Home permanents had come a long way by the 50's. But not quite far enough!
This ad promotion from the 50's featured identical twins, with identical looking hair styles. One was done professionally, the other was done at home.
In his role as radio announcer for the long-running mystery series, Casey, Crime Photographer, sponsored by Toni, Bill Cullen would often deliver the commercial as if he was a character in the program. He would ask his radio audience..
In his role as radio announcer for the long-running mystery series, Casey, Crime Photographer, sponsored by Toni, Bill Cullen would often deliver the commercial as if he was a character in the program. He would ask his radio audience..
"...which girl has the Toni?"
From my one experience as a child, I don't think either one of them did!
But before I take you back to the first time I saw my father cry— lets go back to 1909 and the day Karl Nessler's wife Katharine Laible had her very first home permanent. Her husband Karl had been working several years perfecting a method to curl hair using chemical treatments, electrical heating devices and brass rollers each weighing about two pounds. It was a complex system, using countering weights suspended from an overhead chandelier and mounted on a stand to prevent the hot rollers from touching the scalp. The process took at least six hours. History records him using a mixture of cow urine and water.
(urban legend? Perhaps!) Now it's hard for me to imagine Katharine willingly subjecting herself to this process. But it is even more unbelievable that she allowed her husband to give her a second permanent after the first one completely burned her hair off, scalding her scalp.
.....He didn't quite have it down the second time either–she lost all of her hair again.
He did eventually perfect the method and his electric permanent wave machine was patented in London in 1909 and went into widespread use.
Unlike Karl Nessler's wife, I had only one permanent as a young girl.
By the time it was my turn, Toni had produced a product that women could use at home for $2 (compared to $15 if done professionally at a hair salon) The cow urine was gone-but it had its own distinct smell—not a big improvement.
In April of 1957 my mother was in the hospital after delivering her seventh child, my brother Chris—son #6. At that time mothers were kept in the hospital for at least a week following the delivery of a baby. A live-in baby sitter was hired to help take care of the other six children at home. My Dad thought it would be nice to surprise my mom on Easter Sunday morning with a visit from all of her children. We were not allowed in the hospital, but we could stand outside on the lawn and wave up to her at her window.
The babysitter, a very capable elderly woman, thought it would be nice to surprise my dad and give his little girl her very first home permanent. Wouldn't she look nice waving up at the window with all those curls? The picture was not quite as dreamy as she envisioned. When the curlers were removed my head was covered with a mass of frizz and gnarled, kinky curls. When my dad arrived home he took one look at me, covered my head with a towel and escorted me next door. Mrs. McGrady was a nurse and she could fix just about anything.
"Marge! Can you do something?!
"I'll try Wally! I'll try!"
"I'll try Wally! I'll try!"
She did try. I remember standing in front of her full length mirror and watching her brush, and brush, and brush— and watching those PERMANENT curls pop right back up to where they were, springing about six inches off the top of my head.
My dad waited outside the door. But sorry to say I looked exactly the same when I walked out.
My dad waited outside the door. But sorry to say I looked exactly the same when I walked out.
(ok...it's not an actual photo. There were no pictures taken of me that day)
I'm sure I'm not the only 50's Baby Boomer who had a bad perm experience!
We learned to do one thing when we caught a whiff of that pungent Toni solution—
We learned to do one thing when we caught a whiff of that pungent Toni solution—
.....RUN!
Update: May 21, 2013
I have never seen this photo before today. It is a photo from that day. I think that my Easter hat is covering the rest of the FRIZZ!
I have never seen this photo before today. It is a photo from that day. I think that my Easter hat is covering the rest of the FRIZZ!
I too was a child of the 50's and often victim to the Toni perms. On more than one occasion after climbing the stairs to the back door after school, my nose would be assaulted by a housefull of the Toni perm smell. I remember it as a combination of rotten eggs and vinegar. Ach! She's at it again! The next few hours I was at her mercy and I well remember the skinny curlers of assorted colors, the tissue papers and the solution. But worse yet for me was her constant desire to trim my bangs. So short usually that I had to walk around for days afterwards with arched eyebrows in an effort to make the bangs appear longer. This effort caused me to experience some of my first headaches which were a small price to pay. The oddest thing of all to me is that even though I'm in my mid-fifties, my Mom still enjoys a good whack at my hair and I actually let her color it for me a few years back!
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