# Hair Raising Stories, Who Did Yours When You Were a Kid?



## fureverywhere (Dec 7, 2016)

Something I was remembering today. When I was young Saturday night was hair washing night. How I hated it. My hair has always been super kinky. Unfortunately my mother had no understanding of what to do with it. Her hair had to be in rollers for hours to get even slight waves. She tried brushes and broke combs trying to get through the tight curls. I remember an electric comb called The Purr...let me see if I can find an image of this thing...






Yup, there it is, the instrument of torture...Looking back I should have just had a pixie cut until I was a teenager. Eventually I learned to do my own hair and discovered all the creams and potions that detangle hair more easily. Braiding it for sleep makes a big difference too. Three of my kids were curly heads, they were lucky to never meet the PURRR

How about you? I suppose for the gentleman it was easier. You went to the barber or Dad buzzed you with his razor. But for girls there is a whole culture around hair. I always envied my best friend. She got to wear her brother's hand me downs and had hair straight enough to be cut into a feathered shag. No PURRR for her either, she didn't know how lucky she was


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## jujube (Dec 7, 2016)

I had long wavy hair down to my waist until I was 10, when my mother snapped one day and cut it off shoulder length (she was justified....I put up a hissy-fit everytime she had to brush it and refused to wear my hair in braids after the second grade).  

I remember when I first met my sister-in-law and was shocked that all six of her kids (only eight years between the oldest and youngest) had the same short hairdos, boys AND girls.  Then I had ONE daughter and realized how hard it would be to take care of SIX kids' hair.


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## SeaBreeze (Dec 7, 2016)

My mother always made me keep my hair short when I was a kid, she used to cut it herself and give me the typical Buster Brown haircut, bangs and short length just under the ear lobe.  As a teen, I kept my hair long, shoulder blade length, sometimes trimmed at home by my mother or older sister, and sometimes at the beauty parlor.  Into my 20s, I got the feathered long shag cut done at the beauty shop.  Slight wave to my hair, but it was basically straight, never curly.  My mother gave me a couple of those home perms when I was young Toni/Tonette, came in a box.  My brother they took to the barber shop.


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## fureverywhere (Dec 7, 2016)

I remember as a teen getting one of those straightening kits. Fortunate my hair didn't just break off. Fried it, but for a good two weeks it was smooth and straight. Then the roots grow back and BOING...I had a natural for most of my teen years, then I discovered curlers would tame the curls but you had to sleep in them. Child-raising I kept it short. Now I've discovered diffusers and curl enhancers, finally enjoy my hair after half a century trying to tame it


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## Ruth n Jersey (Dec 7, 2016)

I'm glad to have any hair left on my head after what my mom did. I was  in the third grade and was sent home because of head lice. My Mom was  horrified. She rushed to the school and had all the kids retested for  lice. They would go from child to child with  a tongue depressor to lift  up the hair and look for them. A girl who sat right next to me in class  was crawling with them and she looked like she hadn't had a bath in a  year. She was set home on the spot. There was a product on the market  that would rid you of these pests but my Mom was to embarrassed to buy  it. Instead she washed my hair in straight kerosene and what seemed like hours she combed my long hair with a fine toothed comb. I finally though I was finished,only to learn she was going to do it again in a day or two to make sure no eggs survived and hatched. My head stung from the ordeal for about a week after. I went back to school and my seat was changed. I guess as a safety measure.I'm sure my Mom had something to do with that also.


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## fureverywhere (Dec 7, 2016)

Oy when we lived in Florida the head lice got even me. What a nightmare...


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## Gossamerwings (Dec 8, 2016)

I went to the barbers as a young child with my grandad,  he cut me a mean bob .
I loved watching the men having their hair cut and being shaved with the cut throat razor .I always remember the smell of the soap that he used to lather up their faces .


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## Furryanimal (Dec 8, 2016)

There was this barbers in Pontypool. I'm hated going there because I knew I'd be coming out with a crew cut.Never liked them.


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## Ralphy1 (Dec 8, 2016)

Hitler!  Yes the Hitler hairstyle was the thing when I was a little boy before the war really got rolling...


