PERM Experiences??

Blk&GoldFan · ‎11-08-2011

Bridgegal's post re: new style permanents made me remember my childhood experiences from the late 50's and wondered if anyone else had funny memories. I always had thick, wavy hair and Mom couldn't control it. She would get a friend to give me my Toni "Tonette" perm in August before school would start. I swear it was always the hottest day and the smells were yucky. This process took all day and I just wanted to go out to play and not sit with rollers and a plastic cap on my head! The end result would be a huge headful of bouncy curls and my beret would pop off in mass and land in the next pew! The only part I liked was the free set of paper dolls that came inside the Tonette box!

Anyone else have stories?

VenturaHighway · ‎12-10-2016

@Blk&GoldFanMy Mother took me to beauty shop when I was six-months old for a perm. They put in 13 rollers. I know people wouldn't believe it but it was true. I don't remember so I can't tell you what I thought That was 65 years ago.

Blk&GoldFan · ‎11-08-2011

@VenturaHighway Can you imagine the uproar if your mother tried this today on a 6mo. old baby? Yikes....How did we survive?

Icegoddess · ‎03-19-2010

I currently get a perm about once a year. My hair sucks it up, I'm done in the minimal time, and it never falls out. That curl is with me until it gets cut off. Luckiy, I have just enough natural wave in my hair that it blends well with the growing out perm. That being said:

When I was in college, like lots of girls, I wanted the Farrah look. My fiance at the time took me to the hairdresser in his one-horse town in MS. First thing they did was cut off a bunch of air because they seemed to think long hair wouldn't perm. Then, they left it on the full amount of time because, once again, I had long hair (even though they had just cut a bunch off of it). Needless to say, I ended up with helmet hair. I never got my Farrah hair either.

VenturaHighway · ‎12-10-2016

@Blk&GoldFanwrote:
@VenturaHighway Can you imagine the uproar if your mother tried this today on a 6mo. old baby? Yikes....How did we survive?

@Blk&GoldFanBack then, the 5and 10 stores had the picture booth. So after my Mother would get my hair done, she would take pictures. I cherish those times.

I do have another funny story. When I was about 40, I wanted a layered cut and a body perm. Well, it didn't turn out (I have enough hair for three women). When I got home, our 8 year-old son said "Mommy, you look like a lion". Bless his heart

If you want the truth, ask a child.

Fiero Woman · ‎10-02-2017

I am strawberry blond, irish with a native american grandmother. Hair straight as a stick. I remember those toni perms that stunk and I am sure I looked pure awful. All my life those perms. The minute I was allowed to make my own choices, straight hair to this day. It is funny now that I think of it. Wonder I have any hair left. I have a neighbor who still has to have a perm, looks like a cork screw. I would never say a word Memories

drizzellla · ‎03-14-2010

I am not sure when - I guess the late 70s, perms were "in stye". So I decided to get my first perm. Well, I did not care for it one little bit. So as soon as I got home, I decided to wash my hair. OH MY! My hair blew up and was wild. I had night school that night. And I did not know what to do. I stuck a scarf on my head but I could not get the front of my hair to calm down. I swear the hair in front was sticking out at least 6 inches from my head.

I never got another perm. I didn't care about what was in style.

Fiero Woman · ‎10-02-2017

@drizzellla Oh my goodness, just what my hair looked like.

kitcat51 · ‎09-15-2016

When I was a little girl in the 50's my mom wanted me to look like Shirley Temple but I had hair straight as a stick so a perm was the answer. We went to a nearby salon & they had this contraption that looked like a dryer but the big metal helmet on it had built in hair rollers hanging down, they put a solution on my hair, put my hair in the rollers & the big metal helmet was lowered on my head, the air from it was so hot & the rollers so tight I cried. The results were absolutely horrific & that was the end of my Shirley Temple makeover...except for the Shirley Temple scarf my mom insisted I wear to cover the nightmare hairdo!

chiclet · ‎03-19-2010

Once I asked my husband to put the solution on for me and about half way through he said I need some more. OMG I was yelling that you had enough for the whole head and there is no more. Then I remembered to rinse what was on there off. I had to really work with the unpermed side to make it look like the permed side. What a mess. Also I learned fast that when I started coloring my hair I could not perm it. It was like straw sticking up. I did it on a sunday night and had to find a salon that could cut it off Monday morning. I put a scarf on my head and was stopped by a cop on my way to salon. When he came up to the car I started crying and told him I was on the way to get my hair fixed and about the perm. I pulled off my scarf and he said to just go......I am surprised he did not give me an escort it looked so horrible.