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In reply to the discussion: Women with long hair approaching 60? A no-no? [View all]LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)But the worst of my hair experiences took place when I was in 7th grade. I was secretly experimenting with Summer Blonde, this spray that gave you blonde highlights when you sat in the sun. I was still blonde at that age, but wanted to be blonder.
My mother forced a perm on me. Between the Summer Blonde and the perm, I ended up looking like a circus clown with tight frizzy curls in all directions. This was around 1962, long before those semi-Afro styles became popular. I did NOT want to show myself in school, but there was no escape. I was already a bullied kid, and that day was hell.
After school I went to Woolworths and bought some kind of hair-straightening stuff with my babysitting money. I secretly applied it when the rest of the family was asleep. Everything had to be done secretly. My mom was European, and kids did not argue back, period.
The result of my science experiment was a dismal haystack of badly damaged, listless hair. I told my mother I straightened it because I couldn't face another school day looking like a poodle. Even she realized that the perm was a disaster, and didn't force any more of them on me.