Donna
Braymer
Yes, I
remember what it was like to get my hair done in the 50's
and 60's. I was born in the mid-50's so I remember having
my hair washed and set on pink sponge rollers before the
days of the hair dryer.
It seems like
it was on Saturdays that my Mom would help me onto the
tiled kitchen cabinet. I would lay down on my back, and
she would have my head over the sink and would shampoo my
hair. Then she would carefully roll our brown hair onto
sponge rollers that my sister and I would sleep on. I do
not remember wanting to ever go anywhere in my rollers,
but I did see several girls and women that would go to the
grocery store in their rollers.
I also
remember my Daddy having to help unwrap the pain-causing
beauty aids because my hair would get all tangled up
during the night. The nice neat row of curler after curler
would look like a disheveled mess. What a sacrifice to go
to church beautiful.
I also
remember one of Mom's friends getting a big hair dryer,
similar to the beauty salon's. After she had my sister and
I "rolled up", we'd go over to the friend's house and sit
under the hair dryer. It also seems like there were hair
dryers you could pay to use at laundry mats.
Then I
remember when we got our own portable hair dryer. It came
with a plastic cap like a hair net and a little box that
held the motor. It had a long cord on it, and I could at
least walk around the room if I carried the box that was
connected by a hose to my head. It looked like a space
suit to me.
I also
remember progressing to colored plastic rollers. Teenage
girls were using orange juice cans, but my mother wouldn't
let me do that. So I learned to roll my hair by standing
in the bathroom and using a double mirror set up my Dad
had designed.
My arms would
kill me while I was trying to learn to do it nice and
neat, like Mom wanted. These rollers were also made to
sleep in, but they were not as comfortable as the pink
sponge rollers. But they didn't get as tangled either.
Then the day
came as a teenager when long straight hair, parted down
the middle was very in style. To get my naturally curly
hair to look straight, I had to bend over, and brush all
of my waist-length hair into one pony tail on top of my
head. I would then divide the hair into four sections and
place on four huge rollers. My mom still would not let me
use juice cans. But at least the pain of sleeping on
rollers was gone. As long as I did not sleep on my
"pointed head" as my Dad would say.
Now that I
have grown up, married and raised three boys I wonder if I
would have washed a little girls' head of hair in the
kitchen sink. I think it was easier that I had little boys
that loved to sit and play in the tub. They would make
shampoo points with their hair and then laugh at each
other. But that's memories from another decade. I still
cringe when I see someone run around shopping in rollers!
