My First Permanent

I was chubby, I was cute, but I had the straightest hair you can imagine. My hair was a light brown when I was six years old. About shoulder length. The only way my hair looked good was in braids. My mother braided my hair so tight, I can remember it was hard to close my eyes.
Mother had a friend from church whose name was Judy. She ran a beauty shop out of her home. Mother wanted me to have a permanent. She made a deal with Judy to provide her with baked goods until my perm was paid for.

A photo of a photo
of the horrible machine
not real people.

The day arrived that my mother took me to Judy's home to get my perm. Oh, I will never forget that day as long as I live. The permanent machine was about five feet tall. It had all kinds of insulated electric wires that dangled down to chair height. On the end of the wires were metal clamps. The first thing that  Judy did was to wash my hair, then she put permanent solution on little strands of hair then rolled my hair on some kind of roller. After that was done, she clamped my hair onto the electric permanent machine. She did that to my whole head. The solution smelled so bad it was difficult to breathe. Then she turned on the electricity. It shot out sparks and made horrible noises. I thought for sure I was going to die. She left those clamps on my hair for several long minutes. She then looked at the curls and told me that I was going to be beautiful and that it was worth the trouble. I thought it was agony. She then put some other stuff on my hair, which I suppose was neutralizer. Then she dried my hair and fixed it in long curls. Long curls were wound around the ladies' fingers and either tied with strips of cloth or pins made for that purpose. I did look beautiful
The next week, my mother washed my hair in the kitchen sink. That's where we did the hair washing and the little "baths" that we took in between our weekly baths. When the hot water hit my hair that horrible smell came right back. Even my mother said, "Oh I don't think she rinsed out all of the permanent solution." There was no such thing as hair conditioner in those days. They had a hair oil that was called VO5. Mother used that on my hair because after it was washed and dried (no hair dryer) my hair swelled to the size of a bushel basket. I cried and cried. Mother wasn't too happy either. I told my mother I wasn't going to school, I wasn't going to church and I may have told her I hated her and the mean old lady that ruined my hair. Mother took me to another beauty shop and had my hair cut and then she took me again until the perm was gone. Then I was allowed to let my hair grow into a pony tail. I let my mother give me a Tony home perm just for my bangs. I thought that looked cute. You may think it's silly, but every time I get a perm and get a whiff of perm solution, that first visit to a beauty shop comes to my mind.
September 25, 2018
I no longer get permanents, just a cut. When I told my beauty operator that the other day, I smiled remembering this horrible day, and every other day I got a perm. Not again, no thank you.