Hair

Margaret Maron

Okay, let’s go back to the beginning.

Hair?

I didn’t get any for the first year of my life.  See this picture of me with my brother at not quite 3?  My hair was so straight and fine (and non-existent) that the ribbon in the picture was held in place with Scotch tape.  My mother used to flinch every time someone told her what cute little boys she had.

My cousin had luxurient dark curls before her first birthday.  I was insanely jealous.

When I turned twelve, I told my mother that the only present I wanted was a permanent.  The curls straightened out even before I washed my hair the first time. After that, Mother, who had her family’s beautiful curly hair, gave me a series of Toni home permanents. Remember “Which twin has the Toni?” Tonis may have 
worked for those twins, but I spent most of my teen years sleeping with hair pins and tissue paper so that my straight hair would curl under at the ends.  Remember those enormous rollers?

Straight hair didn’t become hot till after I had come to terms with mine but at least I never had to iron it or sleep on juice cans. 

Why do we women spend so much time on our hair?   My husband’s had the same haircut for most of his life, and I bet most men can say the same.

Not all, though.  I began cutting our son’s hair when he was a toddler because the barber shop terrified him.  I was his barber for the next 13 years.  Once he hit high school, though, Mom wasn’t good enough.  He wanted salon cuts and was willing to shell out his own money for them.  Unfortunately, my husband was perfectly happy for me to keep on cutting his hair every six weeks.

As for my still-straight hair, I’ve had it short, I’ve had it long, big, small and everything in between. Wouldn’t you know it though?  Long straight hair is still hot and my adolescent granddaughter now spends a lot of time with her ceramic hair straightener, trying to flatten the thick curly hair she inherited from my daughter-in-law.

For her sake, I hope the fashion pendulum  swings back to curls while she's young enough to enjoy it.

What's your hairiest story?

 

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Comments

[gaylin in vancouver]

As a small person I had a mom-cut pixie cut until I hit about 12 and started to grow out my hair. By high school (1975-1977) I had the right hair for the era, waist length parted in the middle straight hair. Or as we used to joke "hair curtains". Nothing would curl it other than letting it dry in braids.

When I first cut it at 20 to just past my shoulders I was shocked to find out my hair had some curl! Parted on the side a few perms to give it that '80's big hair effect until the dreaded bad perm (think pube head).

Since then I have had various lengths of hair, including shaved completely off. After 12 years with a thyroid disease I have lost a lot of hair so it is now shoulder length, untreated, going grey and I just leave it alone. Every now and then I see a photo with a side shot of my head and cringe at how bald I am getting. I am thinking of shaving it off again next spring maybe see if the new crop grows in a bit thicker . . .

[Doc In CA]

My mom was the only personwho had ever cut my hair until I went into the Navy at age 18 in 1972.

My hair has been long for the last 25 years, with the exception of a few months in 1998 when I had it cut short on a whim. My wife hated my hair short, so I promised to never wear it that way again. So, in 25 years I have had one haircut and maybe 3-4 light trims to remove split ends.

[Tiger]

Well, having gone to schools that had strict "guidelines" on hair styles and hair lengths, and a militant enforcer of a teacher, I am now quite protective of my hair. I have long straight hair, and I like it that way.

Being a teenager, and forced to cut my hair short (one inch above the collar), and no perms, no dying of hair (because only girls in gangs and bad girls did that), no ribbons, no hairbands, no hairpins, no curls (if you had naturally curly hair, you either straightened it, or risk being repeatedly harassed by the authorities)... Hmm, I am sure there is more, but I am blanking out right now (probably selective memory). If you were a girl, you MUST HAVE SHORT HAIR (school approved hairstyles). So, now I am out of school, and I have LONG hair, not so long that I could sit on it, but close. Yes, it sometimes is a pain to take care of, but, it is my choice. So there.

Hmm, attitude, well, my hair made me do it. ;p

[Elizabeth- Cambridge, MA]

I have naturally black hair with auburn/lighter brown highlights that is really thick. The only thing that ever scarred my was when I was in high school thinking about getting real highlights (everybody was doing it!) and the person cutting my hair said that she would come and cut off all my hair if I ever tried to dye it... I know she can't really do that but it scared me enough to keep my hair a natural. Right now it's long and I've never had it too short but I hacked it all off to about chin length after my wedding. (yes, on my honeymoon... I found a salon in a strip mall so I could hack it off...)

