It was Mama who had the first permanent wave of my life, all those years ago at Shirley’s Beauty Shop downtown where women gathered to get the most modern hairstyles of the day. If you weren’t lucky enough to be born with naturally curly hair, Miss Shirley could change all that in about two hours.
The only things she required were the tiniest pink permanent wave rods (which resembled Lincoln Logs), a box of permanent wave solution with neutralizer, and a plastic cap.
After much fussing over Mama’s hair, Miss Shirley would turn her to the mirror and reveal a marvel to behold for a little boy like me. It was as if by magic that Mama’s long board-straight hair had been transformed into a mountain of bouncy, springy curls. It was all the rage back then.
Mousse and a hair pick were a woman’s best allies while blow dryers, curling irons and rollers went by the wayside. Mama considered it quite liberating to have wash-and-go hair. Of course, there was the odor — the one that permeated throughout the little beauty shop and the one that lingered for weeks after and made my daddy discombobulated. Never mind all that, it was a great innovation from the permanent waving machines my grandma and her grandma lived through with unpleasant wires that used electricity. How many ways could that have gone wrong?
Permanent waves have come a long way since finger waves, pin curls and bouffants. In high school, my best friends all had spiral perms which were fascinating to me because the hair coiled and produced ringlets of curls. Nobody could wear a spiral perm like Kim Freeman in ninth grade, and who can forget when the football players went through that phase of perming only the backsides of their mullets? We have probably all tried to forget.
When I began beauty school, I was as determined as a mad scientist to master the permanent wave, mixing formula A and B together, then meticulously applying formula C to the top and bottom of each rod. I quickly observed, when it came to processing, five minutes could make the difference between a lovely body wave and a frizzy mess.
Straight, sleek hair has been in vogue for quite some time now, but I think the forecast is calling for luscious waves, textured bobs and curls galore as we move into fall and winter. I promise the tools at our disposal are so much better than they used to be, and I predict women will once again become adventurous with their long tresses and that this old favorite will be made new again.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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