The author (right) got this perm in 1960 – just in time for school – from her aunt Ruth (left), the home-perm expert.
Home permanents were curls in a box—the answer to all straight-hair problems. But the results didn’t always look like the sleek style worn by the smiling model on the package—sometimes “fried hair” was the best description. In the 1950s, every community in rural northwest Alabama had at least one housewife who was the “home-perm beautician.” In summer, her beauty shop was her front porch. In winter, it was her kitchen. My aunt held the title of home-perm expert in our community. I remember watching her give my mother a perm. The solution was applied using cotton balls. Tissue paper was placed around the saturated strand, and the hair was rolled, tissue and all, tightly to the scalp on little rods held in place by rubber bands. But the home perm went the way of crinoline petticoats. The 1960s brought beehive hairdos shellacked with hair spray and tresses teased high, which called for a professional’s touch.
–Lavale Kennedy, Mills Vina, AL