Does anyone have any tales of hairdressers in the 50s and 60s?

[rubydazzler]

Epworth, not Hepworth . Did you ever work at Norfolk Row? I might know you. It was a lot of fun at Christmas and Whit especially, they'd be practically queuing around the block for sets! Picking through the hair bin for pins, and disinfecting the combs and brushes, and making up the shampoo in the dustbin balanced on a primus stove! Jolly fun!

[bullerboY]

I used to go to Scotts on nursery st in the fifties,short back and sides whether you wanted it or not,then I went to shaws on west st and had the tony Curtis,brill kept it like that for years,I think every barber/hairdresser cuts it the way they think it should be cut not how you want it.Best cut I ever had was at George France on Chapel walk in the seventies,ive still got it all but I dont often have it cut now cos it upsets me when I see all this white hair falling when for years it was black,oh well!

[Hetty]

Another name from the past, Marjery Dalton on West Street.

[rubydazzler]

Another name from the past, Marjery Dalton on West Street.

That was the one I've been trying to think of since the OP. Thanks!

[daddysangel]

In the 70`s (sorry not the same decades) I worked at the hairdressers at Richmond as a shampooer/tea lass. Ladies used to come in and ask for a laquer removing shampoo. I was shown how to mix this special shampoo and, if i remember correctly, was a measure of soap powder usually DAZ, mixed with a little warm water for which these poor ladies would have to pay extra

[rubydazzler]

Ladies used to come in and ask for a laquer removing shampoo. I was shown how to mix this special shampoo ...

At the IS it was some vile green jelly like substance which we put into a dustbin full of warm water and mixed up with a broom handle. I think it did double duty as an anti-dandruff shampoo as well.

 

Did you have that pink stuff that smelt like marzipan that was supposed to do something wonderful to the hair ... almond conditioner? And that thick purple stuff that ladies with white or grey hair used to have plastered on, left for ten minutes or so and rinsed off? Purple rinse? And filling the lacquer sprays up, chiselling the build-up off the nozzles, and then wiping the spray residue off the mirrors with meths at the end of the day?

 

I'd forgotten what hard work it all was keeping the ladies of Sheffield beautiful.

[callinan]

Mrs.epworth was a strickler for cleanleness and when we had cleaned up she went round with a white cloth to check.I worked at Middlewood shop,not there now.we used to polish the floor with old towels wrapped on our feet,we had some laughs over this!this was done in most of the salons.I worked in all the salons at some time in the late 50's and managed fulwood salon.We once had to clean the perm clamps with caustic soda in a bucket of hot water and leave them for 30 mins.The caustic soda melted the bucket and mrs.epworth was not pleased at all!

[nefertari]

I ony remember from the seventies but remember using meths on the mirrors and using laquer which was poured bottles.We used spirit soap for laquer remover and it smelled bad.

I worked at Leslie Frances in Barnsley. Does anyone remember the old Mr Frances ?

[rubydazzler]

Mrs.epworth was a strickler for cleanleness and when we had cleaned up she went round with a white cloth to check.I worked at Middlewood shop,not there now.we used to polish the floor with old towels wrapped on our feet,we had some laughs over this!this was done in most of the salons.I worked in all the salons at some time in the late 50's and managed fulwood salon.We once had to clean the perm clamps with caustic soda in a bucket of hot water and leave them for 30 mins.The caustic soda melted the bucket and mrs.epworth was not pleased at all!

callinan you might remember me, I'm one of her nieces. I used to spend time at Middlewood shop in the summer holidays when I was little. I once had my hair permed using that horrible machine with the clips on the rods. I don't know why, I was only about 10! I thought my head was going to drop off my neck, they were so heavy. Have you chosen your sf name after the perm? Do you remember Mrs Round, I'm not sure after all these years whether she was a friend, a client or the cleaner but she used to make delicious Christmas cakes for us?

[SILLY]

Shaw's on West Street. Used to do blow waves. No puns needed. They were just the fashionable hair cuts of the late 50s/early 60s.

 

Also, the guy who ran the barber's shop on the Stradbroke estate who only knew the colliers' cut. Short back and sides, scalped at the back.

 

I used to be a regular patron of the first of these but avoided the Stradbroke guy like the plague.

 

This has taken me back I used to take my little brother to the one on the Stradbroke and he used to say do you want gravy on and pour some stuff on that set it stiff. As for the perms I can remember using Tweeny Twink it used to take me ages to get all those curlers in. The hair lacquer I used to buy it in big bottles in the market for 1/11d and decant it into spray bottles, It used to hold my beehive up like a busby:hihi: I used to get it out with soap powder never realised that I was using the same stuff as the hairdressers.