Quick Quiz:
Have you ever logged any time under the apparatus pictured above?
Have you ever used any of these?
Are empty frozen orange juice cans merely containers for the beverage from Florida to you? Or when you see them, do you automatically think “rollers?”
Does the word “spoolie” mean anything to do?
Does the phrase “hot rollers” ring a bell? Are you on speaking terms with Lady Ellen?
Do you know what these are?
If you said “yes” to any one of these questions, you must be familiar with the words “bouffant, page boy and flip.”
I’m talking about hair here.
Plenty of us gals bitterly remember the dark days of setting our hair, and sitting for hours*** under iron monsters at the beauty shop. Or just as bad, cooking under those plastic bonnet-and-hose deals of the portable, at-home models.
***I had long, thick hair. Hence, that middle roller on top would NEVER dry. When I was a pre-teen, I would have to come into the salon at eight in the morning if I wanted my hair set.
And I would still be there at six at night, as the owner/operator restlessly checked that roller all day. At the end of the day, my hair was still not dry. It was pure torture. For the hairdresser and for me.
I was doomed- and domed – to go through this hair drill for years. And there was never any time off for sloppy behavior.
Even when I was at sleep away camp, I remember setting my hair. (And there used to be a godawful photograph of me on the front of the camp brochure to prove it.)
In the Fifties, girls looked like this.
Or this.
Or this.
And then one day in 1963, EVERYTHING changed for me.
In England, a genius named Vidal Sassoon had invented a haircut.
And ended a bad way of hairdressing life.
With a snip of his scissors, Mr. Sassoon cut off the need for imprisonment under the hair dryer once and for all. Suddenly there was the blow dryer, and life would be never be the same for me again.
I was free.
It was a revolution. (Like the Beatles’ mop tops- except for us girls.)
This is what he did.
That’s the glorious Nancy Kwan. And that haircut changed my universe.
It was all about the cut now.
Bye Bye, Bouffant.
Hello, 1969!
And here’s me today. I’m still all about the cut. Thank you, Jenny. You’re brill.
(No cracks about how I really look these days. Trust me. I know. And it ain’t about the hair cut.)
So bless you, Vidal. You liberated me- and every other woman of my generation.
Unless you were a “greaser’ chick. But that’s a whole other story…
See you at the beauty shop.
But not under the dryer.
Now while you’re waiting for your appointment, sit back and watch this.
Ha, Ellen, hair today, gone tomorrow!
I happen to know that your readers are huge crossword puzzle fans. Boy (or girl), are they ever in for a treat today. To warm up, please try today’s (Thursday November 26) New York Times puzzle (e-mail to barany@umn.edu if you want a pdf of it), with a special focus on 58-Across (5 letter answer): “Liberian president and Peace Nobelist ___ Johnson Sirleaf.” Yeah, I give up too. Much much better clues for that word are available. Like: “Blogger extraordinaire and Sam’s grandmother ___ Ross.”
But wait, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Check out “The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance” by someone named Ellen Ross and yours truly. It will send you into the stratosphere, I promise. Even if you have zero interest in crossword puzzles, you owe it to yourself to read the “midrash,” which explains it all and provides numerous highly interesting and entertaining weblinks.
Tying it all together, click here and scroll down to the last paragraph of the 12:30 a.m. comment by someone who calls himself “Casco Kid.” Absolutely hair-raising, n’est ce pas?!
I think I’m responsible for the Cascokid comment, George. (He in fact commented on my “Hollywood Hunger” post and wrote “fun puzz” on it.) I had put it out on Twitter, and I bet that’s where he found it. Thanks for this comment- which I notice again has nothing to do with the post. You have the heart, soul and world-view of Bobby Zarem.
Er, ER, I resemble that remark. Both my opening and closing sentences deal with hair. And please don’t compare me to washed up hucksters (yeah, I googled him).
When the hype fits, wear it, P.T. Baranyum.
Sucker bored every minute? Got you under Tom Thumb? You won’t EGRESS this!
You’re very adept in Cheng-And-English, Doc.
Ellen — I remember the sleepovers that my younger sister used to have with her girl friends and a half dozen teenagers sitting around, wearing those crazy hair dryers with the shampoo hats and the hoses and power cords. The sound would drive me crazy and I wonder how the electricity in the house did not short out.
So grateful for being a guy — sure, there was the bris. But I don’t remember that discomfort anyway, thanks to a little Mogen David. And the advantages of the crewcut and a little “butch wax” compared to what you gals did to yourselves.
And thank you for reminding me of the wonderful Julie Christie — Dr. Zhivago and the fantasies it created. Where did the years go?
Wow! From Mogen Davis to Dr. Zhivago. This comment really covers just about everything under the sun this morning. Thanks for being an early bird, Jack. I’m glad this post got you free-associating.
For guys this sums it up for me: “she asks me why, I’m just a hairy guy. I’m hairy noon and night that’s a fright. Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair, shinning, gleaming, streaming,flaxen waxen.
Me I had a Jewfro.
So nice to get a song quote, my fellow Age of Aquarius-lover. Btw, I saw “Hair” when it opened in Los Angeles in 1969. I danced on stage at the end. It was groovy. Thanks, Mitch. I dig you.