Any beauty parlor memories...

Robbiegirl's thread on watching GG's getting ready and do their makeup got me thinking...

I remember when i was too young to be left alone having to go to the beauty parlor with my mom on Saturday morning. I always loved that smell... A mixture of hairspray, bleach, and perm solution.

I would watch the women get their hair washed, set in rollers, sit under the dryer, then get combed out, and fluffed.

I wanted to be one of those ladies so bad. To this day having my hair washed by someone is such a luxuriously decadent experience.

Yes, when I was little my mom would occasionally go to the salon and have her hair done.
I remember all the ladies sitting under those big dryers reading women's magazines and chatting and would have loved to have that experience.
The only time I did something like that was about 20 years ago. There was an event I wished to attend and I found a salon that catered to us girls. I made my appointment and when I arrived they had me change in the back room and then led me to a chair IN FRONT of the window of all places. There I sat as the stylist placed my wig and styled it then did all my makeup. It was nerve wracking till my wig was on, but then I settled into the experience. It was so exciting to be sitting there all dolled up having someone perfectly do my makeup, making me look so utterly feminine.
The event was fabulous and I felt better than I had ever felt as a woman that night.

Now that my hair is growing out I think of that night and wish I could just walk into a salon and get the perfect cut then have my makeup done again.:daydreaming::daydreaming::daydreaming:

I not only watched, I had all those things done going back to when I was a kid. As an adult, the "beauty parlor" was my thing up until I cut my hair several years ago. I had roller sets and updos as a boy and as a girl, sometimes every week for a stretch, then ever month or so. I slept in rollers for years and rolled my hair at home in between salon visits. I had a few fancy updos, braids, even once had my nails done while I sat under the dryer in rollers. Hundreds of salon roller sets at no telling how many different salons are now my fondest memories.

We all have those things we think we just can't live without, and long hair and the whole beauty shop experience was that for me. I've managed to live without it but nothing surpasses those times and I haven't found anything that I enjoy nearly as much.

I was in college in 1974 and it was still uncommon for men to go to beauty salons, but it was only a little unusual. Anyway, the pink fog was on me and I went into a new beauty salon in town and asked for a haircut. The hairdresser asked me about my hair preferences and I told her I was trying to take better care of my hair and would like to come about every three weeks. She must have been an accepting hairdresser and figured me out immediately. She shampoo'd my hair using a strongly scented strawberry shampoo, telling me "Don't worry the smell will fade quickly". Then she cut and styled my hair in a men's style and when she blow-dried it she put in a product called bodi-mer. She said "It's really a women's product but we won't tell anyone will we?" Lastly she sprayed me with hairspray without asking which was rarely done to a guy in those days. As she was removing my salon cape she casually said "Maybe next time we can try something with some curls" It was a great experience. Sadly, I was too afraid to come back 3 weeks later. I tried to make an appointment about a year later but the hairdresser no longer worked there. Talk about an opportunity missed!

Alas, my mom and her co-conspirator, my grandmother, were both into home do-it-yourself hair care and rarely went to a "real" salon. I've smelled plenty of perm solutions at home and have helped clean up the mess after color sessions, however!

By the time I started going to female stylists and salons for myself as an adult, many of the old traditions like perms, rollers and the big stand dryers had largely disappeared. I wish I could have experienced an old-fashioned trip to the "beauty parlor" as they did it back before blow dryers. I barely have enough hair left for it to be worth the trouble, now. Rarely, I still get a spritz of hairspray to finish off my 'do, but even that is nothing like the heavy, sticky Aqua-Net of yore.

- Diane

I had terrible experience last April at a chain that does both men and women. I'd been going to the same stylist for a couple of years and when I went in this time she had a neat short style which I complimented her on. I'd been having her layer my hair to get the most out of it and I hadn't had it cut in about six months. When I feel girlie I comb it as in my avatar. She always used only scissors. So she asked what I'd like today? I said how about like yours? Next thing I feel and hear is an electric clippers on the back of my neck. Too late now. She asked how I liked it and I said it's not like yours. She said but you're a man. I haven't gotten a haircut since then and am keeping it off my ears with what used to be my beard clipper. Wendy Sherman is the look I'm after.

I have posted in the past when I went to an upscale salon. When the shampoo woman was finished washing my hair she was giving me a head and neck massage and slid her hands under my blouse to massage my shoulder she easily felt my bra. I jumped, but relaxed and she completed the massage.

Roberta,
I remember on many occasions my sister and her friends getting ready for a night out when I was young at home .

The only story I can relate to is when I have my haircut , I now go to the stylist dressed and just pop my wig off to have my hair trimmed and then pop my wig back on again . On one occasion I was sitting in the waiting area when a blond lady came and sat next to me , we chatted for a few moments before I was called , I then pulled out the wig stand from my bag and placed my wig on it , the blond lady's eyes nearly popped out , she had no idea and never took her eyes off me the whole time I sat having my hair trimmed .

Roberta, My mother never had her hair done, she wore it short, so I don't have that memory. However, I agree that having someone wash your hair is a luxury.

I get my hair washed when I go to the hair salon. I have never really seen it as a luxury as it only costs me $5. Seems like a cheap way of keeping loose hair off of you for the rest of the day.