[Rod Pennington]

Hair? I vaguely remember having some down to my shoulders during the LBJ/Nixon years. By the end of the Reagan era, it was on my shoulders again. Unfortunately this time it was because it was no longer attached.

[Harley]

In the late 70's I was living in NYC and went to Vidal Sassoon's after hours for a free haircut from one of the students--Monday night was guinea pig night--and my long hair caught the eye of an instructor, who took me to his leader. The next thing I knew, I was having my hair cut by the salon's artistic director--an inch at a time, over a period of several weeks, while he developed that year's "Look" on my head. I'd show up at my waitress job with one side several inches shorter than the other and explain to people it was Asymetric Bi-Level Fringe.

I was never paid, but I did have my photo blown up to billboard proportions on 5th Avenue for a few months, and I did brunch with Vidal Sassoon. And of course, there was that free haircut.

[Darlene]

I have extremely straight hair which used to confound my mother. She was also a fan of Toni home perms. And if the instructions said leave the solution on for ten minutes, then as far as Mom was concerned twenty would be even better. Picture a scrawny little white girl with Tito Jackson's afro, circa 1973.

[nancy martin]

My aunt took myu very straight hair as a challenge, and I spent hours enduring Toni home perms! The first time I had a perm at the salon, I thought I was going to suffocate from the fumes. Boy, was I glad when straight hair became the "in" style when I was a teenager!

[Karen in Ohio]

Rod, that made me laugh out loud. :-)

Hair is such a part of our identity, and when it's gone, or turns color, or loses its grip on our scalp it can be so traumatic.

Margaret, I hope you have better hair than that cat!

When I was a kid my mother tortured my baby-fine straight hair into curls nightly. Every single night I would have to sit there while she screwed bits of hair onto Spoolies, and she would make me cry with pain and outrage every time. And of course it looked like crap every single day, too, especially once I started wearing glasses in second grade. When my own kids were little I let THEM decide how their hair would look, for heaven's sake.

Into my late 20's I continued to get perms (including the totally unattractive white Afro), until it finally dawned on me that I have a LOT of curl in my hair. When did that happen? Who knows. My middle daughter had the same thing with her hair. It was stick straight until shortly after puberty; now she has luxuriant curls that she does nothing with except scrape them back into an elastic.

My oldest daughter was in high school in the late 80's and she and her friend spent HOURS creating what I used to call "hair fantasies", with wild sprays of hair springing off their heads. And layers of hair spray shellacked to their hair AND to the bathroom walls. It's still there, 22 years later, just painted over because I could never remove it.

My youngest daughter, who attended the military college with the strictest female hair standards, the Citadel, had crazy short haircuts (but paid for by her scholarship) every three weeks to avoid having her hair touch her collar. Now that she's in grad school she has long hair again, and loves it.

Harley, you were so brave. And what was Vidal Sassoon like?

[Paulina]

I remember when I was in my teens Vidal Sassoon was giving advices on TV for the hairstyle.

I dyed my hair a lot when I was 18-20 that spoiled it completely. Pity to see. I had a long hair until I was 9 after I had a very sort haircut and people were taking me for a boy, since that I always had practically the same haircut (if you can call this a haircut) with the hair until shoulders or something.

My youngest has long beautiful hair with ringlets. Se wants to have it cut and her sister (who wants to have her hair cut too) yells at her every time: “You cannot! You’ve got RINGLETS!!!”

[judy merrill larsen]

I'm in the straight-hair club (but, fortunately never had a home perm!). First, from about kindergarten to 3rd grade, I wore it in braids or ponytails, then I wore it long (all the way to my waist), parted in the middle, usually tucked behind my ears. And then, Dorothy Hamill won the gold and I craved her cute, short, sassy cut. Utter disaster. My hair was never going to "wedge". When I got done crying and vowing I'd never go out in public again (I was 16), I started growing it out, but I never got it all the way to my waist again. It's now about chin length and I get highlights to give it some body (oh, and hide the gray).

