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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To miss perms?!

109 replies

PutTheBunnyBackInTheBox · 20/02/2017 18:37

I grew up in the 80's and had a few perms over the years and loved them! My DC of course piss themselves at the pictures but a perm was the best thing ever! (Do you remember the first hair wash after getting it done, so nerve-wracking in case they all fell out)
So this morning I was driving into work and this older schoolboy was walking along with the most magnificent head of tight curls blowing in the wind I'm pretty sure it was natural (men don't do perms anymore surely) but it brought back fond memories of my yoof.

What fabulous hair styles did you crazy MN'ers have back in the day?!

OP posts:

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Roussette · 22/02/2017 07:02

I had loads of perms in the past because my hair is soooo fine with no body. It went like this...

Have perm - spend 3 weeks struggling with the curls until it settled down. Love it for 3 weeks. Spend another 3 weeks desperately needing another perm.

My theory is... there were no products around when I was a teen. No mousse, paste, thickening spray - nowt! The only thing you could get was Amami setting lotion, pink in a bottle that old ladies used under hairdryers in the salon. The products nowadays are fantastic, I can create my own thickness and body.

Also you never knew if it was going to be a 'good' perm or a rubbish one. Sometimes it just ended up a nall of frizz that you spent your life trying to unfrizz. TBH a lot of the time I looked like Lionel Richie in his heyday. But blonde!

I also did a Rod Stewart spikey mullet too. That was a dark phase

Roussette · 22/02/2017 07:06

*a ball of frizz! Not 'nall' .

The80sweregreat · 22/02/2017 07:15

Rou, i wonder who started the perm craze really? the products were not great and it all took for forever to do and the smell was awful.
i agree, my hair looked nice for a few weeks, then crappy again.
i cringe at pictures of me in the 80s and wished i had straight glossy locks as they seem to now.

Roussette · 22/02/2017 07:46

80s I have many photos of me with a frizz on my head, truly awful. It all came from the bubble perm, let's blame America

I have the Biggest Hair Imaginable in my wedding photos, that was a perm, but luckily it behaved that day and not frizzy, just huge.

Did anyone have one of these? (no, probably not, I'm old). I don't know why she's smiling, it was bloody agony and fried your scalp!

hyacinthwannabe · 22/02/2017 07:54

Ahhhh the shaggy perm. I loved mine. So easy to style it.

Let's start a campaign bring back the perm.

CondensedMilkSarnies · 22/02/2017 09:34

I remember those dryers Rous and yes to the very small window between frizzy Brillo pad and limp wiggly bits !

CondensedMilkSarnies · 22/02/2017 09:36

At least when I was having them the method had slightly improved from this

RentANDBills · 22/02/2017 09:37

what's wrong with perms? I'm 25 and have one. I've never struggled to find a salon to do it.
The worst thing about them.(for me) is smelling like a badgers arse for a week afterwards

Craiconwithit · 22/02/2017 09:42

I love perming but it isn't always taught in college these days so you might struggle to find someone experienced in all the different perming techniques.
Basic brickwork, Directional, Hopscotch, Piggyback, Spiral....etc.

itsonlysubterfuge · 22/02/2017 09:56

my hair was curly/wavy when I was born, as I got older it was a slight wave, got it permed and the perm never faded, it turned my hair curly! The same thing happened with my little sister.

I think the perms look nice on us, really natural looking.

ShabbieCheek · 22/02/2017 11:01

I saw someone in my local supermarket last night with an "80's" hairstyle - it brought back a lot of memories

Vq1970 · 22/02/2017 11:45

I was a teenager in the 80s and my perms started in my late teens, early 20s. My hair is very thick so it never really took properly. I always wanted Carol Decker hair and used lots of mousse and hairspray trying, but failing, to achieve this.

My hair has been a variety of colours and styles but have stopped mistreating it in the last couple of years and now have lovely long, thick, good conditioned hair (although just dyed it a nice burgundy red colour).

We watched the film Working Girl last night - there is some seriously big frizzy hair in that film!!

