My mom is a hair stylist and a was the recipient of regular perms from about 18 months (no lie) until I was 12 and convinced my mom the 80s were over. The only really unpleasant part if the process is that the neutralizing agent feels like ice water being dumped on your head. I mean aside from the resulting hair style – that’s pretty awful too. She started so early because my hair was so fine/thin and she thought this made it look thicker.
It was embarrassing for me because as a boy my mother would give me these really curly perms a week before school. She thought curls would “make me look sweet”. Girls would always tease me by putting ribbons in my hair on the bus, and the boys thought I was a total wimp!
My dear mother thought she was a beautician and she adored using the white, lilac and orange rods. I swear I thought she was trying to kill me between being unable to breathe, the magic “Tonette” lotion eating my skin away and a aching head- full of the tightest curls north of the Red River! Every photo I looked like Ronald McDonald native cousin- not cool in Oklahoma.LOL
Oh yes, the memories of home perms…. that smell will always be stuck in my nose. I used to get Toni Home Perms, always looked like it was done at home too LOL
When I looked at this picture, I actually could smell the acrid setting lotion and feel the unrelenting pull of those cursed curlers that actually seemed to get tighter as the night went on. I (not) fondly remember the annual torture my two little sisters and I endured getting these blasted things. Every Easter we looked like three little poodles. Ahh, the good old days!
Good god this brings back memories of constantly having my hair yanked and pulled and curled and twisted and all sorts of mean, nasty, ugly things. I got my revenge, though- when I was 16 I tried trimming the hair that was growing back from my half-buzzed head, and my mom had to use an electric leg shaver to shave the rest. I think she gave up after that.
i remember looking just like that after my dad cut our hair the day before school pictures. My sister and I looked like someone held our heads to a metal fan and let it cut…………
At least she can take the rollers out ours had to grow out…………..
And people think Toddlers and Tiara’s is bad. We had to sleep in stuff like that. Nothing like the good nights sleep that comes from wearing brush rollers to bed.
Awww, I bet that hurts My mom used to torture me like that and there would always be hairs being pulled out by too-tight curlers. Makes me wish I’d rebelled more as a kid.
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afp
My mom is a hair stylist and a was the recipient of regular perms from about 18 months (no lie) until I was 12 and convinced my mom the 80s were over. The only really unpleasant part if the process is that the neutralizing agent feels like ice water being dumped on your head. I mean aside from the resulting hair style – that’s pretty awful too. She started so early because my hair was so fine/thin and she thought this made it look thicker.
It was embarrassing for me because as a boy my mother would give me these really curly perms a week before school. She thought curls would “make me look sweet”. Girls would always tease me by putting ribbons in my hair on the bus, and the boys thought I was a total wimp!
I had almost erased the memories of home perms (starting when I was about 5). Gads, the torture we endured back in the good old days.
My dear mother thought she was a beautician and she adored using the white, lilac and orange rods. I swear I thought she was trying to kill me between being unable to breathe, the magic “Tonette” lotion eating my skin away and a aching head- full of the tightest curls north of the Red River! Every photo I looked like Ronald McDonald native cousin- not cool in Oklahoma.LOL
This looks like that “retraining” scene from A Clockwork Orange. All that’s needed are the eye specula and a mad doctor with an eyedropper.
love the subtitle!
Oh yes, the memories of home perms…. that smell will always be stuck in my nose. I used to get Toni Home Perms, always looked like it was done at home too LOL
When I looked at this picture, I actually could smell the acrid setting lotion and feel the unrelenting pull of those cursed curlers that actually seemed to get tighter as the night went on. I (not) fondly remember the annual torture my two little sisters and I endured getting these blasted things. Every Easter we looked like three little poodles. Ahh, the good old days!
Good god this brings back memories of constantly having my hair yanked and pulled and curled and twisted and all sorts of mean, nasty, ugly things. I got my revenge, though- when I was 16 I tried trimming the hair that was growing back from my half-buzzed head, and my mom had to use an electric leg shaver to shave the rest. I think she gave up after that.
This brings back flashbacks of horrible home perms my mom would torture me with.
i remember looking just like that after my dad cut our hair the day before school pictures. My sister and I looked like someone held our heads to a metal fan and let it cut…………
At least she can take the rollers out ours had to grow out…………..
And people think Toddlers and Tiara’s is bad. We had to sleep in stuff like that. Nothing like the good nights sleep that comes from wearing brush rollers to bed.
Beauty is pain.
Oh the painful memories this brings! Not only were those rods torture, but the solution smelled to high heaven and burned.
I so feel your pain! My mom made me get perms all the time as a kid and I hated it. It always looked like a big old mess!
It’s painful to be beautiful…it REALLY is!!
And here we have a fine example of the Aqua Wave Home Permanent Kit used by mothers everywhere.
I feel for ya’ kid.
Awww, I bet that hurts
My mom used to torture me like that and there would always be hairs being pulled out by too-tight curlers. Makes me wish I’d rebelled more as a kid.