And I have to laugh at the girls who have hair that would perfectly "feather" (like the girls wore when I was in high school . . . except for me) but spend huge $$$ to get it as flat and straight as my hair has always been.

[Kaye Barley]

Margaret, we share the same hair story.
My parents, along with the rest of the family, thought I would never have hair.
Little hair bows scotch taped to my head? Yep.
And because people kept referring to me as a little boy, Mother over-compensated by dressing me in the frilliest damned dresses, with THE biggest bows on God's green earth.
And those Toni perms? Oh, they worked on me - worked so well, I looked like Clara Belle the Clown, and the frownie face I'm wearing in some the pictures taken during that time speak volumes.

[Cornelia Read]

Oh, Margaret... I LOVE that picture of you and your brother, how wonderful!

I have had two periods in my life when I bleached my hair. The first time I was in Ireland during junior year of college, the second was when my marriage started falling apart. The second time lasted ten years. I don't know why I want to harsh out on my hair when I get pissed off, but it's very satisfying even if it looked like crap most of the time. Now I'm back to just highlights, done by an actual trained grownup and not me.

[Holly Gault]

There is
this.

And there is me. I think that Judi Dench and Jamie Lee Curtis look so cute in their very short, gray, curly hair and it is so damned easy to take care of. What's a comb?

Okay, I admit that I have lots and lots of very fine, very curly hair (thank you god). At puberty it was all frizz, at menopause it has returned to soft curls (thanks be to all the gods), so I have the type of hair that works.

[Holly Gault]

The link was supposed to be up there at 'this'.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/fashion/24Mirror.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=homepage

[Nancy Pickard]

The only time I've had satisfactory hair styling was in my Princess Diana stage, although I got that haircut before she came on the scene. For the rest of my life, I've always felt as if I am desperately rearranging a bad wig. Shove this over there, push that over here, fluff this up, paste this down, avoid mirrors. I'd happily grow it long and just pull it all back in a ponytail, except that makes me look bald in photos. Arrgh. Hair. Glad to have it. Don't know what to do with it.

Every Saturday I accompanied my mom to the "beauty shop." What a cultural female thing that used to be-- little shops where there were only women, and everybody talked to everybody else, and I turned the pages of delicious movie magazines I could read only there.

Harley! That's such a cool story. They wanted your long hair *and* your beauty.

Margaret, what darling photos of you.

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

OH, I'm laughing. Harley, we were separated at birth.

However, you got your Sassoon "Asymetric Bi-Level Fringe" from the man himself and got put on a billboard.

(You know what this looks like, right? One side long, chin length, like a page boy only straight. The other side cut up OVER the ear.)

I did the same haircut ON MYSELF in the bathroom in Zionsville Indiana, and got sent to my room.

[Terry Odell]

Now that I've left the humidity of Florida for the dry Colorado air, I'm loving (ok, not loving, but not fussing with it) my hair. I've been letting it grow out, simply because it's easy to pull back or clip up, and if I do want to 'style' it for those rare 'go-out-in-public somewhere fancier than WalMart, I can blow it dry in a semblance of a turned under look. And I've found a local stylist who could replicate the color, so I'm actually satisfied with my hair.

(Does anyone remember those pink rubber 'rollers' that clamped closed leaving you with pink dots all over your head? Were they called Spoolies or something like that. Those were a childhood nightmare)

Terry
Terry's Place
Romance with a Twist--of Mystery

[Alan P.]

1979-1983 I had a 'fro you could hide a pick in and a beard. Please refer to the thread on Halloween for a picture. My first college ID picture has the hair leaving the frame on three sides and my beard touching my shirt. My girlfriend at the time LOVED the beard. Molly, did not. She did say I can have girlfriends again if I grow the beard back, since I will be single again.

When the beard went, I could wrap my hand around it and with hair sticking out of the bottom of my fist, cut straight across my chin with scissors. The hair pictures may make it to Facebook in a day or two. Gotta find them.

[Laura DiSilverio]

I was at a Toni and Guy Salon yesterday for a cut when a woman brought in a two- or three-year-old boy with curls down to his jaw. He screamed and cried and hid under a counter and resisted attempts at bribery (Tootsie rolls) from his mom and the stylist. He did NOT want his hair cut. Every adult in the place was rolling his/her eyes and I had to wonder why a two-year-old needs a $50 haircut. Like Gaylin, I had the home version of a pixie cut for years as a child.

