I was a beautician & any perm should easily last 3 mos so she is getting the perms way too often. I have friends that get perms & they last about 3 months so 6 weeks is taking advantage of a client(patron-your wife) Hair should not be washed for 3 days after a perm or you relax the curl & it will get straight too soon. Most older folks heads sweat at times if they get overheated, wear heavy crocheted or woolen caps on their heads(or wigs) & the head can get very smelly- I call it old people smell. I know some people get used to it on their spouse or on themselves & no longer notice it or could be their sense of smell is terribly diminished. I was called to hospital or nursing home in the past as you have to be licensed to cut hair & wash it in CA. Some hair smelled really bad, relatives never mentioned that, probably to be polite to their relative or they had gotten used to it. I think caregivers appreciate taking care of folks with clean hair(& showered) I received many compliments about how good my dad smelled & what a pleasure it was to care for him. Also a clean head has another advantage as not nearly as likely to get infection from scratching their head & breaking open the fragile skin. A clean head just makes a person more comfortable & even if your wife can't express it I'm sure she would not want to smell around her friends. You are a wonderful hubby to care about her & take this step. About hair length if she usually wore it fairly short about to the neck or inch below then that is probably what she would prefer. 3 to 5 inch long hair is easier to keep looking nice & with a perm & weekly washing all she should need is just a comb or brush threw it to look presentable. If you don't remember how long she wore it few years ago Just look at pics of her.

We have a black lab/beagle mix dog and two Siamese cats. This probably goes without saying but the easiest way to remove pet fur from laundry is to limit how much goes in to begin with. No, I'm not advocating pet beds and never cuddling your pets -- I'd never suggest a rule I could never adhere to :) However: 1. Grooming does make a difference. I'm not great about it, but even once every other week or so with our short-hair breeds keeps the fur at bay. 2. Regular vacuuming. Much of the fur that winds up on bedding and clothing comes from the floor and furniture, as its carried on your feet and body. 3. Remove excess fur before laundering. Brush or tape-roll bedding to pick up the top-most layers of fur. Same for clothing or pet bedding. If the first layers are gone, the smaller pieces stuck between textile fibers have a better chance of working their way out, into the water, and down the drain. 4. Diet/hydration. Okay, feline nutrition is sore subject with me and apologies in advance if any of this comes off as abrasive. Dried kibble is one of the worst things you can feed a cat. Some vets will go so far as to say that the cheapest canned food is better than the most expensive kibble. The reason for this is that cats do not naturally feel thirst and seek out water, because their instinct is to get moisture/hydration from fresh kills. House cats have been domesticated for only a fraction of time as dogs (hence their behavior) and have not evolved to seek water from bowls. The result is a chronically dehydrated kitty and, in addition to the obvious kidney problems, what does this cause? You guessed it, excess shedding! We feed an entirely raw diet (rabbit, mice, chicks, etc.) and have almost no shedding. That said, raw is a huge commitment and I understand not everyone will do it. I encourage anyone with cats to read the most excellent research done, entirely pro-bono, by Dr. Lisa Pierson after her struggles keeping her own cats healthy. Her research, include food reviews is here: CatInfo - Dr. Pierson Meow :)

The trouble is his hair also gets on clothes even with grooming regularly. And then it does seem basically like we need tweezers, and while I will accept that some stuff may just need that attention because of the weave, it seems wrong that it sticks so well even to smoother textured stuff like leggings and yoga pants. Luckily before we got him someone taught him that he isn’t allowed on furniture unless a blanket is there first, so the damage on furniture is limited. We just keep a few throw-type things handy to put down when he’s going to be allowed up. I’m working on teaching him that being vacuumed is fun (get the hair before it can get stuck anywhere else!) but that’s a process. And I’m sure he will still shed some between grooming sessions because all dogs do. So I should try a normal amount of fabric softener in the wash? We haven’t typically felt the need for it but that was pre-dog-hair-dilemma. (For towels I do add white vinegar in the rinse because I don’t like it when they come out crunchy.)

Since one of my SILs used to wash her teenage sons hair in the kitchen sink even though he showers I have often wondered if she took this to heart. I would have died of mortification when I was 17 before I asked anyone other than at a shop to wash my hair. Now if dawn would remove my fat I might do this. I do know some people that will shower then wash their hair in the sink and never understood it unless they were afraid of getting water on their face. The took a water class three days a week so just chalked it up to one of those things.