I'm not sure why, but I haven't read much positive feedback on getting perms.
I know 3 people personally that have had perms with long hair -- 2 of which they loved & would do again, 1 that turned out very frizzy and damaged. The 2 that turned out good haven't previously done major dye jobs or bleaching, so they had relatively healthy hair to begin with. The one that didn't turn out so great had bleached/dyed their hair within the last 12 months.
So my guess is that the damaged/fried/frizzy results result from hair being already damaged.