Harley--great story. If I'd gone to Sassoon for a free cut, they'd have been experimenting with new styles for a punk band or something and I'd've ended up with fuchsia spikes.

[Karen in Ohio]

Nancy, it sounds as though you need one of those makeovers where they show you how to replicate the hairdo they give you. Wouldn't that be nice?

Kaye, that story is just tragic. Funny, though.

Since my forehead now looks like it has lifelines all over it, I've been wearing bangs for the last three years, along with a longish bob. My hairdresser and I have bumped along together for more than 15 years, and at the beginning of summer I told her to just do whatever she wanted, that I needed a new look. Surprise, surprise! She gave me the best haircut I've ever worn. Two different male friends asked if this was the "ten years younger" cut. And it's not hard to take care of. Who knew?

[Margaret Maron]

Oh, Kaye, we've been there!
Holly, I tried for the Judy Dench look, but even with photos off the internet, my hairdresser couldn't get mine to do it. Enjoyed the long hair article. Jan Burke comes to mind. She still gets hit on because of her long straight hair even though it's graying now.
Harley, I can't imagine any kind of cut that you and Hank wouldn't look good in and Nancy P., I love your hair, so quit dissing it.
I myself yearn for long hair again. It's so much easier to take care of. Pulled back with a scarf when it's down, then put up in a Mary Higgins Clark french twist for dressier times. But it's that inbetween stage that's so maddening as you wait for it to get long enough.

[Diana in STL]

I, too, had very little hair until I was about 2. At first it was thin and straight then it began to curl. Because it was thin and fine when it curled it used to look - quoting my Great Uncle Everett - "like a stump full of granddaddies" (Daddy longlegged spiders). I still joke about it being time for a trim because it's a "stump full of granddaddies" day.

[Maryann Mercer]

I was the short-haired child in the family. My sister got to keep hers long. I'm not sure why. Maybe my mom only wanted to deal with one long-haired bunch of tangles and my sister was the whiny one...who knows. At any rate, my sophomore year in high school I spent months growing out my hair so I could have a flip ala Shelly Fabares. It lasted one week. Then my mom decided I needed a perm (remember this was back in the days of Donna Reed and you didn't defy your mom) and I got to smell the vapors one Monday after school. The day BEFORE class pictures. And it rained. I looked like a chubby Orphan Annie with bangs. I've had a body perm or two since tyhen, even frosted my hair when it was the in thing, but the hair is short...and thankfully still mostly naturally brown (at my age, this is a good thing). If I'm lucky, I'll go gray like my dad...gracefully and with no yellow tinges. My sis on the other hand will be various shades of brown until she dies.

[Karen in Ohio]

Another tragic tale, Maryann.

About coloring your hair, my sister-in-law used to say the best way to stay young is to pick a hair color early and stick with it.

[DebbraSue]

Who remembers that particular product called *Sun-In*? It was the summer of 75 and we spent the whole summer at the cabin. I am a brunette (and still am with the help of my wonderful stylist Tami) but back in the day, I wanted to be blonde with sun kissed hair.

So I used my allowance to buy this product (without parental okey-dokey) and gave the instructions a once over, applied it and promptly went out on the dock to let the sun do it's thing. Unfortunately I fell asleep on the dock and by the time I woke up and washed it out, my hair was a very unusual shade of orange that isn't found in nature.

After trying to grow it out for almost a year, I went to short hair and have pretty kept it that way. The school picture of that year is a graphic reminder of why I only go to professionals for hair care.

My darling daughter #2 did a peek-a-boo color with her best friend and it was hot pink. I ended up redoing it for her because it faded to an orange-coral color really fast (helped along by the chlorine in the high school pool). Before school started she had it professionally done in a deep aubergine color, which also has faded. Today she's getting it redone in a brighter purple and swimming is over for the season so hopefully it will stay for awhile.

I try to pick my battles and am totally against multiple piercings and tattoos, so compromising on the hair makes it a win-win.

