# "Oh, I can't tonight, I have to wash my hair." What? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 27, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376 "2009-07-27T01:47:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/41 "2009-07-28T01:06:35Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > According to Wikipedia it [was](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_dryer) the handeld blowdryer for home use that was invented in 1920. The big salon dryer was invented in the late 19th century. The mind boggles. I have the same question as **AuntiePam**. Why did it take 50 years for them to “catch on”? I remember the Revlon model being advertised on TV–a sexy blonde dressed in a white cowboy outfit, the handheld dryer was her “gun”… Farah Fawcett and Cheryl Tieg were the ones who started all those hair styles that needed the blow dryer. Maybe the handheld didn’t catch on because of the beehives and the whatever-the-40s-style-of-the-flat-hair-except-for-the-end-curls-close-to-the-face-was-called? ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/42 "2009-07-28T01:28:22Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Wigs made a brief comeback in the 70’s. I don’t know why, or what started it, but they were very common. Mom would take hers to the hairdresser for cleaning and styling. > > ETA: I read that wrong. I thought it was “in the 20’s”, not “in **her** 20’s”. Was your MIL in her 20’s in the 70’s? Yep. And she was never a hippie like my mom, so she had more hairdo to maintain then. I don’t think my mom would have been caught dead with a wig, so I was quite surprised to hear about that. I remember when I was a kid, there was no conditioner in the house; my mom didn’t use it for years. My hair is very tangly stuff, so it was quite painful! Now I slather my kids’ heads in conditioner and tell them how lucky they are when they complain about getting their hair combed after a bath. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/43 "2009-07-28T03:36:47Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > But I always thought it was just a condescending “no” - as in, I don’t enjoy washing my hair, but I’d rather even do that than date you. This is always how I’ve interpreted it. It’s never occurred to me that this could actually be a reasonable excuse, even if hair cleaning is quite a production. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/44 "2009-07-28T07:04:48Z")
I think for the most part this was strictly a blowoff. But about the hair dryers. Before the early '60s I never heard of anyone having a hair dryer at home. Everybody’s mother went to the beauty shop. Rich people went to the beauty shop more often, or more expensive beauty shops. Kids, even little girls with long hair, air-dried. When my hair was long it took five hours for it to dry. This was if it was loose. I actually slept with my hair rolled around orange juice cans a couple of times, but in the morning it was still damp, so that didn’t work and was not all that comfortable. The first home hair dryer we had was a giant plastic bonnet with elastic around the edges, attached to something that looked like a modern blowdryer. It said not to use it while you were asleep. I spent hours trying to figure out how you _could_ sleep while using that thing, as it was a, uncomfortable, and b, noisy. The really high-end home hairdryer was just like a beauty shop contraption, except it didn’t come with a chair. You had to provide the chair. Both of these worked with hair in rollers. Because of the rollers, it still took a long time. At the beauty shop they had little plastic things to go over your ears so your ears didn’t get red and/or melt off entirely during the process. Some time around 1970 or thereabouts, some genius figured out that you didn’t actually need the bonnet, you could aim the heat source directly at your hair, and if you brushed your hair while blowing it around with the thing that put out the heat, it would get dry a lot faster. Then came round brush combs to help put some shape in it, and plug-in curlers (for home use; the first ones I ever heard of were called Carmen Curlers, and I first heard of them from the big sister of a friend of mine who’d gone to school in Switzerland for a year). If you didn’t have to sit under the dryer for an hour and a half, then you had the time to spend heating up the electric curlers. Curling irons were around in the late 1800s, and my grandmother used them. They were not electric. Some site says that before hair dryers were invented in the '20s women reversed the vacuum cleaner. Hah! I think the women in my family were still beating the carpets outside, with carpet beaters, but maybe they were slow. I know my grandmother didn’t live anywhere with electricity until the late '20s. And we thought _we_ had it bad. In high school, I offended one of the black girls by asking how often she washed her hair. I asked because I sat behind her in English and she had the same piece of lint in approximately the same place in her hairdo for…weeks, it seemed like. The answer was: none too often. Some years later a college friend had me help her do her hair, and it was quite an ordeal. Wash. Dry. Apply smelly toxic stuff. Do some other stuff. Apply oil. Apply hot comb. It took, literally, all day. She did it approximately every three weeks. My hair would have disintegrated under this regime. Not long after she decided to just let it go nappy (her word). I could sure see why the black girls didn’t hang out at the pool in the summer. You’d be in terror that a stray drop of water would undo all this processing. It was apparently like having to give yourself a home permanent every time you washed your hair. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/45 "2009-07-28T09:22:26Z")
