PDA

View Full Version : 1970s Hair Care



BlondieHepburn
February 27th, 2012, 01:17 PM
There is an okay thread in the archives about this, but I thought it'd be fun to involve current members in this topic.

Help unravel the mystery behind that gorgeous 1970s-era hair! It was thick, shiny, bouncy, and impossibly beautiful. How?! Oh, great LHC members who were present for the late '60s/'70s era, please share your memories of hair care regimens.

What shampoos, conditioners, treatments, products, habits, etc. were common then?

I can't find photos online of the actresses whose silky locks have inspired me, but these images give a starting idea as to what I'm after.

Amazing hair 1 (http://franklarosa.com/vinyl/BigImg/sunshine_hair.jpg)

Amazing hair 2 (http://www.thealist.co.nz/files/u286/brigitte_bardot_11.jpg)

Amazing hair 3 (http://pzrservices.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451ccbc69e2015392fc884a970b-400wi)

How did they achieve hair that was long, silky, voluminous, and healthy-looking all at once?

Shepherdess
February 27th, 2012, 01:20 PM
I would like to know what they did too :)

lapushka
February 27th, 2012, 01:26 PM
I have no idea. I do know that we didn't have any conditioner in the house in the seventies though, and neither in the eighties, actually.

Arctic
February 27th, 2012, 01:30 PM
I was born in 1977 and we went to sauna once a week and washed our hair then, me, my sister and our mother. My memory might fail me, but I think we only used shampoo, not conditioner. Sorry I'm of no help, non of us had long hair and I was so little I hardly remember anything, but wanted to share my memories.

I think people generally washed their hair less often back then.

jeanniet
February 27th, 2012, 01:36 PM
I think stars'/models' hair back then was pretty much the same way it is now--that is, not attached to reality, lol. What you see isn't necessarily a daily look, but fixed up for the cameras. As far as I can remember, the shampoos and conditioners weren't really all that great. There sure wasn't the selection there is now. The heat stylers weren't as sophisticated in terms of settings, and there was a lot of hair spray involved.

Don't believe what you see in the media--from any era. It may not be what it looks like at all!

BrightStarPoet
February 27th, 2012, 01:37 PM
Re: silky straight hair, my mom told me that in the 70s, she and her friends used to iron their hair with a clothes iron! I suppose that would straighten it, but think of the damage!

I can't even imagine doing that nowadays, but I suppose a flat-iron isn't very different!

heidi w.
February 27th, 2012, 01:38 PM
The first image you posted, I think, not positive though, is the famed Debra Jo Fonden. She was a Playboy centerfold, and her photos are famous. Super famous. I am given to understand that she cut her hair some time ago, though.

She, and the last photo shows hair that was tended to by George Michael. The 1960 - 70s era was rife with short hairstyles as Vidal Sassoon was making himself known at the time. He was very into "modern" looks and he loved architecture and saw hair as somewhat architetcural, and this is how he cut hair, with that mindset in mind. (I saw a movie about his life and his contributions to the hair industry. It was a really interesting movie.)

But for long hair we had Mr. George Michael. He recently died, and now his first assistant, Maria, owns the epicenter of these salons, the Madora Salon in Manhattan, New York.

He had a very specific set of products he designed for use on long hair, a very particular way of handling the hair to show it off (such as the use of very large hair rollers and rolling the hair under (not over) and placing the head under a low-heat heat cap). Those products are still purchasable, but I highly recommend a consultation with the long haired folks before using these products. There are rather specific things to keep in mind. Some longhaired people have testified that these products increase tangling, for example, and some think the products are great. It's a mixed bag, it seems. I have never used these products myself since I have a very bad scalp skin condition, and I have to be fairly careful what goes on my scalp skin.

George Michael wrote a book on hair care, which I have read and possess. I know a few people who have met him. Some have declared he wasn't an overly nice person. His book definitely shows a kind of "attitude" regarding hair, but one can cull out the hair care information separate from the personality. He was huge on Boar Bristle Brushing, and he loved to comb out hair, it seems.

There is a GM salon in Columbus, Ohio and also in Beverly Hills, California. Those are the 3 active salons in the US. There is an active salon, I believe, in the UK somewhere. The salons tend to have their own names, but are part of the GM salon system.

When I visited the Madora salon now owned by Maria, I had a wonderful experience. I merely asked for a trim and did not have my hair washed whatsoever. They trimmed my hair and created a gorgeous updo that lasted 3 days, even during sleep! Very comfortable.

The Breck shampoo ads and other ads of the time featured hair that George Michael came in for the photo shoot to maintain and sometimes he offered the models themselves. He knew loads of long-haired women, of all ages, too.

heidi w.

Babs1039
February 27th, 2012, 01:39 PM
I can't comment on the regimen, but 1970's hair certainly inspired me! I always wanted Jaclyn Smith's hair when she was the Breck girl: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_espOowoPeJU/R5jhgvK1Z7I/AAAAAAAAALM/hoI8R38ixVY/s400/jaclyn+smith.jpg I actually found a bottle of Breck at a store ~7 years ago and I had some nostalgic thoughts back to those adds. I've been through so many different brands since then that I can't remember how it did on my hair, lol.

Plus I remember the Wella ads had good hair as well and I believe Jaclyn Smith modeled for them as well as Farah Fawcett, but my hair didn't like that brand at all.

I also love this look Jerry Hall had going on with her hair, if only my curls would do this!!! http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/11_04/JerryHall_468x679.jpg

Madora
February 27th, 2012, 01:40 PM
There was a product called "Long and Silky" that was popular for a time..specifically made for long hair.

In my pre-GM days I used Breck pink shampoo and some sort of no tears conditioner. I loved the beautiful paintings of the Breck girls.

Babs1039
February 27th, 2012, 01:40 PM
Re: silky straight hair, my mom told me that in the 70s, she and her friends used to iron their hair with a clothes iron! I suppose that would straighten it, but think of the damage!

I can't even imagine doing that nowadays, but I suppose a flat-iron isn't very different!

My mom did this too!!!

heidi w.
February 27th, 2012, 01:41 PM
I think stars'/models' hair back then was pretty much the same way it is now--that is, not attached to reality, lol. What you see isn't necessarily a daily look, but fixed up for the cameras. As far as I can remember, the shampoos and conditioners weren't really all that great. There sure wasn't the selection there is now. The heat stylers weren't as sophisticated in terms of settings, and there was a lot of hair spray involved.

Don't believe what you see in the media--from any era. It may not be what it looks like at all!

The first and the last photo is of real long hair. Both those heads of hair were tended to by the famed George Michael. He was well-known in the era for caring for long hair. Very well known.

heidi w.

heidi w.
February 27th, 2012, 01:43 PM
One can, if interested, still collect these old ads for long haired shampoo ads on eBay. My collection is of ads dating as far back as around the 1920s, give or take.

heidi w.

dwell_in_safety
February 27th, 2012, 01:46 PM
Ooh, that first picture! What gorgeous hair that woman has. What I would do for my hair to be that length overnight!

Tisiloves
February 27th, 2012, 01:51 PM
My Auntie Jojo used to swear by sleeping in what sounds like a sock bun topknot, done with a headband.

jeanniet
February 27th, 2012, 01:51 PM
The first and the last photo is of real long hair. Both those heads of hair were tended to by the famed George Michael. He was well-known in the era for caring for long hair. Very well known.

heidi w.
I know some of the long hair back then was healthy, just as some of the long hair you see in the media now is. My real point was that what you see in a commercial or publicity shot is never going to be "real" hair, because it's all set up just so for the cameras. A candid shot might look much different--maybe still healthy, but not "perfect."

I remember a lot of very frizzy perms from the late 70s. The disco era...eek.

door72067
February 27th, 2012, 01:53 PM
I can remember using "cream rinse" (as opposed to "conditioner") in the 70's (I was a pre-teen at the time)

I think at home coloring/chemical treatments weren't as available as they are now and you had little choice but to see a professional

even in to the 80's you had to be a licensed cosmetologist in order to purchase supplies in a supply house

the late 70's was the golden era of at-home Toni perms and after that, at-home coloring seemed to take off

I think products were simpler back then and were only expected to clean hair, not give it volume, or tame curls or what have you

Libbylou
February 27th, 2012, 01:57 PM
I had TB length hair in the 70's. I remember using Breck shampoo. Usually no cream rinse. That is what conditioner was called then. I can remember washing 2 or 3 times per week and I had no heat hair appliances. I wore my hair down during the week for school and a low pony for chores at home.

Firefly
February 27th, 2012, 01:57 PM
I can remember using "cream rinse" (as opposed to "conditioner") in the 70's (I was a pre-teen at the time)

I think at home coloring/chemical treatments weren't as available as they are now and you had little choice but to see a professional

even in to the 80's you had to be a licensed cosmetologist in order to purchase supplies in a supply house

the late 70's was the golden era of at-home Toni perms and after that, at-home coloring seemed to take off

I think products were simpler back then and were only expected to clean hair, not give it volume, or tame curls or what have you

Oh yeah! I remember cream rinse. My favorite was Wella-Balsam. Wish I could still buy it!

spidermom
February 27th, 2012, 01:57 PM
Yes, I was going to say the same. We didn't have conditioner, but we had "cream rinse". Some of them left the hair oily.

My hair used to respond well to VO5 shampoo. Most of the others left it dry and fly-away.

Alas - I never had the patience to grow my hair long in the 70s. I'd get to about BSL, then go get a hair cut.

Avital88
February 27th, 2012, 02:00 PM
i think its just no chemicals,no heat and good genes?

xoxophelia
February 27th, 2012, 02:14 PM
Flipping through a year book for the 70s it looked to me like fewer people were coloring and heat styling their hair. There was a lot more irregularity in texture than what we see today.

kitschy
February 27th, 2012, 02:17 PM
I think I used Flex in the late 70's. My hair was the bane of my existence in the 70's. Curly hair just wasn't in style then. Can we talk about the 80's and 90's?

Bedhead
February 27th, 2012, 02:25 PM
We just had a big ass bottle of Johnson and Johnson's shampoo. I don't remember using any cream rinse until my parents joined Amway, then things started to get "fancy", but by then the eighties were coming in.

I also wanted to say, I don't remember my hair getting stripped by shampoo either, it just cleaned.

Angharad
February 27th, 2012, 02:29 PM
I was born in 1972 and as long as I can remember my mam shampooed my hair once a week with Timotei shampoo and used Timotei cream rinse afterwards. I can remember there was a green timotei and a yellow one (smelled like honey) and both made my hair felt really soft.

I also believe that it was the fact that my hair wasn't washed that often and with the same stuff for years that did the trick somehow.....(a million light years away from the zillion bottles I now use in my search for the perfect haircare; maybe I need to keep it simple again!)

Oh, and I still have the Timotei combs that came free with a bottle at some point and they beat any comb I have bought so far (they have really blunt edges and never irritate my scalp).

heidi w.
February 27th, 2012, 02:32 PM
I know some of the long hair back then was healthy, just as some of the long hair you see in the media now is. My real point was that what you see in a commercial or publicity shot is never going to be "real" hair, because it's all set up just so for the cameras. A candid shot might look much different--maybe still healthy, but not "perfect."

I remember a lot of very frizzy perms from the late 70s. The disco era...eek.

Ah! I misunderstood. Yes, real hair that is long, in a publicity shot, just like today, will look fairly amazing with all the attention it receives. (Today's fans, super bright lights, a very recent hair trim, product intended to heighten the shine.) I met a photographer that photographs hair for ads in mags and for TV, I think too. Hair is not easy to photograph.

I thought you meant that the hair in those older ads were not real long hair. Back then the popularity of weaving wasn't really known, yet.

heidi w.

swearnsue
February 27th, 2012, 02:44 PM
In the 70's hair washing was a separate/special activity. It wasn't something you would do during a shower unless you were a man. Women would wash their hair in the bathroom sink and it would involve getting together your shampoo and towel and let someone know that you are going to wash your hair! I guess because it was a big deal, so if you get a phone call you would let everyone know you will not be available. This would be done about once a week. Some extras would be cream rinse or vinegar rinse. During the 70's many, including myself, thought natural was good so we didn't use dye or perms. That would be too self indulgent to spend too much time on your looks. There was a war to protest, equal rights to fight for and pot to smoke! So it was shampoo, rinse, repeat. Then wrap in a towel for a few minutes, comb and you are done. Shampoo choices were nothing like today. There was Breck, Prell, Halo, I don't even remember what I used until Mill Creek came out with natural shampoo, Oh yea and Herbal Essences that smelled so yummy. I never teased my hair or styled it, just parted it and let it dry.

MermaidTresses
February 27th, 2012, 02:44 PM
Love this conversation! I also really ove the first 2 photos you linked to....the first photo looks like the album cover to my most favorite musical, HAIR. It's amazing. I also love brigette bardot. In my opinion, there just isn't this much beauty in hollywood these days!!!

BlondieHepburn
February 27th, 2012, 02:45 PM
The first image you posted, I think, not positive though, is the famed Debra Jo Fonden. She was a Playboy centerfold, and her photos are famous...