[Kellee]

I have curly hair that I straighten. Ha!
But my dilemia is the color. I have been coloring it for more than 15 years now and I 'think' my roots are brown and gray. At what point do you decide to go gray and how do you do it? Shave it all off and start fresh? (I have a fat head, so I am doubting that would look too good!) My friends tell me I cannot go gray because that would age them too. Hmm.

[marie]

So many hairstyles, so many eras.
Toni Home permanents gave way to sleek short Sassoon bobs for me.
After suffering through brush rollers and wrapped beehive styles I settled down and obeyed my hair type.
Doris Day, Natalie Wood, Marilyn Monroe, and Grace Kelly all head trend setting hairstyles and of course we coveted the look. My mother-in-law had gorgeous auburn hair and she was very striking.
My daughter emulated Madonna's curly hair and the clip at the nape was gorgeous.
Now, I color my hair and am grateful I still have hair.

[Maryann Mercer]

Kellee...I think there are salons that still do frosting in the form of highlights, which could be done in a subtle blondish shade to disguise the gray and let the color grow out, but I'd definitely consult a professional. Another high school friend of mine decided to go from highlighted blonde to strawberry blonde, forgot she had a perm and ended up looking like Lucille Ball colorwise! It took a full six weeks of daily washing to get the color toned down. And back to my sister...she does her own coloring without too much of a problem except for the time she wanted to be a little darker brown. She too had a perm....and the darker brown came out black! We called her the Biker Babe until that color faded. Now she has her stylist do the coloring.

[Tracy in NC]

My mother always insisted on giving me those same Toni perms when I was a child. The Toni perm always came out the week before Easter, so all my childhood Easter photos have me looking like a massive cloud of brown hair topping off a frilly dress. Yes, it was almost like an afro, except she left my very short bangs straight. Why did mothers do this?

DebbraSue, I also did the "Sun-In" thing and in the summer of '76 I ended up with a similar orange shade. I kept using more in hopes the orange would turn golden blonde. It only turned my Farrah Fawcett-styled cut into a pile of orange straw.

My worst perm happened in college. I wanted long, curly locks like Stevie Nicks. My long, wavy hair was thick and and took curl easy. The salon I went to did not know this and left the "body wave" perm in wayyyyy too long. When I left the salon it was a little more curly than I had wanted, but looked fine. It turned into a long, tangled frizz as soon as I shampooed it. Kind of deconstructed dreadlocks. My sorority sisters took one look, retrieved scissors and cut my hair to shoulder-length. Then, they combed a Toni perm straight through my hair and let it sit until my hair was much straighter. Dull and damaged, but at least not tangled into kinks.

I have tried a variety of lengths and styles over the years, but never another perm! I tried professional blonde highlights in my 30s, but they were a pain (and expensive!) to keep up. I've had the same wavy shag style for at least 6 years now. With all the silver gray coming in, I am hoping for a Paula Deen look!

[storyteller Mary]

Harley, how glam!! I in Margaret's camp, though; my mother also scotch-taped bows to my head, and my hair will never be thick. It has also rejected perms, hot rollers, and blow drying, as it gets progressively delicate.
There was one perm back in the early '80's after which my hair broke off at the least touch, and my students voted me "nappiest hair -- and you paid someone to do this to you?!!"
Now, it's shorter (at Holly's suggestion -- thanks!) and I do nothing to it except sometimes comb it.

[Shannon]

My mom claims I have enough hair for two people. It was long until I got married and then I got it cut and I kept it that way for a while and now it's shoulder length. My hairdresser knows that I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, so she always gives me a cut that requires minimal effort. I know it's time to get my hair cut when I start thinking I could just trim it myself, because I'm not to be trusted with scissors near my hair.

[storyteller Mary]

My mom told me about my uncle's first hair cut. He was the youngest, and the only boy, and my grandpa declared that he would look like a boy! Their mother cried as his curls fell -- prettiest hair of all, his sisters would have loved hair like that . . . isn't that always the way?

[Pam aka SisterZip]

I didn't have my first haircut until I was 4 years old. My hair is still straight, thin, lifeless...

When I was taking the prenatal vitamins (btw, today is my daughter's 26th birthday and even though she doesn't read this blog...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEPHANIE!!!!), my hair was thicker, fuller, more body. Loved those vitamins. For a while I was taking the HRT of EstraTest. Part Estrogen, part testosterone. My hairline filled in (without any extra, unwanted hair on my face), became much thicker and sorta wavy. But I had to change hormones and now my hairline has receded even further than it was. I guess it will be the Hair Club For Men for me.