> [@](#): > > I remember when I was a kid, there was no conditioner in the house; my mom didn’t use it for years. My hair is very tangly stuff, so it was quite painful! Now I slather my kids’ heads in conditioner and tell them how lucky they are when they complain about getting their hair combed after a bath. Get John Frieda Frizz-Ease. It’s spray on conditioner, used after a shampoo. Spray on, comb through. It’s wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/46 "2009-07-28T13:19:56Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > I remember when I was a kid, there was no conditioner in the house; my mom didn’t use it for years. My hair is very tangly stuff, so it was quite painful! Now I slather my kids’ heads in conditioner and tell them how lucky they are when they complain about getting their hair combed after a bath. Remember when No More Tears came out? I wanted that stuff sooo bad, but my mom wouldn’t buy it. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/47 "2009-07-28T14:03:05Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > Remember when No More Tears came out? I wanted that stuff sooo bad, but my mom wouldn’t buy it. ☹ Are you sure you’re not thinking of No More Tangles? “It’s the first creme rinse for children.” My mother would get the No More Tears shampoo for us kids. Being a guy with short hair, I never had a problem with drying and brushing my hair; but my younger sister, who had long straight hair, hated the process because of post-towel-drying tangles. Note that this was before hand-held hair dryers were popular. Anyway, when No More Tangles came out (and was heavily promoted on TV, which is how I remember their slogan), she begged our Mom to get it. Mom did, and Sis was happy–the stuff really did work, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/48 "2009-07-28T15:58:35Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Man, I can’t imagine not washing my hair every day. Or at LEAST every other day. I know that people often say it’s good to go a few days without it, but I tried that as an experiment earlier this year and you could literally see the grease on my hair. I felt like the Fonz but with fewer STDs. Does anyone else get majorly greasy when they don’t wash as often? My brother. He should wash twice a day, really, his pillow cases end up looking like they’ll drip if you squeeze them… I’m on the other end: I usually wash my hair once every 4-5 days (depends on the weather), and if I have to go longer, there’s a couple days it looks like shite but then it goes back to looking just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/49 "2009-07-28T16:01:18Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > My brother. He should wash twice a day, really, his pillow cases end up looking like they’ll drip if you squeeze them… > > I’m on the other end: I usually wash my hair once every 4-5 days (depends on the weather), and if I have to go longer, there’s a couple days it looks like shite but then it goes back to looking just fine. Mine’s not as bad as your brother’s. But I hate that you can see the grease on my hair–oh yeah, and tiny little flakes. Shudder. But my hair has always looked really awesome, so I don’t think I’m doing it any damage by washing it almost every day. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/50 "2009-07-28T16:40:45Z")
The Tom Hanks movie **That Thing you Do** has a great scene with Guy’s girlfriend, rollers in her hair using one of those bonnet dryers. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/51 "2009-07-28T17:50:32Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Are you sure you’re not thinking of No More Tangles? “It’s the first creme rinse for children.” :smack: Yup. With the pretty blonde girl. I was a pretty blonde girl, too, by my mom wouldn’t spend the money… Blighted my life, as you can see! > [@](#): > > My mother would get the No More Tears shampoo for us kids. Being a guy with short hair, I never had a problem with drying and brushing my hair; but my younger sister, who had long straight hair, hated the process because of post-towel-drying tangles. Note that this was before hand-held hair dryers were popular. Anyway, when No More Tangles came out (and was heavily promoted on TV, which is how I remember their slogan), she begged our Mom to get it. Mom did, and Sis was happy–the stuff really did work, apparently. I’ll bet I was switched at birth and should have had YOUR mom, instead… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/52 "2009-07-28T17:54:33Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Yeah, I think my mom used to sleep on her face, pretty much. (Then the 60’s happened when she was in college and she went for long hippie hair, and still has it.) But it seems girls mostly slept in rollers. Otherwise you’d wake up with horrible bedhead and no way to fix it. > > My MIL claims that _wigs_ were pretty popular when she was in her 20’s, and I think this is why. It was easier! Some of the girls in my 'hood used to tape their side burn curls and bangs down with tape so they’d be FLAT. AGAINST. THEIR SKIN. all day. Jeeeez…uptight much, ladies? Everyone had helmet head. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/53 "2009-07-28T17:57:35Z")
Were any of you “children of the 60s” victims of the dreaded Toni Home Perm? Not only did you smell for a week, but the perms were just so fuckin’ unruly!! Pure evil. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/54 "2009-07-29T08:30:33Z")