Yes, I think you are correct. She had some incredible hair!
And the second photo is the lovely Brigitte Bardot, who's hair I adore.


Breck! That is one name that always comes up in my '70s hair research. According to its wikipedia entry, Breck was most recently acquired by Dollar Tree, and continues to sell a variety of shampoos. I wonder if it is still close to the same formula... :hmm:

What about volume? Their hair always looks ever so slightly lifted at the roots. :eye:

Angharad
February 27th, 2012, 02:50 PM
I think they backcombed it just a little bit and then used Taft hairspray (at least, my mam did so I guess that's the trick.)

kitschy
February 27th, 2012, 02:51 PM
Yes, I think you are correct. She had some incredible hair!
And the second photo is the lovely Brigitte Bardot, who's hair I adore.


Breck! That is one name that always comes up in my '70s hair research. According to its wikipedia entry, Breck was most recently acquired by Dollar Tree, and continues to sell a variety of shampoos. I wonder if it is still close to the same formula... :hmm:

What about volume? Their hair always looks ever so slightly lifted at the roots. :eye:

Speaking of Dollar Tree, they also recently acquired "Tame," both the conditioner and shampoo. Tame was really popular in the 70's. Wella Balsam was a great conditioner. I shampooed with Herbal essence it was green and smelled GREAT! Then I followed with Wella Balsam conditioner.

I did have a blow dryer. I would use my blow dryer and brush and brush and brush, but I never got silky, straight hair.

kidari
February 27th, 2012, 03:02 PM
The second picture is Brigitte Bardot. I read that her stylist used a ton of dry shampoo in her hair. She's also a brunette and is famous for that messy, voluminous, sexy bedhead hair, with shameless roots showing. I think her hair is mostly chalked up to her natural texture. If you have straight fine oily hair for example, it can be flat and a chemical process such as bleaching or dying makes it less oily and fattens up the hair making it look more voluminous. The look she has is not necessarily hair-friendly as it involves bleaching, teasing, dry shampoos, etc. However, I think that what makes it look appealing is the natural care-free sexiness her hair has.

GaJunebug
February 27th, 2012, 03:02 PM
Tame, Breck, Prell, Lustrecreme or Lustrecream...Wella Balsam, Gee- Your Hair Smells Terrific, Body on Tap....oh, and there was a neutral henna shampoo with tiny pearls filled with oil that would break open as you shampooed your hair. I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

I think of stacked Dorothy Hammill/ Sassoon wedge haircuts, Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith and in the later 70's...the short poodle perm.

Lots of Dippity do, setting lotion and hairspray to keep those feathered looks in place. You didn't wash your hair daily...you did it maybe once or twice a week and "set" it. Maybe using orange juice cans as rollers or using a hooded hair dryer to help bake the curls in...

heidi w.
February 27th, 2012, 03:09 PM
Yes, I think you are correct. She had some incredible hair!
And the second photo is the lovely Brigitte Bardot, who's hair I adore.


Breck! That is one name that always comes up in my '70s hair research. According to its wikipedia entry, Breck was most recently acquired by Dollar Tree, and continues to sell a variety of shampoos. I wonder if it is still close to the same formula... :hmm:

What about volume? Their hair always looks ever so slightly lifted at the roots. :eye:

For lift, one can blow-fry the hair upside down and create some volume that way.

FYI: right now for sale on eBay.com, I find long hair shampoo ads for Halsa Shampoo, Head & Shoulders shampoo, Wella shampoo, and one other shampoo (I'm doing this from memory. I just looked.) -- oh! Clairol color shampoo.

heidi w.

ktani
February 27th, 2012, 03:09 PM
There was nothing special about 1970's hair care. Wella Balsam Conditioner made my hair break. Balsam is a resin.

That is Brigitte Bardot in the 2nd picture. Her hair was continuously bleached in those days and my hair stylist told me that Farrah Fawcett's hair back then was permed and highlighted. Cream rinse was basic stuff, as the technology was based and still is on fabric softener technology of the 1950s http://books.google.ca/books?id=9Z6vCGbf66YC&pg=PA350&lpg=PA350&dq=hair+conditioners+in+1940&source=bl&ots=YJ6dwXo8l7&sig=YojT4gqKsyp4Trbi6Bna3e5QYjk&hl=en&ei=dpW4TKXYLcqcnweD8uSpCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=hair%20conditioners%20in%201940&f=false.

ETA: The models looked great in those ads because of genetics and good hair care on their own (or George Michael in some cases) and the hair was made to look good for the cameras.

heidi w.
February 27th, 2012, 03:10 PM
Tame, Breck, Prell, Lustrecreme or Lustrecream...Wella Balsam, Gee- Your Hair Smells Terrific, Body on Tap....oh, and there was a neutral henna shampoo with tiny pearls filled with oil that would break open as you shampooed your hair. I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

I think of stacked Dorothy Hammill/ Sassoon wedge haircuts, Farrah Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith and in the later 70's...the short poodle perm.

Lots of Dippity do, setting lotion and hairspray to keep those feathered looks in place. You didn't wash your hair daily...you did it maybe once or twice a week and "set" it. Maybe using orange juice cans as rollers or using a hooded hair dryer to help bake the curls in...

My family was a Prell shampoo user. Terrible shampoo! Very drying. I remember using creme rinse as a younger kid in the 60s and somewhat into the 70s. My mother commonly used Dippity Do to style her hair.

heidi w.

Toadstool
February 27th, 2012, 03:11 PM
We just had palmolive shampoo in my house. Hair was washed once a week. Don't think conditioner was heard of in the UK.

1dragonfly2
February 27th, 2012, 03:11 PM
Yep, Breck, Prell and Herbal Essence...
"you tell 2 friends, then they'll tell 2 friends and so on, and so on..."

No conditioners except Johnson's no more tangles...and my hair was so long my Granma used to tell me it would fall in the toilet! :rolleyes:

ButterCream
February 27th, 2012, 03:17 PM
I remember having this exact conversation with my mom a few years back, she told me that they (her sisters and friends and even at hairsalons) they used flatened beer to use as a final rince to make the hair shiny and particularly bouncy.
Ok, this was in the 50`s and 60`s, but she told me that many places here in Norway that tradition kept on waaaaaay into the late 70`s so I think it could aply in this thread :)

They even used alcohol free beer that contained Wash, that was particularly good as it gave a rince that had a lot of vitamin B in it, and since it was not rinced out with water afterwards I guess it was good for the scalp. She never had any dandruff problems using this method, but she stopped when newer and "better" methods was arising. I guess it wasn`t socially acceptable to walk around smelling like beer...:p


Those days they even used this alcohol free beer with lot of Wash to make the curls extra bouncy! They had the flat Wash-beer in a spray can, sprayed some beer on the hair just making it dampened a bit, and then put hair in rollers which they slept in overnight to wake up to ready curled hair (yeah, it was uncomfortable)
My mom had waist long hair and always used to put it up everyday in the most fantastic creations, to protect it and to look presentable.

If you wondered if they walked around smelling like beer those days, they sure did! But since everyone and their mother did this, no one thought anything special about it. It was just the way it should be back then.

I thought about this the other day and I am going to try and do a non alcoholic flat beer rince when I am not doing anything particular, to see how my hair feels and looks afterwards.

I can report back if anyone is interested to know...

Carolyn
February 27th, 2012, 03:31 PM
Ah the 70s! I remember using Breck, Flex, and Wella Balsam. I used shampoo alone until college when I started using Breck Creme Rinse. It came in a huge glass bottle. Glass bottles in a shower? I never dropped one and broke it but I remember being very careful with that big bottle. We had a shower at home and in the dorms there were showers. Once in a while I would wash my hair in the kitchen sink.

In high school I set my hair on a combination of magnetic and mesh rollers with the brushes taken out. I used long bobby pins to secure them. I slept in rollers every single night all 4 years I was in high school including summer time and weekends. I used a soft bonnet dryer to dry my rolled up hair some of the time when I was in college. I would come back to the dorm from class, take a shower and wash my hair, set it, and sit under the dryer for an hour or so in order to be ready to go out for dates on Friday nights. I had those great waves. I didn't use any setting products or hair spray. My hair was in the mid back to lower back range during that time. My hair has never held a curl well but since I washed it every day it didn't really matter. In college sometimes I sat on the floor under the hand dryer in the bathroom and brushed my hair straight under the hot air. I would get it super straight and it had a lot of volume. That was a date night look.

I remember when Long and Silky came out. I couldn't wait to get some. I remember it being really nice. I bought it either at Target or a drug store. That was the first heavier conditioner that I recall. If you go to the Enchantress salon in Ohio they have a bottle of it still in the box sitting on the counter. It's quite a conversation piece. I would love to know if there is a comparable conditioner on the market today. I loved the magazine ads for it. My hair wasn't quite as long as the models but it looked every bit as good.

I got most of my hair care advice from Seventeen, Glamour, or Mademoiselle magazines. I bought every issue every month and took their advice as gospel. One tip for growing your hair longer was to space out your trims and snip off individual split ends! So you see S & D is not a concept of this millennium. Another thing that was touted was putting baby oil in your hair overnight and shampooing it out in the morning. I tried it twice during my college years. The first time it worked great and the second time it was a horrible failure. I left campus early to go back to the dorm and wash my hair for a second time that day. That day is forever etched in my mind. Oh the horror!

I don't remember many hair toys. Seventeen touted using elastics for ponytails which I of course did. The elastics had a little round metal bead where they connected. Later on in the mid 70s leather slides were popular. I think I still have one of mine. They were a very hippie thing and I was big into that look. I don't remember having much else until the later 70s.

When the movie Love Story came out, crocheted hats like Ali McGraw wore became popular. I crocheted several when I was in college and wore them a lot. We also wore bandanas. The kind that are banned now in some schools as gang symbols. Here they are farmer handkerchiefs but they can be hard to find because of the gang thing. How ridiculous! We folded them into a triangle and wore them tied at the nape. We would do that if we hadn't been able to wash our hair for some reason. I still have 2 of them that I wore quite often back in the day. They are more of a small cotton scarf rather than a bandana but were the same size.

My friends and I were all scared to death of getting our hair trimmed in a salon. And I mean petrified. We would trim each other's hair. A girl growing out her hair would only trust another long haired girl near her hair with scissors. I was very good at trimming and quite a few girls on my floor came to me for trims. They knew they could trust me and I would only trim the tiniest little bit off.

sfgirl
February 27th, 2012, 03:35 PM
My mom was a teen in the 70's and she said her hair was horrible because her mom just advocated using a harsh shampoo with a vinegar rinse, with no conditioner. My grandma had fine, nordic hair like me, but my mom is half native so she has course, thick hair. My mom says when she moved out and discovered cream rinse it changed her life.

Diamond.Eyes
February 27th, 2012, 03:35 PM
My grandma said that big, natural-looking, Robert Plant-like perms were big in the 70's. She said that the 70's was all about natural looking hair, no one wanted to be seen as vain. Also, conditioner wasn't very popular because the effect that the poorly concocted stuff that was available would often leave hair flat and greasy. Which isn't good if you are looking to have volumized, frizzy, curls. I think the hair care products and routines today top any from the past, as everything you need to have healthy hair is within reach.

kitschy
February 27th, 2012, 03:45 PM
My grandma said that big, natural-looking, Robert Plant-like perms were big in the 70's. She said that the 70's was all about natural looking hair, no one wanted to be seen as vain. Also, conditioner wasn't very popular because the effect that the poorly concocted stuff that was available would often leave hair flat and greasy. Which isn't good if you are looking to have volumized, frizzy, curls. I think the hair care products and routines today top any from the past, as everything you need to have healthy hair is within reach.


Sheesh, your GRANDMA said? Oh my, I AM getting older. :eek:

kitschy
February 27th, 2012, 03:53 PM
Oh yes, I used this stuff too.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1981-Faberge-Organics-hair-KIM-ALEXIS-beauty-PRINT-AD-/06/!B8!ERugBWk~$(KGrHqMOKpoEy+jC1SJWBM1y!N,cpw~~_35.J PG

ktani
February 27th, 2012, 04:03 PM
Oh yes, I used this stuff too.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1981-Faberge-Organics-hair-KIM-ALEXIS-beauty-PRINT-AD-/06/!B8!ERugBWk~$(KGrHqMOKpoEy+jC1SJWBM1y!N,cpw~~_35.J PG

The iodine value of wheat germ oil can be on the upper end of semidrying but it is most often quoted at 130 or over, making it a drying oil, http://catalogs.indiamart.com/products/wheat-germ-oil.html

and http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=190

ETA: Ah - the cosmetic grade wheat germ oil has a higher iodine value, interesting.

jeanniet
February 27th, 2012, 04:08 PM
We used Breck because it was the cheapest and that's all my mom would buy. Sometimes Prell. I have a thing against Breck to this day, lol. I remember when Herbal Essence came out I bought some with my own money, thinking that it would make my hair like the commercials (probably why I'm so cynical about marketing now). It didn't, of course. :mad:

Wella Balsam was awful. Flex was pretty bad, too. My hair stayed at about BSL all through high school, even though I never cut it. No wonder--between the shampoos, ripping a comb through it, keeping it in a pony with a metal barrette all the time, and of course the special splits treatment (pulling them apart :doh:) I'm surprised it grew that long. The only good thing I did was avoid heat for the most part.