BTW, Dear Hubby had a full head of beautiful, wavy, thick hair. I hate him!

[Pam aka SisterZip]

that is Dear Hubby HAS a full head...

[Reine (Marie-Reine)]

I love blue. Bright Blue. Cobalt. Like my chair. One night I got drunk. Yup. I tried to dye it back. It turned plum. My friends at the Indian center loved it. The Committee on The Ministry did not.

[Marianne Plumridge]

Those Toni home perms never worked on me either. Sigh. No matter how often my mum or auntie tried. My brother got the really curly hair from mum and my sister got the wavy type hair and blue eyes. No wonder I felt so dowdy with my straight, heavy, fine dark brown hair and brown eyes. During the 80s, I had some lovely perms to give body and the big hair look, but having to put my hair in a bun every day for the airforce ruined just about every perm. One day around 1990, having broken up with my long term boyfriend I got a $200 dollar spiral perm on my very long hair with a new hairdresser. Stupid bint left me with two junior apprentices while she continuously cut mens hair and flirted with them. Needless to say, the apprentices rolled too small hanks of hair and when chemicals were applied inexpertly - wrecked my hair from the roots out. Over the next few weeks my hair started to fall out. I visited another salon in the same mall and the owner had to tell me that aside from some rather expensive treatments I couldn't afford, they couldn't save my hair. I fell apart...I was already on the bottom rung of despair and that just broke the camel's back. I ended up looking like Demi Moore when thw owner of that salon very delicately cut it herself. I then went downstairs and let the owner of the other salon and his incompetent hairdresser have it in very loud and strident terms. All of the other patrons heard me. And when that owner tried to tell me that it was perhaps because my hair was unhealthy, I held up one very pointed finger and told him that I'd asked the bint hairdresser before she started the perm if my hair was healthy...she had stated quite firmly that yes I had beautiful luxurious hair that was very healthy. That shut him up. Bastard. I found out later that the other salons in the mall were kept busy correcting the stupid mistakes this bint was perpetrating on all manner of customers. I can only think that the bint was sleeping with the owner that he didn't want to fire her. I know it probably sounds vain, but I was in a very low place at that time and I felt that the only thing of beauty and worth I had was my hair - it was down to my waist almost. I stuck with the Demi look for another 18 months because I couldn't bear to think about it anymore. But in the intervening years I did get another perm or two, but now I just dye it red. Bombay Ruby lately. And with the gray swathes coming through, I don't have to get my hair streaked anymore. :-D

I didn't go through the gymnastics of hair dos in my teens because there was no one around to help me or teach me how to do it. However, the only perms my mum would fork over for was all over curl jobs. My nickname at school during those times was Golliwog. Sigh. I never felt fashionable until I moved out of home and joined the airforce where I could pay my own way for what I wanted. My mum wasn't really being mean, just practical.

These days, my hair is straight, thickening up and even has a bit of body with some layers cut into it. And I'm finally at peace with it. Much to my hubby's delight I even wear it out of its ponytail a lot more.

[Mo]

I am another person who spent most of her life with stick straight, fine hair that would not hold a curl no matter what you did to it. Then this getting old thing happened and my brown locks changed into silvery white locks. At the same time my hair lost its limp and now has more fullness and body than it ever did. Since I found the right hairdresser to give me the right cut it curls under all by itself, no fuss, no bother. I am really loving my low maintenece silver.

[Shelley]

If, like me, you are totally hair-obsessed, check out the Long Hair Community internet forum. They have lots of information about how to care for your hair, how to put your hair into various updos (my favorite is the sock bun), and strategies for growing healthy locks of any length.

My hair has really benefited from natural vegetable dyes (henna, cassia and buxus). For more information visit the Henna for Hair website. I ruined my hair for years with chemical dyes, harsh styling products and too much heat styling. After a few years of abusing my hair I started believing my hair was too fragile, flyaway, frizzy and delicate to grow past chin length. How wrong I was! Since I quit the chemicals and the straightening iron my hair is long and strong again.