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## Pappy (Dec 8, 2016)

I remember mom giving me fifty cents to get my haircut. She would go shopping while I was getting a cut. I remember going up stairs, over Conroys Drug store where the barber had a little shop. When it became my turn, he would always say, "how do you want your ears, in your lap"? Then he'd let out a huge laugh. I never really thought that it was funny, but would laugh along with him or maybe they would end up there.


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## toffee (Jun 8, 2019)

went to a family holiday camp age of 7 years old -my mother had permed my ruddy hair so i was all a mass of curls on my lovely auburn hair i had ' they had a fancy dress comp for kids - she dressed me like a boy ' hated it all some nitemare it was - but won a rossette for 2nd place -come to think of it they must have took pity on me lol ............


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## Keesha (Jun 8, 2019)

fureverywhere said:


> Something I was remembering today. When I was young Saturday night was hair washing night. How I hated it. My hair has always been super kinky. Unfortunately my mother had no understanding of what to do with it. Her hair had to be in rollers for hours to get even slight waves. She tried brushes and broke combs trying to get through the tight curls. I remember an electric comb called The Purr...let me see if I can find an image of this thing...
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I never had one of these but I had wavy curly hair and my mom hated caring for it so I had a short bob. It wasn’t until I got a bit older that I grew  it long since I could then care for it. Oddly enough my hair got curlier as I aged. 
View attachment 66321


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## RadishRose (Jun 8, 2019)

So cute!  I think it's a nice cut for an active little girl.


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## Keesha (Jun 8, 2019)

:thankyou: RaddishRose! :grin:


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## Gary O' (Jun 8, 2019)

We lived a few miles outa the burgeoning metropolis of Scappoose Oregon
Population; 1000

On the main drag was Dewey’s grocery, a variety store, Dr Day’s office, six bars, aaaaand…the barber shop

Hated it

Hair stuck to my neck and down my shirt…for days (we bathed on Fridays)

One time, Dad took me
Sat me on the booster board in ‘the chair’

The barber draped a cloth over my torso, and wrapped my spindly little neck with some sorta gauze like rag
Tying it tight with a pin

Thirst

Noticed a town celebrity stroll in
Took off his hard hat, and put it on the hat pole

Turned around

He had a dent in the front corner of his head the size of a grapefruit

He sat in the chair next to me

The corners of my eyes strained, watching the barber’s clippers swoop into that pit

Didn’t take long and the ol’ boy was up outa his chair
He paid the barber
Strolled over to his hat
Put it on

Walked right in front of me

…..and took off his hat, leaning in inches from my bugged eyes and gapping mouth

‘You should get yer’s cut like mine’

Seems I heard everone laughing
Can’t quite recall

Busy trying not to shit myself


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## RadishRose (Jun 8, 2019)

OMG, that's a good one, well told!


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## Falcon (Jun 8, 2019)

I  liked  my barber.   He always  told  me  the latest   dirty  jokes.  :yes:


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## Ruthanne (Jun 8, 2019)

This sure is an old thread.  Was so nice when Fur was still with us.  But to answer the question my mom would take me to the department store to get my hair done at times and then  mostly we let it grow long.  I always had long, straight hair.  Once I cut it myself when I was really young and messed it up bad.  It always grows back, though!


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## Wren (Jun 9, 2019)

I remember my aunt giving me ‘Home perms’ when I was a kid, using about 100 tight little curlers and soaking my head with a vile smelling solution, the ammonia almost burning the inside of my nose, the result always a mass of frizz looking like I’d stuck my fingers in an electric socket, the photos are not of me but to give an idea......


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## oldman (Jun 9, 2019)

You probably didn’t expect to see a guy posting here, but after reading a few of the posts, I had to write about a girl that I dated during my senior high school year.

She had the most beautiful natural blonde hair that I had seen at that time. However, she would tease it. When we would go to the drive-in and I would go to the refreshment stand and when I would return back to the car and open the door, it looked like a scene from “The Fog.” She must have used a whole can of hairspray on her hair each time she would redo her hair. And, the next day, I would have to wipe my leather seats clean of the hairspray, not to mention the headliner.


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