I got a few perms in the 80s and I absolutely do not know why. They fried my hair, I didn't care for them well anyway (ripping a brush through), and with the wind here it was always a mess. I went hiking with my husband once and a bee got trapped in my frizzy permed hair and couldn't get out. It stung me right as my hubby tried to be helpful and walloped me on the head, thereby smashing the bee into my scalp and giving me a headache at the same time. :rolleyes: That kind of cured me of perms.

kitschy
February 27th, 2012, 04:11 PM
The iodine value of wheat germ oil can be on the upper end of semidrying but it is most often quoted at 130 or over, making it a drying oil, http://catalogs.indiamart.com/products/wheat-germ-oil.html

and http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=190

My hair was an absolute mess in the 70's. I would put straight lemon juice in my hair and hang out in the sun, then I would wash with high detergent shampoos and whatever softening agent was available - sometime I would use Downy fabric softner. The blueing in the Downy helped tone down the brassiness from the lemon juice.

I had terribly damaged frizzy hair that wouldn't grow past my bra strap, and much of the damage came from my blow dryer. All that tugging, brushing and combing while my hair was wet and being heated up was just a disaster!

http://pzrservices.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/17/super_max.jpg

jeanniet
February 27th, 2012, 04:20 PM
Oh, gosh, I had one of those horrible Gillette dryers back in '75, I think it was.

Diamond.Eyes, I think your grandma was talking about the early '70s. That was still the hippie era and there was lots of long, straight hair parted in the middle. Once disco hit (:brains:), it was all about vanity, although there were plenty of the big perms. I'm not sure if "natural" is the right word for them. :p I'm still not used to seeing Robert Plant, Peter Frampton, or Roger Daltry with short hair.

ktani
February 27th, 2012, 04:21 PM
My hair was an absolute mess in the 70's. I would put straight lemon juice in my hair and hang out in the sun, then I would wash with high detergent shampoos and whatever softening agent was available - sometime I would use Downy fabric softner. The blueing in the Downy helped tone down the brassiness from the lemon juice.

I had terribly damaged frizzy hair that wouldn't grow past my bra strap, and much of the damage came from my blow dryer. All that tugging, brushing and combing while my hair was wet and being heated up was just a disaster!

http://pzrservices.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/17/super_max.jpg

The hair care products available then were not that great in my opinion.

Not all are great now either, lol but they are better I think. If there is anything to take away from those who had long great hair back then, like now in many cases, less is more.

Too much product is not great for hair. It gets weighed down and overloaded. Offhand I do not recall clarifying products long years ago.

From the sound of it many shampoos were stripping enough. I remember a friend of mine, much older than me telling me that Halo Shampoo made hair really shine, at first. It also stripped the hair badly though and left it very dry.

The late 60s early 70s saw the rise of Redken, the original company and at some point, I got hold of their stylist only book that taught me the basics of pH and real acid balanced hair care, before I started to work in the beauty industry and get taught by cosmetic company reps on how their products worked.

ETA: Much later, after their Hair Cleansing Cream ruined my hair because of one of their rep's bad advice, I worked with the now long retired Redken Head of R&D by phone, from home and correspondence, and she personally created recipes of their products to bring my long hair back from the "brink". They worked too. I learned a lot in the process about how hair products work and how you do not need to cut it all off for it to "recover".

aet2009
February 27th, 2012, 04:22 PM
My mother's family was poor and didn't have a bathtub in the house, so they all took their baths from well water in the wash tub once a week. I remember her saying they sometimes ironed their hair too, but mostly they did either rag curls or wrapping their hair to straighten it.

Quetiepi
February 27th, 2012, 04:25 PM
My sister had long hair back in the 70's. She used to iron her hair, too.
My mother preferred Prell shampoo. It came with a little plastic pearl in the bottom and was a bright green color. Mom didn't like Breck because it was too expensive. She used to say it was too fancy.
I remember how happy we were when conditioner became available.
I didn't have the patience to grow my hair out in those days. I always had it short.
There weren't any blowdryers then. Just these hair dryers in a suitcase with a hose attached to a plastic cap to fit over your curlers. No curling irons. either. If that stuff was available, my mother didn't waste any money on it. She used bobby pins to make pin curls. She only wore red lipstick, too. My mother was divorced and we didn't have much money in those days.
PS, I think your second blond model is Brigette Bardot. She was the French Sophia Loren.

MsBubbles
February 27th, 2012, 04:30 PM
Debra-Jo Fondren: amazing hair genes.

Brigitte Bardot: amazing hair genes (as well as facial features and body shape genes!) - thick (possibly coarse?) and plentiful hair. Natural color dark brown. Withstood a couple of decades of fierce bleaching very well. She had such a lot of hair that in her movies in the fifties, even with a lot of bleaching and tons of long layers, it still looked like she had a boatload of hair. When she 'retired' to the south of France early seventies, she basically employed good ol' benign neglect and her hair looked just as beautiful.

The third picture: no idea.

Diamond.Eyes
February 27th, 2012, 04:30 PM
Sheesh, your GRANDMA said? Oh my, I AM getting older. :eek:

Haha nah, my grandma is only 57. I don't think that's very old. :)

jeanniet
February 27th, 2012, 04:30 PM
My sister had long hair back in the 70's. She used to iron her hair, too.
My mother preferred Prell shampoo. It came with a little plastic pearl in the bottom and was a bright green color. Mom didn't like Breck because it was too expensive. She used to say it was too fancy.
I remember how happy we were when conditioner became available.
I didn't have the patience to grow my hair out in those days. I always had it short.
There weren't any blowdryers then. Just these hair dryers in a suitcase with a hose attached to a plastic cap to fit over your curlers. No curling irons. either. If that stuff was available, my mother didn't waste any money on it. She used bobby pins to make pin curls. She only wore red lipstick, too. My mother was divorced and we didn't have much money in those days.
PS, I think your second blond model is Brigette Bardot. She was the French Sophia Loren.
Remember those Prell commercials where they dropped a pearl into the bottle to show how thick it was? Not sure what that was supposed to prove. I always thought Breck was cheap, but maybe my mom just bought it because at some point she started using it and never changed. She's never been very interested in her hair other than having it "done" at a salon. I remember her beehive 'dos in the '60s and '70s. Talk about hairspray!

BlondieHepburn
February 27th, 2012, 04:36 PM
I thought about this the other day and I am going to try and do a non alcoholic flat beer rince when I am not doing anything particular, to see how my hair feels and looks afterwards.

I can report back if anyone is interested to know...

I'd love to hear about your experience with it! Beer rinsing is something I have yet to try, but was always curious about.



Ah the 70s! I remember using Breck, Flex, and Wella Balsam. I used shampoo alone until college when I started using Breck Creme Rinse. It came in a huge glass bottle. Glass bottles in a shower? I never dropped one and broke it but I remember being very careful with that big bottle. We had a shower at home and in the dorms there were showers. Once in a while I would wash my hair in the kitchen sink.

In high school I set my hair on a combination of magnetic and mesh rollers with the brushes taken out. I used long bobby pins to secure them. I slept in rollers every single night all 4 years I was in high school including summer time and weekends. I used a soft bonnet dryer to dry my rolled up hair some of the time when I was in college. I would come back to the dorm from class, take a shower and wash my hair, set it, and sit under the dryer for an hour or so in order to be ready to go out for dates on Friday nights. I had those great waves. I didn't use any setting products or hair spray. My hair was in the mid back to lower back range during that time. My hair has never held a curl well but since I washed it every day it didn't really matter. In college sometimes I sat on the floor under the hand dryer in the bathroom and brushed my hair straight under the hot air. I would get it super straight and it had a lot of volume. That was a date night look.

I remember when Long and Silky came out. I couldn't wait to get some. I remember it being really nice. I bought it either at Target or a drug store. That was the first heavier conditioner that I recall. If you go to the Enchantress salon in Ohio they have a bottle of it still in the box sitting on the counter. It's quite a conversation piece. I would love to know if there is a comparable conditioner on the market today. I loved the magazine ads for it. My hair wasn't quite as long as the models but it looked every bit as good.

I got most of my hair care advice from Seventeen, Glamour, or Mademoiselle magazines. I bought every issue every month and took their advice as gospel. One tip for growing your hair longer was to space out your trims and snip off individual split ends! So you see S & D is not a concept of this millennium. Another thing that was touted was putting baby oil in your hair overnight and shampooing it out in the morning. I tried it twice during my college years. The first time it worked great and the second time it was a horrible failure. I left campus early to go back to the dorm and wash my hair for a second time that day. That day is forever etched in my mind. Oh the horror!

I don't remember many hair toys. Seventeen touted using elastics for ponytails which I of course did. The elastics had a little round metal bead where they connected. Later on in the mid 70s leather slides were popular. I think I still have one of mine. They were a very hippie thing and I was big into that look. I don't remember having much else until the later 70s.

When the movie Love Story came out, crocheted hats like Ali McGraw wore became popular. I crocheted several when I was in college and wore them a lot. We also wore bandanas. The kind that are banned now in some schools as gang symbols. Here they are farmer handkerchiefs but they can be hard to find because of the gang thing. How ridiculous! We folded them into a triangle and wore them tied at the nape. We would do that if we hadn't been able to wash our hair for some reason. I still have 2 of them that I wore quite often back in the day. They are more of a small cotton scarf rather than a bandana but were the same size.

My friends and I were all scared to death of getting our hair trimmed in a salon. And I mean petrified. We would trim each other's hair. A girl growing out her hair would only trust another long haired girl near her hair with scissors. I was very good at trimming and quite a few girls on my floor came to me for trims. They knew they could trust me and I would only trim the tiniest little bit off.

Wonderful! These are exactly the kind of stories I was hoping to hear about. So when "cream rinse" first came out, did you notice an improvement as opposed to using shampoo only?

Quetiepi
February 27th, 2012, 04:38 PM
Remember those Prell commercials where they dropped a pearl into the bottle to show how thick it was? Not sure what that was supposed to prove. I always thought Breck was cheap, but maybe my mom just bought it because at some point she started using it and never changed. She's never been very interested in her hair other than having it "done" at a salon. I remember her beehive 'dos in the '60s and '70s. Talk about hairspray!

Someone else mentioned Halo shampoo. Mom bought that, too. She was always buying whatever was on sale!

I do remember the Prell commercials, now that you mention it!

Quetiepi
February 27th, 2012, 04:39 PM
Haha nah, my grandma is only 57. I don't think that's very old. :)

57 is the new 32. HAHAHA!

ktani
February 27th, 2012, 04:48 PM
57 is the new 32. HAHAHA!

It is not how old you are. It is how old you think!

lapushka
February 27th, 2012, 04:56 PM
I'd love to hear about your experience with it! Beer rinsing is something I have yet to try, but was always curious about.

I seem to remember Arrow made a tutorial on the beer rinse a while back. Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ArrowOdenn#p/search/0/47Ircq4SCUY

ratgirldjh
February 27th, 2012, 05:04 PM
I was in high school in the 70's. The thing was to have long STRAIGHT hair parted in the middle! (the early 70's).

I remember buying a straightening kit where you put this stuff on your hair and combed it straight, let it sit and washed it off. It didn't do much really. My hair was pretty straight before this and I never tried the orange cans or the ironing.

I used Herbal Essence and still remember when they came out with a conditioner! The conditioner was light green! I also used Yucca Dew and Vidal Sasoon - they had shampoo, conditoner and then finishing rinse!!! I can still remember the smell of those products.

Then I cut my hair short - ala Dorothy Hamil and started using: Short and Sassy shampoo and conditioner and it smelled amazing! I remember it working very well too.

I never figured out how to use a curling iron or blow dryer really - but I did blow dry my shorter hair with a plastic brush just for blow drying...

Oh and once I decided to bleach my waist length very dark brown hair blonde. I got it to a color where it looked like the mane of a Palomino horse!!! I remember all my friends at school (I had changed schools) cried when I dyed it back to brown! lol those were the days :D

eta: does anyone remember the beer shampoo? i can't remember the name of it! but i tried it i'm sure.

Diamond.Eyes
February 27th, 2012, 05:06 PM
57 is the new 32. HAHAHA!