That isn't to say it's the perfect head of hair. I inherited my mom's exuberant waves, and they, like all wild animals, are impossible to tame. One of my nicknames in middle school was "Frizzball" if that gives you an idea. On the other hand, by the time I hit high school, big permed 80s hair was in fashion, so I spent approximately two and a half years being chic with no effort whatsoever.

[lil Gluckstern]

Margaret, you were adorable. I too suffered with Toni perms and then rebelled and wanted my hair long. Then we all wanted the Gina Lollobrigida look (this was the fifties) and slept on rollers the size of juice cans, then I had my hair cut and set in a "bouffant" remember those? More juice cans but bigger. Then I grew up and got pregnant. Voila, curly, go its own way, hair. Pounds of Dippity Do (remember) so I could have a Sassoon-oh Harley how wonderful you were (and are)-and then I finally grew up and just wear my hair short and curly, its own color (grey) and cross my fingers that I look kempt-I know that's not a word, but I used it anyway.

[Peg H]

I have VERY thick, VERY curly hair. I was the one that got my father's hair genes.

As a child, my mother wisely kept my hair short.

In high school it was so long that I sat on it. It was also so thick that it took three or four days to dry after a washing. I looked like an electrocuted lion.

A year or two after I married I had it cut in a shag to shoulder length. Then the next cut was shorter...

Curly hair needs an expert to cut it and I've finally found one. I wear my hair short and at last I have a minimum of work to do with it.

[Harley]

I remember Sun In! How could a product like that one fade away?

Vidal Sassoon was very nice. I remember him meeting me at the restaurant where we were to eat brunch and saying, in the most courteous voice, "Hello. What are you, about a hundred and eighteen?"

"Uh . . . what?"

"About a hundred and eighteen pounds, are you?"

"Uh, no. A bit more than that. But I'm nearly 5'9"."

"Ah. Yes, well."

I guess hair looks better on very thin people. I remember that I did not eat much brunch after that.

[gaylin in vancouver]

I too remember Sun In, also Lemon Go Lightly for lightening my hair. I never had the bad effects of it, thank goodness!

Harley - wow, what a conversation opener!

[Rochelle Staab]

When I was five I thought if I used Halo shampoo, I'd go from a brunette to a blond like the girl in the commercial. Cried when I learned the truth. Wrong bottle.

My worst hair nightmare was when Auntie Helen giving me a Toni perm in the 6th grade. She left the juice on so long I had an afro all the way through the 7th grade. And, by the way, I have wavy hair and didn't even need it.

After the perm I yearned for long straight hair. Finally grew out in 8th grade and I have to give my Mom credit (for once). She cut my hair until I was twenty. Just a perfect straight line across my back. I did it all - slept on brush rollers, ironed it straight, dyed it every wrong color, scotch taped the bangs.

Oh. Second worst hair nightmare was in my forties - growing out a bad dye job and outing my grey. You haven't lived until you've lived with four inch grey roots on brown hair.

I lucked out with my short grey hair but still ache for the dramatic Veronica Lake dip I wore back when.

[Margaret Maron]

Love all the stories about letting your roots grow out. Just how fast does hair grow anyhow? Anybody know? I'm wondering how long it'll take if I ever decide to see what my natural color looks like?

[Karen in Ohio]

Margaret, my hairdresser says hair grows an average of 1/2" a month, or 6" a year.

My oldest daughter's hair, though, seems to grow much faster than average.

[Reine (Marie-Reine)]

Terry, spoolies were little pink rubber things, kind of like two funnels stuck together by the narrow parts. You wound hair around the mid part then folded one of the "funnels over the other. A popular form of mother/daughter torture in the 50s. Gives me chills just thinking about them.

[Bev]

I have thick naturally curly hair. People say it's like a brillo pad and it grows like crazy. I keep it short. When I was in my senior year of high school, I decided to grow it long and had a huge afro. The one and only time I grew it long.

[Reine (Marie-Reine)]

Bev, I have curly hair, too. If I don't blow it dry it drys in mini dreds all over. I have memories of my mom curling it, though. Why_ I don't know. Maybe she was counter-curling, trying to unravel it. Have no idea where it came from. My parents had straight black/dark brown hair.