Thursday 22 November 2012

TALES FROM THE DRESSING TABLE: 60's HAIRPIECES

As a child in the 60's, I can remember being fascinated by my very glamorous mother getting ready for a big party. It was a day-long ritual that started as soon as Andre's of Locksbottom, the local hairdressing salon, opened on a Saturday morning.

I loved it when I was allowed to go with my mother to drop-off her hairpiece for a shampoo and set and always listened-in when she discussed the look she wanted. Her hairdresser would make huge gesticulating gestures around her shoulder-length hair, like a crazed windmill, to demonstrate the effect he was aiming for. It was the time of the big up-do - think Elizabeth Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Betty in Mad Men, and I was very used to seeing my mother's collection of hairpieces, in varying lengths, swaying on the washing line alongside all our clothes.

Tippi Hedren, with serious up-do, and Sean Connery in Hitchcock's Marni, 1964
Photo credit

My mother would then get on with all her usual weekend chores before returning to the hairdressers later in the afternoon, when the elaborately dressed hairpiece would be united with her backcombed hair. Height and volume was what it was all about.

I'd wait patiently by the window at home longing for that first glimpse of her. When she finally arrive looking a million dollars I always longed to do something similar with my pixie cropped super-fine hair. The next hour would be spent hanging over my mother's bedroom chair watching her carefully apply her make-up at her dressing table. I can still hear the determined click of her compact after she'd added a veil of powder to set her foundation and the smack of her lips as she ensured her lipstick was in place. Then came the spray of perfume - usually something heady by Christian Dior or Nina Ricci that my father had bought her on one of his many business trips abroad, and finally she'd be ready to slip into her dress...



5 comments:

  1. Oh how lovely! I have a hairpiece I still wear occasionally, although over the years my hair colour has faded, and the match isn't so good. It feels glorious though!

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    1. Beats modern damaging hair extentions every time!

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  2. My most enduring memory of going to the hairdresser with my mother was wandering around the salon picking up the plastic ear protectors that ladies used to wear when they went under the hair dryers. I used to play tea time with them until Mother was done.

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    1. That's such a lovely story - I had a Saturday job at the same hairdressers when I was 15 and used to have to wash those protectors...

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  3. Oh, this brought back fond memories on my grandmother's hairpiece for her bun! Thank you for the memory.

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