Hehe it sure is! :D

ratgirldjh
February 27th, 2012, 05:11 PM
Oh yes, I used this stuff too.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1981-Faberge-Organics-hair-KIM-ALEXIS-beauty-PRINT-AD-/06/!B8!ERugBWk~$(KGrHqMOKpoEy+jC1SJWBM1y!N,cpw~~_35.J PG

I used this too and still remember the smell! I think I loved this stuff. There was also some herbal shampoo with walnut extract or something that was supposed to make your hair darker. I used it for a long time. It was very nice. I think my hair loved protein back then! :bigtongue:

ratgirldjh
February 27th, 2012, 05:14 PM
I just remembered that I used Long and Silky too! And my mom used to love Breck! I think Long and Silky and Short and Sassy were made by the same company!

princessp
February 27th, 2012, 05:39 PM
Oh yes, I used this stuff too.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1981-Faberge-Organics-hair-KIM-ALEXIS-beauty-PRINT-AD-/06/!B8!ERugBWk~$(KGrHqMOKpoEy+jC1SJWBM1y!N,cpw~~_35.J PG

Wow, I remember this stuff too! And the one with the pearl on the bottom. Weird, I'm sort of too young to really remember the 70s but I have a vague recollection of some of these products (I was born into disco-lol). Great thread idea!:)

ETA:

Then I cut my hair short - ala Dorothy Hamil
Didn't we all? Lol, I was like 5 and I did it myself=disaster. But I thought Dorothy was so pretty so I just had to...:)

Carolyn
February 27th, 2012, 05:53 PM
Wonderful! These are exactly the kind of stories I was hoping to hear about. So when "cream rinse" first came out, did you notice an improvement as opposed to using shampoo only?Yes I do remember quite a difference. My hair was much easier to comb through and it was so soft. It also made my hair less fly away. I remember thinking it was a little miracle for my hair. My hair is very light and it always had ends flying around everywhere. The creme rinse helped weigh it down and control it. I can remember that Target had the best selection of hair products when I was in college. Very few kids had a car at school back then so my friends and I would hitchhike to the shopping center to go to Target. Talk about unsafe behavior if that was in the present time!

I remember using orange juice cans too. Tomato paste cans were a better size for me. I can remember begging my mom to make some dinners that required tomato paste so I could have the cans. I wanted 6 or 7 cans so it took ages to get that many. They didn't make magnetic rollers that big back then. We used a big triangle shaped net thing to tie over the rollers once we got our hair set. I still have my net in my roller bag.

lauralei
February 27th, 2012, 07:27 PM
Oh yes, I used this stuff too.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1981-Faberge-Organics-hair-KIM-ALEXIS-beauty-PRINT-AD-/06/!B8!ERugBWk~$(KGrHqMOKpoEy+jC1SJWBM1y!N,cpw~~_35.J PG

:)I loved this shampoo! It was my favorite from the late 70's to the late 90's, when they discontinued it. I bought the kind for oily hair, seldom used conditioner, and my hair always looked fabulous. Actually, my hair has never looked as good as it did then, but there could be other reasons for that, like my age, the climate etc.

Do you remember the commercial? Farrrah Fawcett saying "You'll tell two friends, they'll tell two friends, and so on and so on," as the screen splits into more and images of her face. Irritating commercial, great shampoo. And it smelled great, too.

I also was a reader of Seventeen magazine (for hair care tips!) and carried my yellow plastic Goody wide-tooth comb in the back pocket of my flare corduroy jeans. If you had long hair back then, it was important to be able to flip it back over over your shoulder in one smooth, practiced move.

princessp
February 27th, 2012, 07:30 PM
:)I loved this shampoo! It was my favorite from the late 70's to the late 90's, when they discontinued it. I bought the kind for oily hair, seldom used conditioner, and my hair always looked fabulous. Actually, my hair has never looked as good as it did then, but there could be other reasons for that, like my age, the climate etc.

Do you remember the commercial? Farrrah Fawcett saying "You'll tell two friends, they'll tell two friends, and so on and so on," as the screen splits into more and images of her face. Irritating commercial, great shampoo. And it smelled great, too.

I also was a reader of Seventeen magazine (for hair care tips!) and carried my yellow plastic Goody wide-tooth comb in the back pocket of my flare corduroy jeans. If you had long hair back then, it was important to be able to flip it back over over your shoulder in one smooth, practiced move.
Yes I remember that commercial! Okay late 70s that makes more sense. :)

lauralei
February 27th, 2012, 07:31 PM
I just remembered that I used Long and Silky too! And my mom used to love Breck! I think Long and Silky and Short and Sassy were made by the same company!

I went to a slumber party once where they gave out tons of samples of Long and Silky and Short and Sassy. (My friend's father worked for the company that made those shampoos, Clairol, I think.) I refused to take any of the Short and Sassy because I was convinced it couldn't possibly work for me with my long hair! I don't actually remember liking the Long and silky that much, though. :)

ktani
February 27th, 2012, 07:32 PM
:)I loved this shampoo! It was my favorite from the late 70's to the late 90's, when they discontinued it. I bought the kind for oily hair, seldom used conditioner, and my hair always looked fabulous. Actually, my hair has never looked as good as it did then, but there could be other reasons for that, like my age, the climate etc.

Do you remember the commercial? Farrrah Fawcett saying "You'll tell two friends, they'll tell two friends, and so on and so on," as the screen splits into more and images of her face. Irritating commercial, great shampoo. And it smelled great, too.

I also was a reader of Seventeen magazine (for hair care tips!) and carried my yellow plastic Goody wide-tooth comb in the back pocket of my flare corduroy jeans. If you had long hair back then, it was important to be able to flip it back over over your shoulder in one smooth, practiced move.

A friend of mine loved it too, lol. There was as I recall very little wheat germ oil or honey in the products but they were popular. There is chamomile in the Sunsilk shampoo I use now, lol but not that you would notice, lol. I have not. My friend used the set.

lauralei
February 27th, 2012, 07:38 PM
There was as I recall very little wheat germ oil or honey in the products but they were popular.

I'm sure you're right, and it was more of a marketing gimmick, but I still loved that shampoo.

BlondieHepburn
February 27th, 2012, 07:44 PM
I remember using orange juice cans too. Tomato paste cans were a better size for me. I can remember begging my mom to make some dinners that required tomato paste so I could have the cans. I wanted 6 or 7 cans so it took ages to get that many. They didn't make magnetic rollers that big back then. We used a big triangle shaped net thing to tie over the rollers once we got our hair set. I still have my net in my roller bag.

How did you roll them and secure them? And did you sleep with them in? (Yes, I might try this. ;))

ktani
February 27th, 2012, 07:47 PM
I'm sure you're right, and it was more of a marketing gimmick, but I still loved that shampoo.

My friend did too. She knew it was a marketing gimmick. The name "Organics" did not mean then what it can now, although it can also have very little meaning these days with some products.

DMARTINEZ
February 27th, 2012, 08:08 PM
My hair was an absolute mess in the 70's. I would put straight lemon juice in my hair and hang out in the sun, then I would wash with high detergent shampoos and whatever softening agent was available - sometime I would use Downy fabric softner. The blueing in the Downy helped tone down the brassiness from the lemon juice.

I had terribly damaged frizzy hair that wouldn't grow past my bra strap, and much of the damage came from my blow dryer. All that tugging, brushing and combing while my hair was wet and being heated up was just a disaster!

http://pzrservices.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/17/super_max.jpg

LOL! I HAD this dryer!!!!!

Carolyn
February 27th, 2012, 08:10 PM
How did you roll them and secure them? And did you sleep with them in? (Yes, I might try this. ;))I used the tomato paste cans and the magnetic rollers on the top and the top 2 rows in the back. Mesh without the brushes on the sides and bottom rows on the back. I used the long bobby pins that are still available today. I pinned the rollers to each other to prevent getting that weird little kink you get from pinning them to the roots. The mesh rollers made it more comfortable to sleep on. My hair always dried over night. Sometimes I'd wash in the afternoon and use my bonnet dryer. I'd lay down and take a nap or read while my hair was drying or do my nails. Oh I should mention I always did a wet set. I timed myself once and it took me about 15 minutes to set it.

Elenna
February 27th, 2012, 08:13 PM
I remember using Faberge Organics or Herbal Essence shampoo. But mostly used Nature's Gate shampoo from the health store. I blew my hair dry too, but had loooonnnnnggggg hair anyway. I think that shampoos back then were a lot milder than the shampoos of today. Those didn't dry out the hair, but just left it cleans and presentable. Nature's Gate shampoo was more of a thick, brown herbal concoction.

DMARTINEZ
February 27th, 2012, 08:17 PM
I remember Breck and Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific!..i used sponge rollers for years,much easier to sleep in. I shudder to think how I treated my hair,and wonder how I even had any!

Deb

MsBubbles
February 27th, 2012, 08:19 PM
Some UKers might remember the Timotei (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7bakst2ask&feature=related) ads from the late seventies/early eighties. I used to think this girl had SUCH long hair! Plus, I really believed I couldn't get that hair unless I used Timotei shampoo. Didn't work. But I got closer to it with bleach :laugh:.

annamoonfairy
February 27th, 2012, 08:34 PM
Maybe its pollution in our air and water.

Carolyn
February 27th, 2012, 08:37 PM
My hair was an absolute mess in the 70's. I would put straight lemon juice in my hair and hang out in the sun, then I would wash with high detergent shampoos and whatever softening agent was available - sometime I would use Downy fabric softner. The blueing in the Downy helped tone down the brassiness from the lemon juice.

I had terribly damaged frizzy hair that wouldn't grow past my bra strap, and much of the damage came from my blow dryer. All that tugging, brushing and combing while my hair was wet and being heated up was just a disaster!

http://pzrservices.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/05/17/super_max.jpgI had that exact same dryer and I absolutely loved it. I remember it didn't last all that long and I had to replace it.

jeanniet
February 27th, 2012, 08:40 PM
This trip down memory lane is hysterical. I remember the light green Herbal Essence conditioner, and the Farrah commercial, and Flex, and Faberge Organics, all that fun stuff. Tried most of those, too. Funny thing is, Target didn't come here until about the time my son was born in 1992. We didn't really have any chain stores where I lived in the 70s, so we must have bought everything at the grocery store (Safeway).

Nenwing
February 27th, 2012, 08:54 PM
These stories are so much fun to read!!

How did you handle static back then with all that long hair? Did you use dryer sheets?

lauralei
February 27th, 2012, 09:05 PM
How did you handle static back then with all that long hair? Did you use dryer sheets?

Dryer sheets? I don't think we had dryer sheets back then!!:D

(I don't remember having any problems with static, but I lived near the California coast then and I think my hair really liked it, not like here in New England where the winters are too dry for my hair and the summers too humid!)

Carolyn
February 27th, 2012, 09:26 PM
This trip down memory lane is hysterical. I remember the light green Herbal Essence conditioner, and the Farrah commercial, and Flex, and Faberge Organics, all that fun stuff. Tried most of those, too. Funny thing is, Target didn't come here until about the time my son was born in 1992. We didn't really have any chain stores where I lived in the 70s, so we must have bought everything at the grocery store (Safeway).I was in Ames, Iowa for college and we had a Target. I loved that place so much. Back home in Michigan we had K Mart and a place called Shopper's Fair. I also remember shopping at grocery stores and drug stores.


These stories are so much fun to read!!

How did you handle static back then with all that long hair? Did you use dryer sheets?I don't remember having much static in my hair unless it was winter and I was wearing a wool stocking cap.

annamoonfairy
February 27th, 2012, 09:37 PM
I still love the 70's look : )

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/9614/hairf.jpg

allio21
February 27th, 2012, 10:03 PM
Life was simpler. No one used heat and all the crap we have today. And washing your hair everyday wasn't the norm.

My mom had super long curly voluminous black hair and she never did anything to it. I always thought she looked like a hair model in her high school and wedding pictures lol.

Madora
February 27th, 2012, 10:15 PM
These stories are so much fun to read!!

How did you handle static back then with all that long hair? Did you use dryer sheets?


Just pressed pressed my hand down my hair. Worked like a charm.

annamoonfairy
February 27th, 2012, 10:21 PM
For no heat curls and waves you can try paper bag curls : )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoZ2QGq0n4A

Macaroni
February 27th, 2012, 10:54 PM
I used Body On Tap for normal hair and a pink creme rinse that had to be diluted in warm water.

bunzfan
February 28th, 2012, 12:45 AM
Maybe its pollution in our air and water.

I was born in the 70's but as a small child i had baby fine white blond tail bone length hair and i only ever remember my mum using timotei shampoo just once a week with no conditioner at least till the 80's, my mum's hair looked awful she didn't know how to care for our wavy hair and hers was bleached to death but it was still super thick no matter what she did to it.

It was normal back then in our house just to wash the hair once a week and my nan told me to brush it a 100 times a day if i wanted it to shine. I also remember flex which was awful stuff it left a nasty residue on the hair which you couldn't get out for weeks!

whitedove
February 28th, 2012, 04:11 AM
Just been talking to my mum about this and she remembered using supersoft shampoo, until they added more chemicals to improve it. It used to come in pre measured packets and she would go and buy a packet a week, never had a bottle of shampoo until later on when she had had children.

She used to dry her hair by the fire or with a towel, never owned a hairdryer until the 80's.

I remember when I was little Mum used to use shop brand shampoo and never had conditioner. First time I had conditioner was when I was treated to my first haircut in a salon (after a slight accident with bubblegum). I also used to air dry my hair by the fire and with towels same as my mum. I would have to stay in the front room as it was the warmest room, no central heating in alot of houses back then.

My mum says her hair care only changed in the 80's after she had her first short cut and perm.

zombi
February 28th, 2012, 04:57 AM
My mother says she ironed her hair with a clothing iron in the 1970s, too. (:

Quetiepi
February 28th, 2012, 05:06 AM
I was in high school in the 70's. The thing was to have long STRAIGHT hair parted in the middle! (the early 70's).