I wish I had time to post to this thread, but I have to wash my hair. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/55 "2009-07-29T14:17:29Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Were any of you “children of the 60s” victims of the dreaded Toni Home Perm? Not only did you smell for a week, but the perms were just so fuckin’ unruly!! Pure evil. Yep, in the 50’s – Toni and Lilt. I looked like a poodle. Perms have come a **long** way since then. No more stink, and you can get soft curls/waves or just body. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/56 "2009-07-29T15:33:58Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Yep, in the 50’s – Toni and Lilt. I looked like a poodle. > > Perms have come a **long** way since then. No more stink, and you can get soft curls/waves or just body. Fuckin’ _Lilt._ I forgot about that abomination. Fax me some brain bleach. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/57 "2009-07-29T18:30:25Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Were any of you “children of the 60s” victims of the dreaded Toni Home Perm? Not only did you smell for a week, but the perms were just so fuckin’ unruly!! Pure evil. OH yes. My mother kept trying to give me perms, and my hair just wasn’t having any of THAT shit. My mother also thought, for some reason, that a five year old would look just adorable in a beehive hairdo. I was quite the tomboy, and having to sit still with that damn stinky stuff in my hair was pure torture, I tell you, pure torture. I would look a lot better if I got my hair dyed again. However, that stuff stinks, too. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/58 "2009-07-29T18:50:11Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Man, I can’t imagine not washing my hair every day. Or at LEAST every other day. I know that people often say it’s good to go a few days without it, but I tried that as an experiment earlier this year and you could literally see the grease on my hair. I felt like the Fonz but with fewer STDs. Does anyone else get majorly greasy when they don’t wash as often? It depends on what your hair/scalp starts out at. Mine starts out at somewhat on the dry side, so when I washed it daily, which I did most of my life, it didn’t have much shine and tended to be dry all the time. About 2 (that long already!) years ago I switched to washing it about 2-3 times a week, as needed. In six months my hair showed such an incredible change. At first it did feel greasy, but I stuck with it, and soon came to realize it was psychological, that my hair was healthy and happy and soft, that the bouncy curls were coming back, that it had body and real lift. So now I just wash it a couple of times a week. This doesn’t mean you just wet it! When you take a shower, you still scrub the water through your hair, and run your fingers through it; you don’t just let it sit on your head. But a little oil is good for you. I can admit here that I always have some fond amusement for perm goers. My mother has pin-straight hair and she permed it all the time. Mine is so crazy curly and I used to HATE it. Now I wouldn’t trade it for the world. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2014, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/60 "2014-07-08T09:27:02Z")
Reported. ---
**Author:** ![sudont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@sudont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sudont)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376/61 "2015-02-27T20:38:14Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Man, I can’t imagine not washing my hair every day. Or at LEAST every other day. I know that people often say it’s good to go a few days without it, but I tried that as an experiment earlier this year and you could literally see the grease on my hair. I felt like the Fonz but with fewer STDs. Does anyone else get majorly greasy when they don’t wash as often? Do you have long hair? You didn’t go long enough. Try it for at least two weeks. It does tend to look a little greasy the first week. I rarely shampoo my long hair more than once per month, although it gets a rinse everyday in the shower. If you have short hair, there’s probably no point to going without shampooing, except to save some time and water. You cut it off before it can get too damaged, anyway. Before the introduction of conditioner, nobody would shampoo their hair everyday because it would be all frizzed out, and unmanageable, especially in Winter. It’s not so much about drying time, although that was an added factor. If you had long hair, it was a major operation combing the tangles out. It would be difficult to get your hair to “do anything” in that unconditioned condition. This is because shampooing removes all the natural oils from your hair. Conditioner replaces that, so to speak. In the past, daily “washing” was really accomplished with a hair brush. Women were encouraged to brush one-hundred strokes each night, before bed. I still remember the mid-sixties commercial jingle, “You can wash your hair now, every night, every night…” which heralded the introduction of conditioner. I wish I could remember the brand-name. I’m sure it’s on YouTube somewhere… It’s brilliant when you think about it. Create a product that allows for more frequent shampooing, and now you’re not only selling more shampoo, but another product as well! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-i-cant-tonight-i-have-to-wash-my-hair-what/504376.md?page=4)