When I was an adorable kid (yes, I really was) my grandmother had a weekly hair appointment. Every Wednesday, 10 a.m., to have her hair washed and set. (And cut every sixth week.) She slept in this satin bonnet-type thingy to ‘preserve’ her hairdo, ran a comb through it very gingerly each morning, and otherwise barely touched her hair.
No, wait, she also sprayed it heavily with hair spray.
But, basically, she had this mass of short curls that was nearly as immobile as a motorcycle helmet.
And it wasn’t just her. All her friends seemed to do that routine. And people ‘competed’ to get the best slots, because naturally it was most important for your hair to look good for Sunday church service and secondly for weekend get togethers. I remember her being super excited and happy when Mrs. Nelson died. Because she had a FRIDAY appointment and my grandmother managed to snag the upgrade from Wednesday! Honest, she was practically chuckling when she told my mom about her dying! And my grandmother was otherwise not an Addams family type woman.
Anyway. Do the rest of you remember this being routine? Does it even happen any more? I think it was done in by the invention of hair dryers cheap and small enough for women to have their own at home.
I’ve heard of it but I never knew anyone that did that. My mom fixed her own hair. It was a whole day affair (60s). She’d wash it and then put rollers in it and she’d either sit under her portable hairdryer with the shower hat-like bonnet or she’d tie a scarf around her head and go about her daily housework. It seemed like the hairdryer took a long time to dry her hair and with 3 kids she didn’t the luxury of sitting there for very long. Before my dad came home from work she’d take out the rollers and style it. I’m guessing it was once a week. The other days she’d just adjust it with her rat-tail comb!
Grandma (born late 1890s) did, Mom (born late 1920s) didn’t.
I (born early 1960s) don’t even get infrequent haircuts at the hairdresser anymore: started doing my own trims during Covid lockdown, and never went back.
The whole weekly-shampoo-and-set thing with curlers and dryers and hairspray and possibly even blue rinse that Grandma did never struck me as a desirable approach to haircare at any age.
(Oh, and another feature of such styles that the OP forgot to mention: the invisible hairnet. No hairs out of place in THIS coiffure, no sir!)
My grandmother did the exact same thing. Weekly hair appointment to get it teased out and set and every day she’d spray it with tons of hairspray so it wouldn’t move at all. Born in the 1920s. I remember as a little kid going with her a couple times. Definitely no longer a thing in my mother’s generation.
My mom did this. The whole wash, set, dry, style, spray routine, with occasional perms, too. At first she had the weekly appointment with my sister, who was a beautician for several years. When my sister went into another line of business, mom went to a closer beautician for the same routine. She drove herself to her weekly appointment right up until Alzheimer’s made it too iffy for her to do so.
My grandmother did this. In addition to the hairnet for bed, she had these little rain bonnets that were clear plastic with a simple design and tied under the chin.
ETA: She also kept tissues in her sleeves and always had a jar of Mentholatum.
That’s actually something kind of different - a cut and color every month is because some cuts need a trim every month and roots need touch ups every 4-6 weeks. Sort of like how a shaved head needs to be shaved every couple of days. I’m sure your wife brushes and washes her hair in between her monthly appointments - in the days of weekly standing appointments, that didn’t happen. If your appointment was Friday afternoon, you had your hair washed, set , and styled on Friday afternoon - and the only thing you did was possibly run a comb over the top of it to fix loose hairs and spray it. You didn’t run a comb or brush through it or wash it until the next weekly appointment. You might wear a cap to protect the style while you slept or wrap your head in toilet paper or you might do what one of my aunts did - sleep facing forward with your chin propped on your hands so your head never hit the pillow ( like this ,couldn’t find a photo of an adult)
I have what can best be called. “Preferred Service”. If something comes up that I hadn’t planned on, I can call my beautician and get whatever day and time I want. If she has an appointment for that time, she just farms it out to a subordinate. I tip her $50 a session for her consideration. It’s not something I need often, though.
This was absolutely my grandmother (born in 1902), as well, in the 1970s and 1980s. Standing appointment every Friday morning for the wash-and-set, with a blueing rinse (and sometimes a haircut, I imagine).
She didn’t drive, and her hair salon was about a mile from her house, so when I became old enough to drive, if I wasn’t in school on a particular Friday, I was delegated the duty to take her to the salon, wait for her to have her appointment, and bring her home.
I’ve not known anyone from a younger generation who did this, at least not during my lifetime.
The advent of hand-held blow dryers made a big difference in how women did their hair. Before that, I can remember a couple of times sitting under a bonnet hairdryer and how many mind-numbing hours it took for hair to dry that way. We got our first one when I was in about 5th grade. Hand-held hair dryers give you lots more options in how to style your hair than curlers do.
Being British, I took this question a whole other way. When I first started being taken to the barber’s by my father - sitting in the big chair to get my hair cut some fifty-odd years ago - I had a strong impression that men went very regularly for a trim - weekly? I dunno. It was quite a few years later that I tied this frequency to the phrase I would hear the barber ask his adult customers: “Something for the weekend, sir?”
- because in those days, that’s where condoms were sold. I guess it was a safe environment where the transaction could be made in code (so boys and adolescents wouldn’t understand), and far from female eyes and ears - the very idea being so scandalous.
So to address the OP in entirely the wrong manner - of course not; you can pick them up in the store when you do your weekly shopping these days.
I actually shuddered when I read that. I shaved my head for a few years. I’d shave each morning and again in the evening if I was going out. It was a tactile thing, I liked a smooth dome.
My grandmother definitely did until she passed away in the mid 70s. I also remember my mom basically saying screw it, and she had a stable of 4 or 5 wigs she would cycle through [real hair!! wow] and get seen to by a stylist in town every few months. She kept her hair cut short, maybe 3 inches long, she had dead straight hair. I also remember her getting a permanent - the weekly style things were not permanents, they were more some sort of setting gel that was starch based and set with the heat of those hair dryers. Grandma’s appointment was late Friday afternoon.
I think the difference between grandma and mom was mom was busy, she really didn’t want to bother with dealing with such delicate treatment of hair, she had 2 kids, a household and was on the school board, and was clerk of works for the school system. Grandma was a little old lady who sat there and knit =) [actually she taught me all sorts of fancy hand sewing stuff - though I haven’t made reticella lace in a few decades I might remember how to do it =)
So, it really looks like a generational shift in women’s life. A few elderly women may maintain the weekly routine, their daughters abandoned it, and their granddaughters are mostly gob-smacked at the whole idea of those ‘helmet hair’ regimen. Done in by changes in hair styles (I bet the free flowing locks of the flower power hippies had a significant impact), technology (hair/blow dryers), life styles (a woman running a house, raising children AND working full time jobs outside the home simply don’t have the time.)
Of course other grooming standards have changed over that time, too. Like the rise in pubic shaving. And tattoos on women. I wonder what the future trends will be?
How about programmable hair? Wigs, with each strand able to assume different shapes under command by some sort of microtech. Or biotech. Pick a hair style, your hairs grow to the desired length/color/amount of curliness, and you need do nothing except rinse your hair every day or so to get rid of accumulating dirt/dust/oiliness…until you change your ‘programming’ and your new hairstyle starts to grow in.
My scalp starts to itch just thinking about washing my hair only once a week. I have to wash it daily, first for hygiene and second because after a night’s sleep, my hair spikes in any direction although I’m a guy with short hair.
I used to be a daily hair washer, but as I’ve aged my hair has become kind of dry. I wash it 2-3 times/week now. It always looks and smells clean. I’m female with past-my-shoulder length hair.