I remember buying a straightening kit where you put this stuff on your hair and combed it straight, let it sit and washed it off. It didn't do much really. My hair was pretty straight before this and I never tried the orange cans or the ironing.

I used Herbal Essence and still remember when they came out with a conditioner! The conditioner was light green! I also used Yucca Dew and Vidal Sasoon - they had shampoo, conditoner and then finishing rinse!!! I can still remember the smell of those products.

Then I cut my hair short - ala Dorothy Hamil and started using: Short and Sassy shampoo and conditioner and it smelled amazing! I remember it working very well too.

I never figured out how to use a curling iron or blow dryer really - but I did blow dry my shorter hair with a plastic brush just for blow drying...

Oh and once I decided to bleach my waist length very dark brown hair blonde. I got it to a color where it looked like the mane of a Palomino horse!!! I remember all my friends at school (I had changed schools) cried when I dyed it back to brown! lol those were the days :D

eta: does anyone remember the beer shampoo? i can't remember the name of it! but i tried it i'm sure.

The one time I grew my hair a little longer, I started wearing it parted in the middle. My mother thought it made my nose look too big and I remember one day she followed me to Jr High and made me change my part. Right there at school. In front of my friends. I think I was about 14 years old. That was pretty awful to deal with.

summergreen
February 28th, 2012, 06:04 AM
Ohhhh the seventies! Good times!!!!!

I think benign neglect was the main reason hair looked good and grew long back then. In my early teens I only washed my hair once a week and let it dry naturally or used the pink sponge rollers. There were some awesome shampoos around then - Flex, Faberge Organics, Herbal Sensation and the beer shampoo - Linco-Beer - can still get that here in small chemists shops. Also henna and the Henara henna shampoos and their amazing deep conditioner. I dont remember ever having static hair but the magazine advice was to rub handcream into hands and then smooth your hands over hair.

Hint of a Tint and Shaders and Toners were wash out hair colours used by everyone I knew and were pretty hair (if not scalp) friendly ways of colouring your hair. One or two blonde streaks at the front was a very cool look for a while - did mine at home with Clairol Born Blonde, loved it!

Late seventies styles were not as hair friendly as those of late sixties and early/mid seventies though. Flick fringes and the Farrah look required tons of hairspray and blowdrying and the use of that evil new weapon the curling tongs! i also remember we had big plastic combs shaped like feet and things, that were worn round the neck on long strings (stop laughing, that was a good look, honest!)

Firefly
February 28th, 2012, 06:31 AM
I was born in the 70's but as a small child i had baby fine white blond tail bone length hair and i only ever remember my mum using timotei shampoo just once a week with no conditioner at least till the 80's, my mum's hair looked awful she didn't know how to care for our wavy hair and hers was bleached to death but it was still super thick no matter what she did to it.



I lived in the UK for a few years in the late 80's and love love LOVED Timotei! Wish it was available here in the States.

Confession time: *I* used an iron to iron my hair... in the NINETIES! It works really well but is extremely damaging and in time it totally fried my hair. Of course, that was pre-LHC. :D

woodlandnymph
February 28th, 2012, 06:58 AM
I remember using Faberge Organics shampoo and conditioner as a little girl in the late 70s/early 80s. I loved using "Granny's wheat shampoo", and it smelled wonderful! Think it may have been my gateway into hair product addiction. :D

zombi
February 28th, 2012, 07:41 AM
^ I think they still sell Granny's wheat shampoo at the Vermont Country Store website!!

heidi w.
February 28th, 2012, 08:17 AM
Life was simpler. No one used heat and all the crap we have today. And washing your hair everyday wasn't the norm.

My mom had super long curly voluminous black hair and she never did anything to it. I always thought she looked like a hair model in her high school and wedding pictures lol.

Lots of women had heated hair dryers back then. They were used in hair salons a lot, at the time.

heidi w.

teal
February 28th, 2012, 10:38 AM
I wasn't born in the 70s but my early haircare routines came from then. I had long hair and my friends had short, feathered, crimped, teased-within-an-inch-of-its-life hair. I used shampoo and creme rinse, and then Clairol's detangling spray.


Flipping through a year book for the 70s it looked to me like fewer people were coloring and heat styling their hair. There was a lot more irregularity in texture than what we see today.

Agreed. Hair straighteners and curling irons are now in pretty much every girl's beauty arsenal. (I haven't had a curling iron for many years though! Now I need to find the ovaries to throw away the straightener...)


I was born in 1972 and as long as I can remember my mam shampooed my hair once a week with Timotei shampoo and used Timotei cream rinse afterwards.

This brought back memories! I'm sure we had Timotei in the house.


I went hiking with my husband once and a bee got trapped in my frizzy permed hair and couldn't get out. It stung me right as my hubby tried to be helpful and walloped me on the head, thereby smashing the bee into my scalp and giving me a headache at the same time. :rolleyes: That kind of cured me of perms.

Hahahaha! *snort* "It sounded like a good idea at the time..."


I think benign neglect was the main reason hair looked good and grew long back then.

I think this is the truth of it.

skaempfer
February 28th, 2012, 10:54 AM
I'm totally enjoying the trip down memory lane, everyone. What I remember from the seventies is my mother making us wash our hair with that bright green prell, (in a tube!) and her steadfast refusal to buy conditioner (known then, as many have pointed out, as 'creme rinse').

Does anybody remember 'Body on Tap,' famous because it had *gasp* beer in it?

Did anybody else want to be Jan Brady? :oops:

My cousins, who were a good ten years older than I am, also slapped their hair down on an ironing board and ironed it.

And yes, my mother bullied me into getting a Dorothy Hamil cut. I wanted a 'China Chop' like Marie Osmond had, cuz she was the man. Oh, god. I can't believe I'm telling you all this. :o

bedazzlecat
February 28th, 2012, 11:35 AM
My mom used soup cans to roll her hair.

Tabitha
February 28th, 2012, 12:42 PM
We just had palmolive shampoo in my house. Hair was washed once a week. Don't think conditioner was heard of in the UK.
I remember when my cousin told us (my mum was involved in my haircare at that age) about conditioner, aka cream rinse. We went especially to buy a bottle from Marks & Spencer. It made a huge difference to my fine-but-voluminous, wavy, tangle-prone hair. As I recall, I was around 12 (so this would be 1974-ish).

Otherwise, we washed our hair less often. I can't remember much in the way of shampoo apart from the endless Timotei ads of the blonde maiden running through flowery meadows, etc. (Also remember Vosene, Head & Shoulders, the ubiquitous Johnsons Baby, Boots Own and Linco Beer) I had to use a prescription coal tar shampoo most of the time - much less glamorous.

MsBubbles
February 28th, 2012, 12:54 PM
Glad I'm not the only one who was influenced/traumatized by the Timotei ads. When I posted about it here last night, late Eastern US time when all the UKers were nicely tucked up in bed, all I got was crickets :). I posted a link to one of those confounded ads.

ratgirldjh
February 28th, 2012, 01:38 PM
:) and carried my yellow plastic Goody wide-tooth comb in the back pocket of my flare corduroy jeans. If you had long hair back then, it was important to be able to flip it back over over your shoulder in one smooth, practiced move.

OMG I did this too! And then there was a phase where all the girls were using METAL dog brushes to brush their hair at my school! Can't remember if I had one - probably so lol :rolleyes: and of course that roll on lip gloss that smelled like rotten strawberries! I still miss that stuff! lol :p

When I decided to cut my long hair short - the only 'beauty shop' I knew of (except my Grandma's lol) was the one my mom went to. My mom had mid back length BLEACHED to almost white hair and wore it in a style on top of her head with lots of hairspray, teasing, and hair pins. (However I didn't know this :D) and so asked my Grandma to make me to my mom's beauty shop to get my hair cut.

Well it turned out to be a SALON and a BEAUTY SALON at that (read expensive...) and the owner recognized me and took me because she did my mom's hair.

She washed my hair and then just chopped it off at about shoulder level and then proceeded to put it on curlers, dry it under the dryer and then the teasing and the pins and when she finished I sat there looking like an old lady! I was sooo horrified!!! I was too shy to tell her that this was not the 'wedge style' I wanted - and then when my grandma went to pay (wondering why I wanted my hair like this anyway lol) it was $40.00!!! OMG This was in like 1972 or so and $40 was A LOT of money!!!

And so I was in the car crying and came home and immediately set out undoing my hair... and of course I had to wash it and sit and comb it out... and it was fried! The whole time I kept hoping that there was a Dorothy Hamil Wedge under there... but she had cut it uneven! and it hit my shoulders and stuck out like a triangle! OMG it was soooo awful! I still remember the feeling!!!

Finally, I cried so much and was so distraught that my Grandma took me to a beauty school where they actually knew what a 'Wedge' was and I got the hair cut of my dreams :) Whew! And for like $3.00 or something... ;)

DarkAlice
February 28th, 2012, 02:08 PM
can't believe people used an actual iron to make their hair straight..every strand must of been split and fly away

spidermom
February 28th, 2012, 02:21 PM
I think that pictures from the 1970s look so good to us because there was no high definition, so the line between damaged/dry and perfect is blurred.

P.S. - I used an iron on a few occasions, and it did make my hair pretty fly-away, but I don't remember a lot of damage from it - probably because I kept getting it cut.

GeoJ
February 28th, 2012, 02:25 PM
I remember that my mom used Breck, Flex, and Prell on me. She would rub mineral oil onto my scalp, scritch the crud off of my scalp with a fine toothed comb, and then wash with one of the aforementioned shampoos. After washing and towel drying she would apply detangler (I don't remember the type) and comb my hair.

Carolyn
February 28th, 2012, 02:48 PM
I remember having hot rollers at the time my college roommate got married. That was June of 1972. I recall them being quite small. Too small really for the length of my hair, so they didn't work all that well. A couple years later, larger ones were available. My mom bought me a set of larger ones and I gave my small roller set to the daughter of one of my mom's friends. I got one of the first modern curling irons somewhere around 1976. It had a little thing on one end where you added water and it steamed. I remember it being bright green and white but I don't recall the brand.

Wasabipea
February 28th, 2012, 02:51 PM
Deep conditioning with mayonnaise, obviously the full fat version!

eezepeeze
February 28th, 2012, 08:55 PM
I got one of the first modern curling irons somewhere around 1976. It had a little thing on one end where you added water and it steamed. I remember it being bright green and white but I don't recall the brand.

I remember using one of these that my mom had! It was pretty cool the way it would steam your hair into shape...I used to be her to curl my bangs with it LOL

I remember longing after my aunt's Prell. My mom would never by it...we used a lot of White Rain and Suave, if I remember correctly...but I could be remembering the early 80s

This is such a fun thread! Does anybody remember Dippity-do hair gel? For years, this was the curly girl's only option for reducing frizz. When it dried, it crunched and looked wet LOl

LaurelSpring
February 28th, 2012, 09:03 PM
Breck, Flex, Wella, Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific....gosh that brings back memories.

Blond On Blond
February 28th, 2012, 11:08 PM
can't believe people used an actual iron to make their hair straight..every strand must of been split and fly away

Amazingly, not always the case. My Mom had butt-long hair that she used to bleach and iron, and it looked terrific. She was extremely careful not to use a very hot iron though, and never applied the iron directly to hair, using paper as a protectant.

After she had kids, she cut her hair to BSL and started curling it to get the "Farrah" look. She also stopped bleaching it, and "frosted" it instead. She still uses the term "frosting" for artificial highlights :)

My Mom mentions Wella Balsam as a revelation. Before, she used homemade masks made with egg yolks, lemon juice and oils. Also - the mayo mask :)

sfgirl
February 29th, 2012, 01:59 AM
Amazingly, not always the case. My Mom had butt-long hair that she used to bleach and iron, and it looked terrific. She was extremely careful not to use a very hot iron though, and never applied the iron directly to hair, using paper as a protectant.

After she had kids, she cut her hair to BSL and started curling it to get the "Farrah" look. She also stopped bleaching it, and "frosted" it instead. She still uses the term "frosting" for artificial highlights :)

My Mom mentions Wella Balsam as a revelation. Before, she used homemade masks made with egg yolks, lemon juice and oils. Also - the mayo mask :)

Did your mom have thick hair? Whenever I see people with long bleached hair, it's very thick. Which makes me curse my semi thin hair!

kmoc123
February 29th, 2012, 07:15 AM
I remember using Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific, Lemon Up, and a beer shampoo...my hair was not long back then and I have no idea how terrible these products were for hair. My Mom would take us for a candle cuts where they twist pieces of hair and run a lit candle by it burning the split ends...kinda scary! We weren't "allowed" to have long hair because she thought short hair was eaisier to keep...

artemisjade
February 29th, 2012, 08:23 AM
Oh yea and Herbal Essences that smelled so yummy. I never teased my hair or styled it, just parted it and let it dry.

