ok! So you've decided on a style, you've got your supplies (and your friend), now where to start? Here is How to Perm Your Hair 101:
1. Start with freshly shampooed hair Do not use a heavy conditioner on your hair before perming! This can keep the perming solution from lively into your hair Section your wet hair into 4 sections by doing a part right down the middle of your head (like you're going to do pigtails), and then doing an additional one part from about halfway back down the side of your head to the back of your ear. Clip up these sections with your plastic hair clips.
2. Beginning at the top of one of the back sections, take a section of hair to wrap. Remember to never take a section that's larger then the distance or the circumference of the perming rod. Doing so will cause your hair to overdirect and/or pull which can cause breakage. It's all the time good to take a smaller section than one that is too wide.
3. Comb the section of hair out level and cover the ends of your hair with the wrapping paper by folding it in half around your hair If you're having a hard time with this part, keep a water bottle handy. Spraying some water on the ends of your hair will help the protective wrapping papers "stick" where you want them. The most important thing to remember during this process is to make sure your ends are completely covered with the paper to protect them and keep them from splitting during the perming process.
4. Beginning at the end of each protectively wrapped section, roll each section of hair around the perming rod. The most tasteless way of doing this is to roll the hair under around the rod and procure it with the band when you reach the scalp being faithful not to let the band cut into the hair If the band is too tight or causing too much stress on the hair it can cause breakage when the perming solution is applied. There are other ways you can roll your hair around the perming rod depending on what type of curl you'd like, but I would advise sticking to this tasteless procedure, at least for now. Continue this process until your entire head is rolled (or the section you want permed if you're not doing all of your hair to suit your hairstyle), Beginning at the top of each section and working your way to the bottom.
5. Now you're ready to apply the perming solution. There are basically two types of perms you can buy. One is an alkaline perm, and the other is an acid perm. An alkaline perm is for harder to perm hair such as gray or defiant hair that isn't colored or damaged. An acid perm is a gentler perm and is recommended for easy to curl or color treated hair corollary the directions in your perming kit as to how to mix and apply the perming solution. This process basically breaks the disulphide bonds in your hair that give it it's shape. Be sure and completely saturate all of the rods with the perming solution evenly and completely or you'll end up with an uneven perm. You may need to get two perming kits if you have a lot of hair.
6. If directed, cover your hair with a plastic cap and set your timer for the period indicated in the instructions. If you're not sure how long to leave the perming solution on, you can do the "S-Test". To do this, partially unwrap one section of hair from the perming rod. Moderately push the hair towards the scalp until it bends. If you can see a prevalent "S" shape in the hair then your done. Once the perming solution has processed, you're going to need to Moderately rinse your hair thoroughly. Do Not remove The Perming Rods.
7. After your hair is completely rinsed with water, Moderately blot your hair in the rods until it's only damp. Paper towels work well for this step to soak up the excess moisture. Now it's time for the neutralizer. The neutralizer will reform the broken bonds of your hair into the new shape indicated by the perming rods. Following the directions in your perm kit, saturate the hair with the neutralizing solution. Save some of the neutralizer, you're going to need it in a bit. Regularly this stays on for five minutes.
8. Once you're all neutralized, you can start Moderately unwrapping your hair When your hair is completely unwrapped, apply the remaining neutralizer to your hair manufacture sure every seacoast is saturated. Rinse your hair with cool water, and you're done!
Some things to remember after perming:
Do not shampoo your hair for 24-48 hours after perming! All of your hard work may be for naught if you forget and your perm falls out. If you have problems with frizziness, it's ok to apply a slight gel or something to tame it down. Rinsing your hair with just water is also ok.
Once you start shampooing your hair again, be sure and use a good moisturizing shampoo and conditioner to replenish what was lost after perming.
Try to avoid wrapping your wet hair up turban style in a towel and instead blot your hair dry. This will avoid stress and breakage on your new curls.
You Can wear your hair level after perming if you'd like. Although letting your hair dry simply is best, it won't hurt your perm to blow your hair out level and/or using a straightening iron. Just make sure and use styling products for dry hair that will protect it from the heat of styling aids.
Never color your hair before perming! all the time perm first if you're going to do both. The perm will fade out your color. Also, it's best to wait 2 weeks between each procedure.
Your new perm should last you between three and five months before you'll have to touch it up. I hope this has been helpful! Remember, if you're not determined in perming your own hair at home by yourself, you can all the time go see your local stylist!
How to Perm Your Own Hair at HomeJoseph Stalin was one of the original revolutionaries for communism in Russia. Ironically, Stalin's idea of the communist state was much more about privilege and dictatorship than equality for the people.
Stalin and His Role In Bringing Communism to Russia
Joseph Stalin, born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, was the second communist leader of the Soviet Union. Originally educated to come to be a priest, Stalin (he adopted the name in 1913) became complex with the socialist and Marxist parties while at seminary school. He spent many years throughout this duration campaigning for the Communist party, being jailed for his beliefs and even exiled to Siberia. Stalin and Communism are two terms that go hand in hand, as his rise to power in the party cemented Communism as the political system for the Soviet Union.
Stalin started his Communist rise to power in the year 1912. At this time, he was brought into the Bolshevik's Central Committee at the Prague Party Conference. Stalin was already the editor of the Communist newspaper "Pravda", and used his affect with the paper to push against the agenda of Vladimir Lenin. After the February Revolution, in April 1917, Joseph Stalin was elected to the Central Committee, and by May was also elected to the Politburo of the Central Committee, a position that he held onto for the rest of his life.
Most accounts state that Stalin did not really play a major role in the November 7 revolution, although later books written by him and his staff state that he was in fact a huge part of the revolution. He created a fictional "Party Centre" where he and his staff were controlling all that went on while this time. On April 3, 1922, Joseph Stalin was elected to the position of the normal Secretary of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party. From this vantage point, he managed to build up the position to the most remarkable one in the country.
Stalin surprised his fellow party members by the way he was filling the major party offices with his allies, and he even took the dying Lenin by surprise. Lenin proposed that the "rude" Stalin should be removed from his office, but upon a vote from congress, this was denied - Lenin was deemed to be too ill to know what he was writing. Upon Lenin's death, Stalin and Communism took a sharp turn. Stalin knew that he had to appear loyal to Lenin in order to be seen as the next Communist leader, so he made sure to arrange Lenin's funeral and enunciate his loyalty. He undermined his biggest opponent, Trotsky, so that he could usurp the position.
Stalin gained his supreme rulership in 1928, after expelling much of his opposition from the party. He gained the trust and adoration of the population at first by proclaiming himself "a man of the people". By this time, however, Stalin made it so no one could oppose him even if they wanted to, he had supreme power.
Stalin and His Role In Bringing Communism to Russia