The80sweregreat · 22/02/2017 15:07

rou, i know, my hair doesnt look too bad in the wedding pics to be honest, just the rest of me that looks pretty crap ( think a dress from a sale, crappy shoes, borrowed veil!)
i have heard about the curling tong things and the other thing you have up thread - never used them although ;going under lights' was big with my cap hi lights, the pain of that needle pulling my hair through a pin prick hole, so that i could have blond bits on my frizzy perm. lovely.
all the salons in my town do not do perms any more, there is one v small place that does shampoo and sets - most hairdressers just say ' we are a blow dry salon '. funniest salon name i saw once was ' Blond dye bleach' imagine saying that on the phone when you answer it.

Roussette · 22/02/2017 15:45

Hahaha 80s oh yes, I forgot the swimming cap with a rim with pin holes in! I was dented come the end of that!

My ball of fluff perm was not my finest moment but it was eclipsed by the Rod Stewart look alike razor cut. if you didn't like Rod Stewart, you could claim it was a 'Bay City Rollers' cut

fairweathercyclist · 22/02/2017 15:58

My mum always wanted me to have a perm. Every time it went a bit wrong and I was worried about going into school and everyone laughing at me, which they did. She used to do them for me with a home perm set.

I was 20 when I had the last one. It went very very curly but Body Shop did a thing called banana hair putty and it calmed it right down and looked much better. I liked a wave but not curly. Funnily enough, my hair is actually naturally a bit wavy, yet it seemed to be completely straight back then!

fairweathercyclist · 22/02/2017 16:02

My mum used to do my highlights with the shower cap as well. It was a bit painful but I think you used to be able to get in closer to the roots than you can with the foils and it actually lasted longer. Maybe it's just my perception though.

The80sweregreat · 22/02/2017 16:03

i/ve had mullet's too ( but it grew out i think) so many bad hair styles i had in the 80s and 90s.
i have a double crown so it tends to flop forwards and i hate my fringe now but i cant be bothered to grow it out,
i think that i hate my hair really..

CatsBatsEars · 22/02/2017 16:15

I loved my corkscrew perm too, can't wait for it to make a comeback

catarinapovre5 · 22/02/2017 16:16

1977, I was turned down for an assistants job at Mothercare, because of my 'usuitable' hairstyle. Twas a lovely curly perm ala marc bolan (I'm femail btw)

catarinapovre5 · 22/02/2017 16:22

Did anyone have one of these? (no, probably not, I'm old). I don't know why she's smiling, it was bloody agony and fried your scalp!

OMG, Roussette, I spent half of my teenage years wearing that contraption, had forgotten about it! (I'm old too) not very young.

ElsieMc · 22/02/2017 16:57

I think some are viewing 70's and 80's perms with rosey tinted spectacles. When I was at secondary school, nearly all the girls had a shaggy type perm and when I said I was getting one done, my teacher actually asked me not to! Boy were they right.

For some reason, the front didn't take too well, so I had a shortish curly perm with a heavy Cleopatra fringe, so effectively two hairstyles on one head.

My friend followed suit. She had lovely red hair in a shortish bob. Unfortunately the curly look on her bob lifted it up considerably and she unveiled her new deputy dog (spaniel) ears to us all on the Monday. Thank God she had a sense of humour.

For some reason a few years later, a solicitor I worked for had her already huge thick long hair permed. I just opened her office door and burst out laughing at her tearful face. It was huuuge.

tinyterrors · 22/02/2017 17:14

If perms come back in style that's my mornings made easier. If I wash my hair and let it dry on its own it dries in a natural spiral perm. At the moment it's a right ballache having to straighten my hair in the morning, which starts curling again by lunchtime.

wonderingsoul · 22/02/2017 17:59

I had a perm in july... starting to fall out now so will get a new one done soon

Roussette · 22/02/2017 18:39

catarinapovre5 It was a weapon of torture ! They got SO hot, I was sweating like a stuck pig wearing it!

I am really at this thread! I have one photo that I can't bear to look at. Before I had DCs and there is me sat holding my friends baby with this absolute ball of frizz on my head. I was in my 20's and look about 60!

SharonBottsPoundOfGrapes · 22/02/2017 19:47

Rousette I still have one of those! I use it to dry rollers quickly or to do a heat treatment. Had it for over 20 years. :o

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