My mom used this on my hair for ages. I think I even bought some in college before they changed the formula and rebooted the brand. I was so sad, because I loved the way it smelled.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6187/6097923043_996fe4bc26.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25692985@N07/6097923043/)
1974 Clairol Family Size Herbal Essence Shampoo Bottle (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25692985@N07/6097923043/) by gregg_koenig (http://www.flickr.com/people/25692985@N07/), on Flickr

ktani
February 29th, 2012, 02:55 PM
From all of this and multiple other posts, I see a definite pattern here on the boards.

People tend to use waaay too much product at one time and frequently and drying oils and heavy products and they get dry, tangly, staticy hair.

Less is more with hair care.

The hair cannot handle a lot of product well. That is why it needs clarifying. That is why clarifying can be so effective.

The reason mineral oil drops can and have worked so well in my opinion, over less product and little to no residue or on their own is exactly because they need no reapplication between washes, can be washed out completely and are more effective as per the research, in moisturizing hair better than vegetable oils and silicone and butters, which are waxy. They are not being overloaded on the hair. No one did that back then (ETA overloaded hair with product or oil).

That is the balance hair needs, not to be overloaded, or to have moisture depleted in low humidity.

It just needs to be conditioned well and that can be done minimally on a regular basis.

__________________
http://ktanihairsense.blogspot.com/

irisheyes
February 29th, 2012, 10:32 PM
I cut my TBL hair in 1971, but prior to that, I was a Breck girl. I washed my hair every night. My mother warned me that my hair would fall out because I washed it too much! We all wanted stick straight hair, and I tried to use a clothes iron to straighten it, but that method was too awkward for me to do by myself. Instead, I rolled my hair into a large orange juice can every night, and that method straightened my hair enough to satisfy me. I didn't use blowdryers or hair styling products. I used a BBB daily. My hair was gorgeous!

Blond On Blond
February 29th, 2012, 11:49 PM
Did your mom have thick hair? Whenever I see people with long bleached hair, it's very thick. Which makes me curse my semi thin hair!

My Mom's hair is the same as mine - thick, but it's baby hair, so it looks like there's not a lot of it. I'm guessing it always looked good because of two things:

1. While she did bleach it and iron it, she otherwise took very good care of it - not too much washing of the length, wore updos most of the time, gentle detangling, ect. (the basic LHC standards).

2. Genes ;) Some of us have hair that can take a lot and still look good.

skaempfer
February 29th, 2012, 11:50 PM
...

After she had kids, she cut her hair to BSL and started curling it to get the "Farrah" look. She also stopped bleaching it, and "frosted" it instead. She still uses the term "frosting" for artificial highlights :)
...


Oh, my goodness. I now remember my mom putting this thing on her hair that looked like a plastic rain bonnet. It had holes in it, and a plastic hook to pull through the hole to "frost" with the bleach. The holes were to help with the distribution.

Oh, the horror.

sycamoreboutiqu
March 1st, 2012, 12:16 AM
Oh, my goodness. I now remember my mom putting this thing on her hair that looked like a plastic rain bonnet. It had holes in it, and a plastic hook to pull through the hole to "frost" with the bleach. The holes were to help with the distribution.

Oh, the horror.

Oh yeah, that was one heck of a torture treatment.

I had my sister do it once on my long hair and it was a disaster. The crochet hook that you used would jab you in the head because it was thicker than the holes in the cap and you had to PUSH it through and then it stabbed you in the head.

We figured out at the end that could have been avoided if you pre-poked all the holes before putting it on your head. Oy

Then the long hairs got stuck and tangled being pulled back out through the holes (that devise wasn't intended for anything but shorter hair) and then the frosting bleach blobbed back down through the now enlarged holes and bleached spots all over the place. Yikes, what an awful memory.

jeanniet
March 1st, 2012, 12:17 AM
Did anybody else want to be Jan Brady? :oops:



Yes! I wanted long, fine, blonde hair--seeing as I'm half Indian, with thick, dark hair, that was not going to happen. Fortunately I wasn't loony enough to bleach it! :D

sycamoreboutiqu
March 1st, 2012, 12:23 AM
Re: Ironing hair on the board.

Yup, nothing like trying to iron your own hair on an ironing board. My sister refused to help me, one because she was afraid of singing my hair off and two she thought it was an incredibly vain thing to do.

I only did it a few times and decided I might mess up and lose my hair so never did it again. At least I had the iron on "low.

Fortunately, though I was tempted, I never did use the industrial sized iron my mother had bought. It was called a "Mangle" and was used to iron sheets (god only knows why we had this thing, we were not running a hotel ).

It was 4 feet long and had a foot pedal to raise and lower the surface. Here is a modern day one, I seem to remember ours
kind of looked like a piano - in a wooden case.

http://www.allbrands.com/images/products_main/M_32919_HM21-100.jpg

Conversely - we still had a wringer / washer in the basement. It did have an electric wringer on it though, so that was something.

Lissandria
March 1st, 2012, 04:04 AM
My mom used this on my hair for ages. I think I even bought some in college before they changed the formula and rebooted the brand. I was so sad, because I loved the way it smelled.

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6187/6097923043_996fe4bc26.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25692985@N07/6097923043/)
1974 Clairol Family Size Herbal Essence Shampoo Bottle (http://www.flickr.com/photos/25692985@N07/6097923043/) by gregg_koenig (http://www.flickr.com/people/25692985@N07/), on Flickr

Thanks for sharing, I didn't know Herbal Essence had been around for so long, how much it has changed! Love the retro bottle!


From all of this and multiple other posts, I see a definite pattern here on the boards.

People tend to use waaay too much product at one time and frequently and drying oils and heavy products and they get dry, tangly, staticy hair.

Less is more with hair care.

The hair cannot handle a lot of product well. That is why it needs clarifying. That is why clarifying can be so effective.

The reason mineral oil drops can and have worked so well in my opinion, over less product and little to no residue or on their own is exactly because they need no reapplication between washes, can be washed out completely and are more effective as per the research, in moisturizing hair better than vegetable oils and silicone and butters, which are waxy. They are not being overloaded on the hair. No one did that back then (ETA overloaded hair with product or oil).

That is the balance hair needs, not to be overloaded, or to have moisture depleted in low humidity.

It just needs to be conditioned well and that can be done minimally on a regular basis.

__________________
http://ktanihairsense.blogspot.com/

I think you are absolutely right, ktani. Less is more :)

WaimeaWahine
March 1st, 2012, 04:55 AM
Charlene Tilton on Dallas. Even though long locks weren't my aim back then you couldn't help but be envious. I recently watched all 14 seasons again and it was down to her rear end for a season or two.

We were also a Breck household.

skaempfer
March 1st, 2012, 05:26 AM
Yes! I wanted long, fine, blonde hair--seeing as I'm half Indian, with thick, dark hair, that was not going to happen. Fortunately I wasn't loony enough to bleach it! :D

It's so tragic; the grass is always greener! So many would love to have your thick black hair! I think the single biggest step toward happiness with hair is learning not to fight what you have :)

BlondieHepburn
March 1st, 2012, 03:25 PM
Oh, my goodness. I now remember my mom putting this thing on her hair that looked like a plastic rain bonnet. It had holes in it, and a plastic hook to pull through the hole to "frost" with the bleach. The holes were to help with the distribution.

Oh, the horror.

Haha, the frosting caps are horrific. Even I used them when I was younger. Very stupid for long hair. Ouch.

Bye the way, while walking home tonight I saw a giant advert for Timotei shampoo! I'd never even heard of it before this thread, and now I see adverts for it in Paris. Haha.

jeanniet
March 1st, 2012, 05:56 PM
It's so tragic; the grass is always greener! So many would love to have your thick black hair! I think the single biggest step toward happiness with hair is learning not to fight what you have :)
I did finally learn it, but it took a few years. I think part of me would still like to have that hair, though. I love to see fine, silky, straight hair!

Carolyn
March 1st, 2012, 06:12 PM
Ironing hair was the only really horrible thing I remember. I didn't do it as I could get straight hair with a little body by using cans for rollers and wet setting my hair. Women weren't as in to color like they are now. I remember girls getting their hair "frosted" or "tipped" which was frosted in the ends. It looked very cool on the ends of a shoulder length flip. Wet setting or setting and sleeping in rollers while the hair air dried wasn't harmful at all.

I remember some of the shampoos being harsh such as Prell but I don't think most of them were like the Prell. I had Prell now and then but it was usually something else. I was an avid teen magazine reader and was up on all the products. My mom never complained about buying me what I asked for. I think she was pleased I took care of my hair. She liked a "done" look and that's what I had through high school. I started going for longer hair when I went away to college. Does anyone else remember shopping at SS Kresges and Woolworths? We had both "dime" stores within a block of each other in the downtown area. Quite often I would go to the movies on Saturday afternoons and then spend time perusing the beauty aisles at Kresges and Woolworths. I usually had allowance and babysitting money for an item or two every time I went. I can remember how much stuff I thought there was to choose from.

zombi
March 2nd, 2012, 05:16 AM
Oh, I was wondering. Is "Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific!" brand from the 70s? I think it is. Did anyone ever use this? Hee.

QMacrocarpa
March 2nd, 2012, 06:57 AM
I remember Breck and Prell (green, in a tube). A great leap forward for me was when my sister-in-law introduced my super-tangly hair to creme rinse, in the early '80s.

Madora
March 2nd, 2012, 07:42 AM
@Carolyn,

Oh, yes, we shopped at Woolworth's (on Powell street, SF, right across from the cablecar turnaround) for years! It was crammed with every kind of product a body could want! I haunted their ceramic section, looking for new horse statues as well as their notions department which always had a great assortment of crochet magazines and supplies. The also had a tremendous bulk and imported candy section. Once in a while my mom treated my sister and I to a chocolate soda at the luncheon counter. Happy memories!

ladyshep
March 2nd, 2012, 07:45 AM
My mother's hair in the 70's was gorgeous!!! I wish I could post a picture. Mom and dad got into Amway in the 80s as well and her hair was long and superb using the shampoo. Then she started to get perms, them the vavooom was no longer there. :( She finall stopped perming and vavoom came back.

I think back then, there was simple ingredients in shampoo. Now a days it isn't so basic and you got all of these ingredients meant for damage done by chemicals. Ingredients you may NOT need in your hair.

I also wanted to go to basics, so the closest I can get is using Vo5, which my hair loves rather than all of the salon stuff or shampoos and conditioners with looonnnnng lists of ingredients.

Carolyn
March 2nd, 2012, 08:02 AM
@Carolyn,

Oh, yes, we shopped at Woolworth's (on Powell street, SF, right across from the cablecar turnaround) for years! It was crammed with every kind of product a body could want! I haunted their ceramic section, looking for new horse statues as well as their notions department which always had a great assortment of crochet magazines and supplies. The also had a tremendous bulk and imported candy section. Once in a while my mom treated my sister and I to a chocolate soda at the luncheon counter. Happy memories!If only we had stores like Woolworths and Kresges now instead of Walmart! I loved having lunch at Woolworths. I usually had a grilled cheese sandwich, fries and a coke. Sometimes I skipped the food and just had a coke and then bought more Maybelline make up. I haven't had a chocolate soda in years!

Madora
March 2nd, 2012, 10:42 AM
If only we had stores like Woolworths and Kresges now instead of Walmart! I loved having lunch at Woolworths. I usually had a grilled cheese sandwich, fries and a coke. Sometimes I skipped the food and just had a coke and then bought more Maybelline make up. I haven't had a chocolate soda in years!

So true, Carolyn! Woolworth's had such charm and coziness and that is non-existent in Walmart. Sounds like you enjoyed the luncheon counter too. I remember the Woolworth Cokes that tons of crushed ice, served in large glasses..and you were served promptly..even if you were only asking for a Coke!

I miss the San Francisco downtown that I grew up with..now nearly everything is a big name retailer - or a chain. Not much personality left down there!

ratgirldjh
March 2nd, 2012, 10:55 AM
I loved Woolworths too! I remember the cokes too and the grilled cheese sandwiches! Oh and the milkshakes! Also we had Winn's here and it was so fun too but different.

And I agree Wal-Mart doesn't have the same atmosphere! It seemed like they had everything that was needed at those smaller stores! lol

Madora
March 2nd, 2012, 11:00 AM
I loved Woolworths too! I remember the cokes too and the grilled cheese sandwiches! Oh and the milkshakes! Also we had Winn's here and it was so fun too but different.

And I agree Wal-Mart doesn't have the same atmosphere! It seemed like they had everything that was needed at those smaller stores! lol

Oh, ratgirldjh! Those Woolworth milkshakes! Served in frosty, tall metal containers with very THICK vanilla ice cream. I can still taste 'em!!

patienceneeded
March 2nd, 2012, 11:03 AM
When I was younger (5th and 6th grade) we lived in Twin Falls, Idaho...which still had a Woolworth's. This was in the mid 1980's. I LOVED that store.

going gray
March 2nd, 2012, 11:14 AM
You ladies are bringing back such fond memories. I enjoyed their tulip sundaes & I believe they were 25 cents. And yes the makeup, still remember my very first lipstick "Jolly Pink" by Flame Glo, I was only 12 when I was allowed to wear it.

