What Will A Perm Do To My Hair???

I’m white, have pretty frizzy, thick hair and I want my hair to be in tight curls (sort of a crimped effect) like these:http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1448516864/n…
basically or maybe a little tighter but I would be very happy with that. I know that a friend from 8th grade got a perm, her hair was similar to mine [...]