Those were the days, a wonderful time at Woolworths.

cuties
March 2nd, 2012, 11:46 AM
I didn't grow up in 70's but I guess I did use the same hair care that was followed in 70's. My whole family had absolutely gorgeous hair until we all succumbed to the revolution called "shampoo". Before that my mom would wash my waist length hair once a week with a herbal shampoo bar. The hair was oiled the night after shampoo and put into two braids and every single day I had my hair braided for school with the oil left in. The hair was washed on sunday morning and again oiled sunday night. I have to admit the oils were much better quality than today- totally non sticky and pleasant smelling. I remember my Mom wouldn't let me buy a shampoo and I wanted it because of TV commercials and my friends using it. So, when I was around 16, mom gave in and we got a shampoo and then everyone's hair thinned so much and the oiling became irregular to once a month or even less and all those contributed to bad hair. Also, i think stress level was much less those days and diet didn't have any junk food.

ratgirldjh
March 2nd, 2012, 11:50 AM
Oh, ratgirldjh! Those Woolworth milkshakes! Served in frosty, tall metal containers with very THICK vanilla ice cream. I can still taste 'em!!

Oh yes - they gave you the whole milkshake! They would pour some in a thick glass and then leave the metal container for you to have the rest! Those were the days!!! I can still taste them too! My grandmother always preferred 'malts' - I can still taste those too! Do they still even have malts? Also the root beer floats with the real ice cream and the bubbles! Oh my... once my bf and I tried to re-create these floats with sugar-free A&W and Bluebell Homemade Vanilla. It was sort of 'similar'... lol

Does anyone remember TG&Y?

Madora
March 2nd, 2012, 12:05 PM
Oh yes - they gave you the whole milkshake! They would pour some in a thick glass and then leave the metal container for you to have the rest! Those were the days!!! I can still taste them too! My grandmother always preferred 'malts' - I can still taste those too! Do they still even have malts? Also the root beer floats with the real ice cream and the bubbles! Oh my... once my bf and I tried to re-create these floats with sugar-free A&W and Bluebell Homemade Vanilla. It was sort of 'similar'... lol

Does anyone remember TG&Y?

Oh, yezz, ratgirldjh! The WHOLE milkshake!

I think the only place you can find "malts" these days would be at a real ice cream store..or maybe something like "Dairy Queen" or "Foster's Freeze". Maybe the In and Out franchises?

What is TG&Y?

ratgirldjh
March 2nd, 2012, 12:31 PM
Oh, yezz, ratgirldjh! The WHOLE milkshake!

I think the only place you can find "malts" these days would be at a real ice cream store..or maybe something like "Dairy Queen" or "Foster's Freeze". Maybe the In and Out franchises?

What is TG&Y?

TG&Y was a store (I think a southern thing) that was sort of like Woolworth's or Winn's. They had pretty much everything too but I can't remember if they had a luncheon counter or not. I don't think Winn's did.

I remember when K-Mart had a real luncheon counter though. Actually I miss luncheon counters! someone should bring this back!

sfgirl
March 2nd, 2012, 01:16 PM
Wait, is woolworth's still there? I live about three streets down from Powell and I've never seen it!

Madora
March 2nd, 2012, 01:20 PM
TG&Y was a store (I think a southern thing) that was sort of like Woolworth's or Winn's. They had pretty much everything too but I can't remember if they had a luncheon counter or not. I don't think Winn's did.

I remember when K-Mart had a real luncheon counter though. Actually I miss luncheon counters! someone should bring this back!

Thanks for the info, ratgirldjh. Our local K-Mart had a luncheon counter of sorts until recently. Now I think it is more like a take away rather than a "sit down" type of situation.

I'd like to see luncheon counters return too! Something homey and cozy about them..like a Norman Rockwell painting.

Carolyn
March 2nd, 2012, 03:36 PM
So true, Carolyn! Woolworth's had such charm and coziness and that is non-existent in Walmart. Sounds like you enjoyed the luncheon counter too. I remember the Woolworth Cokes that tons of crushed ice, served in large glasses..and you were served promptly..even if you were only asking for a Coke!

I miss the San Francisco downtown that I grew up with..now nearly everything is a big name retailer - or a chain. Not much personality left down there!I miss the whole "downtown" shopping thing that we had when I was growing up. Saturday afternoon's downtown were so much fun in my teen years. I guess the hanging out at the mall is today's equivalent. I remember we dressed so carefully to go downtown. You never knew who you might see! We weren't allowed to wear pants to school so Saturday afternoons downtown were a place to wear them. I had my school outfits of matching skirts and sweaters but sometimes I would have a pair of pants as an alternative bottom. I even had knee socks that matched the sweaters for the times I wore the pants. I always washed and rolled my hair even on Friday and Saturday nights because I never knew who I might see. Who meaning my current crush :eyebrows: and I had to look good in case he might look my way or even speak to me! :gabigrin:

Madora
March 2nd, 2012, 04:58 PM
Wait, is woolworth's still there? I live about three streets down from Powell and I've never seen it!


Alas, no, sfgirl. It was right next to the cablecar turnaround for many, many years. The main entrance was on Market Street but there was also a back entrance on Ellis (the next street North). It was a very large Woolworth..much more so than the Woolworths located in other pts of SF.

jeanniet
March 2nd, 2012, 05:06 PM
I think I bought a slip to wear with my wedding dress at that Woolworth's, or maybe it was Macy's. I know we went in there a day or two before the wedding.

I don't know if any of you were familiar with Mill Valley in the 60s, but as a child I loved going to Santa's Toys on Miller. There was a lot you could buy for a dollar back then. I liked going to Mr. Fix-It's shop too. Try finding something like that now!

jeanniet
March 2nd, 2012, 05:09 PM
TG&Y was a store (I think a southern thing) that was sort of like Woolworth's or Winn's. They had pretty much everything too but I can't remember if they had a luncheon counter or not. I don't think Winn's did.

I remember when K-Mart had a real luncheon counter though. Actually I miss luncheon counters! someone should bring this back!
There was a TG&Y in the next city over until fairly recently--maybe the last 10 years or so.

My husband worked as an assistant manager at Kmart in the 1980s until he went back to school (thankfully). They had a restaurant area back then, but he said he didn't trust the food and refused to eat there, lol.

AnitaThorn
March 2nd, 2012, 05:33 PM
Just wanted to come here and be useless and say: That first picture is AMAZING! Her hair is awesome.

BlondieHepburn
March 2nd, 2012, 06:03 PM
Just wanted to come here and be useless and say: That first picture is AMAZING! Her hair is awesome.

Her name is Debra Jo Fondren. If you look her up online, make sure that your settings are on safe mode if you are sensitive to nudity. She was a playboy model. ;)

ratgirldjh
March 2nd, 2012, 06:13 PM
I think TG&Y closed the last store around 2009. They weren't ever as cool as Woolworth's though.

Does anyone remember all the cafeterias there used to be? Here pretty much all have closed down! Now they turn into all you can eat places and the food quality suffers and then they end up closing. There is only one left here now that I know of and it is pretty expensive.

We still have K-marts here somewhere (lol) but I think they are 'super K-marts'.

I had gone to a regular K-mart in Florida several years ago and was shocked to see that they had my favorite bras there in my size - 34DD (wow) and very cheap! All I can remember about K-mart's lunch counter is the smell of popcorn. :)

The downtown here had turned into mostly bars and legal offices for a while but now it is making a come-back and it is very trendy...

The 2 small towns nearby have really nice downtowns with a lot of boutiques and things of this nature in the spaces where the old stores used to be like Woolworths and TG&Y (:() - oh and galleries...

And about hair stuff: For anyone that still misses the smell of the original green Herbal Essences - there is a mexican brand that is called Vanart and the green herbal smells exactly the same! Sadly I am allergic to it!!!

Carolyn
March 2nd, 2012, 06:50 PM
There still are K Marts around. Some are Super K Marts. (SS Kresges was the forerunner of K Mart. ) Many K Mart were closed a few years ago but they are still around. Some are smaller stores that have been there for ages. The bigger K Marts I've been in have had a small restaurant area, serving mostly sandwiches and fries and making popcorn as someone else mentioned. I have a choice of driving 14 miles to a K Mart or 12 miles in the other direction to a Walmart. If I don't have other business to do in the town with the WM, I will usually choose to go to the town with the K Mart. It feels so good not to shop at Walmart when I have a choice.

I wish there were more of the dime stores left. There are a few very small ones in small towns. When I was searching for my favorite flavors of WR conditioner I would always check them out. Another thing I always look for is sets of metal dpn's to make into hair pins.

ratgirldjh
March 2nd, 2012, 06:52 PM
I remember Kresges!!! Wow!

I also remember Foley's and Joskes!!! They used to always spray perfume on you when you walked by the perfume counters in Joskes... lol

3mily
March 2nd, 2012, 08:09 PM
I love this.. I was a kid in the 70's and we all used Vosene medicated shampoo in our house. There was also Linco Beer shampoo, that range included a cream rinse..you could buy a sachet of half and half in Boots which I thought was genius as the age of nine or ten. Timotei, of course, and head and shoulders.

My older sister used to dry her hair out with medicated shampoo, no cream rinse as she wanted a big fluffy texture - then brush and blow dry with setting lotion to get massive 'Charlie's Angels' flicks.

skaempfer
March 2nd, 2012, 10:33 PM
My older sister used to dry her hair out with medicated shampoo, no cream rinse as she wanted a big fluffy texture - then brush and blow dry with setting lotion to get massive 'Charlie's Angels' flicks.

Aggh! The charlie's angels wings! And you had to go and comb them with a very big comb during every break to get them to flip back! Some girls used hairspray to glue it in place and then the sides would swing like attached panels whenever they moved their head. Quel horror.

Elenna
March 3rd, 2012, 04:15 AM
I don't suppose anyone remembers Bob's Big Boy and the way they used to make milkshakes & hamburgers. Luckily, my DH remembers the Big Boy of yesteryear. So we reminisce about the food. You can't find hamburgers like that anymore anywhere! The 50s type dinners like the Corvette Diner and similar ilk are not the same as the real thing.

Woolworths, now there's a place I haven't seen in a long, long time. I really don't like the stores like Walmart & Target that have replaced the old 5 & 10s. Heck, I remember when grocery stores sold mostly groceries!

But shopping malls have been around a long time! At least in California!

GaJunebug
March 3rd, 2012, 04:26 AM
Ah! TG&Y! That was the only store of its kind in the small SC town where I attended undergraduate-and was the store of choice for all those necessary incidentals. Loved that store.

(Rose's was another great 70's era discount store.)

Celtic Morla
March 3rd, 2012, 05:17 AM
Being a kid on the 70's I don't remember the shampoo we used but I do remmeber my mum buying a pink Creme Rinse for my hair. I washed my hair once a week(it was long) and brushed it morning afternoon and night. She would dust the ends about every 2 months. I think my hair might have grwon longer if I had braided it more.

Madora
March 3rd, 2012, 07:21 AM
I don't suppose anyone remembers Bob's Big Boy and the way they used to make milkshakes & hamburgers. Luckily, my DH remembers the Big Boy of yesteryear. So we reminisce about the food. You can't find hamburgers like that anymore anywhere! The 50s type dinners like the Corvette Diner and similar ilk are not the same as the real thing.

Woolworths, now there's a place I haven't seen in a long, long time. I really don't like the stores like Walmart & Target that have replaced the old 5 & 10s. Heck, I remember when grocery stores sold mostly groceries!

But shopping malls have been around a long time! At least in California!

Oh, I loved Bob's Big Boy..but only had the pleasure of eating at one when I vacationed in Southern California. The food was terrific!

Carolyn
March 3rd, 2012, 07:32 AM
Oh, I loved Bob's Big Boy..but only had the pleasure of eating at one when I vacationed in Southern California. The food was terrific!We had Big Boy restaurants in Michigan. My uncle from LA told us that Bob's were the same thing. Apparently they were called different things in different parts of the country. I love Big Boy hamburgers! There is still a Big Boy in my home town but I haven't been there for a few years.

The first shopping mall I remember in Michigan was Northland mall in Detroit. My mom would take me there for school shopping in the fall. I think the first time we went was when I was going in to 5th grade. I loved going. It was such a fun mom and me day. We'd have lunch and spend the whole day. I can't remember what she did with my brother :D but at least he didn't go with us. It was kind of cool to have new school clothes that weren't exactly like everyone else.

proo
March 3rd, 2012, 11:48 AM
It was about 1972 when my mom walked in the door with a "blow dryer brush" -
It revolutionized the household! Great at first, then a steady spiral downward into frizz and products.
Sheesh.

ratgirldjh
March 3rd, 2012, 12:01 PM
There is still a Bobs 'Big Boy' in LA - or at least there was several years ago!

We used to have them here in Texas too - but I don't know if there are still any here - maybe in Houston.

And I had wings at one point! And I never knew to use hairspray (lol) - but all the girls in my class would take out their big combs from their back pocket and comb their wings back! I loved mine :)

I never got into the curls and stuff back then which is lucky since I had pretty straight hair! I just wanted it LONG and STRAIGHT. However I was too much of a tom-boy back then to actually do anything to style it. I did use a straightening kit on it once and couldn't tell the difference!

Funny, I can still remember the smells of Herbal Essences original shampoo, Yucca Dew, and Short and Sassy!

That is interesting, huh? I'm allergic to most fragrance oils now!

Oh does anyone remember Princess Hamburgers? They were a real drive in that I went to in Houston, Texas. I can still remember their hamburgers and the waitresses with the beehive hair-dos that would call you 'hun' and stick a pencil in their hair!!! I don't remember then wearing roller skates though but perhaps they did ;)

Tressie
March 3rd, 2012, 12:42 PM
I haven't read the whole thread due to time contraints, but I have so enjoyed the posts!! Especially Carolyn's! A trip down memory lane! Most of us slept in curlers every night! Ouch!

My Mom bought Halo, and Prell. I enjoyed seeing the Faberge Organics products again! Used those as well! I also used a product by Clairol called "Condition". It was a thick conditioner and did a good job. It probably had cones, of course.

I remember creme rinses and I remember standing under the vent on our furnace in the basement to dry my long hair (parted in the middle). Later on, I got a little blow dryer at the drug store. I usually dried my hair outside in the sun during warmer months. It wasn't uncommon for folks to sit in the kitchen by the oven to dry their hair in the winter. Must have been very drying, but better than freezing your buns off! (o:

Tressie
March 3rd, 2012, 12:44 PM
We had Big Boy restaurants in Michigan. My uncle from LA told us that Bob's were the same thing. Apparently they were called different things in different parts of the country. I love Big Boy hamburgers! There is still a Big Boy in my home town but I haven't been there for a few years.

The first shopping mall I remember in Michigan was Northland mall in Detroit. My mom would take me there for school shopping in the fall. I think the first time we went was when I was going in to 5th grade. I loved going. It was such a fun mom and me day. We'd have lunch and spend the whole day. I can't remember what she did with my brother :D but at least he didn't go with us. It was kind of cool to have new school clothes that weren't exactly like everyone else.
Where I grew up, Ohio, we had Manner's Big Boy! Thanks for the memories! :flower:

Sorry for the double post!

Libbylou
March 3rd, 2012, 01:56 PM
The Big Boy I went to during high school and a few years after was also call Manner's. Wonder if we grew up in the same area?
I used to love this desert they had called hot fudge cake. Dark chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, and topped with a cherry. Yum. Now I might have such things once a year.

jeanniet
March 3rd, 2012, 03:23 PM
The only Bob's I ever went to when I was growing up was in Rio, lol. We lived in small Bay Area towns and there wasn't much in the way of fast food. I remember when a McDonald's came to Mill Valley (Tiburon side of 101) in about 1971--very exciting. I don't think I ever even saw a Taco Bell until I was in college.

I'm pretty sure the Breck creme rinse was pink. Maybe they were all pink at that point. I think I remember using it as far back as the late 60s.

Madora
March 3rd, 2012, 03:30 PM
The only Bob's I ever went to when I was growing up was in Rio, lol. We lived in small Bay Area towns and there wasn't much in the way of fast food. I remember when a McDonald's came to Mill Valley (Tiburon side of 101) in about 1971--very exciting. I don't think I ever even saw a Taco Bell until I was in college.

I'm pretty sure the Breck creme rinse was pink. Maybe they were all pink at that point. I think I remember using it as far back as the late 60s.

Yes, it was pink! I used it all the time before my GM days.

Carolyn
March 3rd, 2012, 08:23 PM
I'm pretty sure the Breck creme rinse was pink. Maybe they were all pink at that point. I think I remember using it as far back as the late 60s.If I remember right there was a pink Breck creme rinse and a blue one.

skaempfer
March 3rd, 2012, 10:56 PM
If I remember right there was a pink Breck creme rinse and a blue one.

Oh, my gosh! That sounds so much like fabric softener!

GaJunebug
March 3rd, 2012, 11:17 PM
Down south I think Big Boy's were/are called Shoney's. My Grandmother loved their strawberry pie and would order it with her meal so they wouldn't sell out before she got hers.
( that happened to her one-but, never again :) )

boomtownrat
March 4th, 2012, 10:52 AM
Down south I think Big Boy's were/are called Shoney's. My Grandmother loved their strawberry pie and would order it with her meal so they wouldn't sell out before she got hers.
( that happened to her one-but, never again :) )

They're called Shoney's in North Carolina and we still have two in Charlotte, I believe.

I was born in 1973. From what I remember of my hair care back then, my mom got Johnson & Johnson's No More Tears for me and my hair was only washed about once a week -- on Saturday nights. (I remember there was creme rinse that I didn't really use until I was a little older, but I loved investigating all of my mom's health and beauty items, the hair stuff and the cosmetics.) After my bath I'd lie on a towel that I'd spread on the floor in front of the vent that would blow warm air on my baby-fine, shoulder-length, 1b-ish hair, watching The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. Usually I'd fall asleep sometime around 10:30 with my hair still a little damp. :)

ButterCream
March 4th, 2012, 11:04 AM
Nom, nom, :yumm: Never thought a thread about 70`s hair care would make me so hungry, that`s a first :bounce:

*pops away for a bit to make myself a sandwich*
...and now I want pie too...:D

serin blackwood
March 4th, 2012, 11:20 AM
In the late 70’s my step father was a sales rep for Bristol Meyers, and so we had a garage full of product, including cases and cases of Body on Tap.

We all used it, and in fact I washed my horse with it, my two Afghan Hounds and even chickens that I was bringing to the state fair!

Here is an interesting write up on the shampoo which really was 1/3 real beer:

http://sites.google.com/site/ataplow/bodyontapshampoo

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c354/cshprd/Serins%20stuff/beacc745.jpg

BlondieHepburn
March 4th, 2012, 05:43 PM
I'm loving this thread! 'Tis exactly what I hoped for. :D

I'm seeing a lot of folks saying they only washed their hair once a week. I am interested to know what was done with the hair when it wasn't clean-looking enough to wear down and parted in the middle. What were some common styles employed to make it until wash day?

Madora
March 4th, 2012, 05:49 PM
I usually wore Heidi braids..or braided buns.

Carolyn
March 4th, 2012, 06:52 PM
I'm loving this thread! 'Tis exactly what I hoped for. :D

I'm seeing a lot of folks saying they only washed their hair once a week. I am interested to know what was done with the hair when it wasn't clean-looking enough to wear down and parted in the middle. What were some common styles employed to make it until wash day?Starting when I was in 9th grade I washed my hair every single night and wet set it. I think I wore it in a ponytail twice when I was in high school. It was always down. In college I still washed it almost every day. I wore it in a ponytail now and then. I remember doing a single braid and folding it up and securing it with a leather slide and stick a few times if I was going to be outside for a while. I never wore a bun or any kind of an updo. I wash my hair less now than I did back then. I'm down to 3 or 4 times a week.

ratgirldjh
March 4th, 2012, 07:04 PM
I think I washed my hair every day too back then. It just seemed the thing to do: take a shower and wash everything... maybe my parents got me started??? It took me years to figure out this was not good for my skin and hair... like 20 years! lol

I never really blow dryed my hair though until I had it cut short. I just remember I combed it out and let it dry. I also spent a lot of time in the pool and at the beach in those days and I don't think I ever put my hair up during those times but I can't remember...

Tea Lady
March 4th, 2012, 09:26 PM
Memories....

I wore my hair straight, parted down the middle and long. I used Milk Plus 6 shampoo and Long & Silky. That is until they changed Long & Silky and ruined it. I also remember the Prell with the pearl and the good scent of Herbal Essence. There was also Lemon Up with the big, obnoxious lemon for a cap! I loved the smell of that too though.

Tea Lady

summergreen
March 5th, 2012, 07:18 AM
I think my hair just stayed pretty clean - there was less pollution and less junk food back then, that might have made a difference! Batiste dry shampoo was around then, in a little puffer thing, I never used it but remember the ads. Magazine advice was to put talc in your hair and brush out, or use cologne on a cotton wool ball to 'freshen' the roots.

I'm loving all this nostalgia! It's inspired me to seek out some 70s-worship sites and wallow in the memories.

going gray
March 5th, 2012, 11:59 AM
Oh yes memories, I washed my hair once a week probably with Halo shampoo, & creme rinse. Then set it soaking wet on jumbo rollers that were made from frozen orange juice cans. Even slept with them when my hair was still wet!

Amazing...but my hair shiny thick & plain great, but oh how I never appreciated it back then!!!

ratgirldjh
March 5th, 2012, 12:05 PM
Memories....

I wore my hair straight, parted down the middle and long. I used Milk Plus 6 shampoo and Long & Silky. That is until they changed Long & Silky and ruined it. I also remember the Prell with the pearl and the good scent of Herbal Essence. There was also Lemon Up with the big, obnoxious lemon for a cap! I loved the smell of that too though.

Tea Lady

Oh my goodness! I remember Lemon Up! and also the beer shampoo posted above!!! I don't think I ever used them though - I was too into Herbal Essences!!! Oh and then Short and Sassy, and later Vidal Sassoon... My hair looks pretty oily in pictures and stringy when I was really young - but then in high school it got better!!! It was pretty limp though!!! But I have since found that SLS shampoo does this to my hair for some reason!

Oh and in the late 80's I used to travel a lot to Mexico and there you could still buy the original green Herbal Essences and I would buy it!!! Wonder if they still have it?

ratgirldjh
March 5th, 2012, 12:10 PM
I just found this when I googled original Herbal Essence Shampoo!!!

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/store/jump/productDetail/Health_&_Beauty/Hair_Care/Shampoos_&_Conditioners/Country_Herbal_Shampoo/53408?searchid=7SPDNONB&feedid=googlenonbrand&jadid=8230347738&jk=original%20herbal%20essence%20shampoo&js=1&jmt=1_b_&jp=&jkId=8a8ae4e7313b3248013190ecfd1c4fc0&jt=1&jsid=20123&gclid=CLPplLO60K4CFcRgTAoddB-B4g

Anyone tried it?

And here is a shampoo bar with the HE fragrance oil!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Original-Clairol-Herbal-Essence-Shampoo-Scent-SOAP-Handmade-CP-/270915715864?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f13d5c318

cindy58
March 5th, 2012, 12:17 PM
It seems to me that I used to wash my hair about every other day. I didn't blow dry because I had so much hair, it would take forever, and it also seemed to make it "frizzier" on top. We girls used to be worried about frizzies. What I know now that I didn't then was that those were broken hairs from yanking a brush or comb through our hair.

Now I'm pretty much a twice a week washer, though if I felt the need to wash more often, I would.

eezepeeze
March 5th, 2012, 04:59 PM
We still have Big Boys here in Ohio. The ones in my area are caleld Frisch's Big Boy, but in other parts of the state they are called different things. They are really popular here and they do have amazing strawberry pie. It's one of the harbingers of spring around here, when Frisch's strawberry pie goes back on the menu :-)

Regarding 70s hair (and early 80s for me) I was always so jealout of the girls in school whose long straight hair would part down the middle and feather. Mine was always too curly for that and I remember using Dippity Do to try to control it somewhat :-)

Mesmerise
March 5th, 2012, 05:42 PM
I really don't remember much about 70s hair care! I guess my hair was washed once a week using a basic shampoo and conditioner. That's it!

I wasn't around during the early 70s, so I have no memory of there being no conditioner, or conditioner (creme rinses?) only just starting to come in. I always remember using conditioner.

My hair looked just fine during the 70s and early 80s due to typical childhood benign neglect :D. No heat... no dye... The only hairdryer we had in the house was an old one of my mum's that had a hat attached to a hose that was attached to a machine that sat on the bench! When I started to blow dry my hair (at about 11 or so) I used to pull off the hat part and use the hose. It dried it VERY SLOWLY because it really didn't pump out a lot of air (I guess these things were more used for setting hair or something rather than actually blowing!!).

Carolyn
March 5th, 2012, 05:56 PM
The only hairdryer we had in the house was an old one of my mum's that had a hat attached to a hose that was attached to a machine that sat on the bench! When I started to blow dry my hair (at about 11 or so) I used to pull off the hat part and use the hose. It dried it VERY SLOWLY because it really didn't pump out a lot of air (I guess these things were more used for setting hair or something rather than actually blowing!!).Was it like a big shower cap thing? I have been through a series of them in my lifetime. Over here they are called "soft bonnet dryers". They might have some other names. I would do a wet set with my magnetic rollers and put the dryer on and take a nap or do my nails. The things were kind of loud so it was hard to watch TV while you were drying your hair. I did the same thing with the hose to dry my bangs when they needed a pick me up before a date. Another thing I used my dryer for was to dry a pair of pantyhose when I only had one pair left and I was going out. I'd wash them by hand and wrap them in a towel to get most of the moisture out and then put them in the bonnet to dry. That's another thing about the 70s...pantyhose! Ugh! I can't tell you how much I hated those things.

jdbermes
March 5th, 2012, 06:27 PM
I remember using Alberto VO 5? And then every weekend we spent at Grandma's. I can remember her putting eggs in my hair and sometimes mayo. Also ACV rinses. She used to make a lot of her own beauty supplies and I still use some of the ones she taught me.