1950 hair care

[Michiru]

I really didn't expect this to come out of the 50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lao3GaYXLjs
The more you know.

[Johannah]

I like such videos. Thanks for sharing!

[CurlMonster]

That was really interesting. :) I knew that washing so frequently was a pretty modern thing, but I was still surprised to hear the recommendation to wash hair once every two weeks.

[Ishje]

First he said: "so wash your hair frequently"

And then I thought, but not too frequently, it is not good to wash it every day.
But then he said:

"your hair should be washed once every two weeks"

And I thought, ah....ok...that is better :p
It seems like times have really changed, I wonder if woman in those days had less problems with greasy hair.
I also wonder how much hair products have to do with this. I think the products, especially shampoo, we use now might make hair oily faster.
There would be sense in this for shampoo companies, as they will sell more of their products.
Still, I would love it if i could wash my hair once every two weeks, without looking like a frying pan.

[jacqueline101]

I love these vintage hair videos. I think it's great you shared it with us. I liked their washing advice.

[StellaKatherine]

Thank you for sharing, was very interesting to see :)

[duchess67]

This was quite interesting to watch. Thanks.

[AmberJewel]

Very interesting video. I read somewhere that conditioners were only invented around WWII because they started making shampoos more chemical thanks to the rationing system. The conditioners were invented to help fight the drying process caused by the new shampoos. Anyone know of this is true?

[Prettychild]

Very interesting video. I read somewhere that conditioners were only invented around WWII because they started making shampoos more chemical thanks to the rationing system. The conditioners were invented to help fight the drying process caused by the new shampoos. Anyone know of this is true?
This sounds interesting. What were the ingredients in shampoos back then?

[meteor]

Very interesting. I always wondered how women back in the day could brush their waves out so much (50 or 100 strokes a day was a popular myth) and yet seemed to get no frizz. I really suspect that sebum that they accumulated due to infrequent washes really helped combat frizz. When you brush hair before a wash with some oils distributed on hair, it looks and holds a lot nicer than freshly washed flyaway hair.
I wonder how many of those glossy locks from Golden Hollywood era were so glossy thanks to good old sebum and boar-bristle brushes? :)
Old hair care looks like something we'd probably call borderline NW/SO.


Very interesting video. I read somewhere that conditioners were only invented around WWII because they started making shampoos more chemical thanks to the rationing system. The conditioners were invented to help fight the drying process caused by the new shampoos. Anyone know of this is true?
I'm curious to know, too.
I know oils as leave-in and pre-wash conditioners were used for thousands of years. Even Ancient Egyptians used creams on hair.
According to this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_conditioner), 1900 product by Edouard Pinaud "Brilliantine" was considered to be the first commercial conditioner (it was for men).
According to this (http://www.hygieneforhealth.org.au/hair_care.php), first rinse-off conditioners were marketed only as late as 1970?:confused: Is this true?

What this shows to me is that manufacturers are creating more and more products and inventing new hair needs and musts (that miraculously didn't seem to exist even a century ago) just to keep people buying more.
I know my grandma never used a conditioner, only castile soap + herbal/acidic rinses, had gorgeous hair and didn't seem to have any hair problems that way.

[Stormynights]

I was born in 48 so I remember most of the fifties. We never went 2 weeks between shampoos. It was religiously once a week. We never used conditioner. I remember creme rinse but we never had any. When I was a teen I started washing twice a week, then every day when in my twenties. Now I wash one a week.

[Prettychild]

What this shows to me is that manufacturers are creating more and more products and inventing new hair needs and musts (that miraculously didn't seem to exist even a century ago) just to keep people buying more.
I know my grandma never used a conditioner, only castile soap + herbal/acidic rinses, had gorgeous hair and didn't seem to have any hair problems that way. I know my granny used castile soap and lemon juice rinse and her hair was fab but she had wonderful hair anyway. I have tried castile soap twice (Dr. Bronner's) and my hair was like straw afterwards.

[truepeacenik]

Pretty child, Dr B is pretty concentrated. I'd love for it to work consistently for me, sans dreadlocks.
So far, I can get away with using while camping.

Creme rinse gave way to heavier conditioner in the 70s.
I recall Sassoon (sp?) marketing a three step hair care regimen that my mom fully bought into. Had the hair care book, too.
It was, iirc, the first case of scent or ingredient topical allergy I developed.

[winship2]

I wish I could care for my hair like this!!! It makes so much sense to use a brush to distribute sebum down the length of the hair, but my scalp gets so oily. I used to have to wash it every day, but as of about 6 months ago, maybe because I've been using a moisturizing shampoo, it produces a little less oil and I can go two days. I also wish I had a cute curly long bob. And a pony, sigh.

[Gertrude]

I got my first paid little job, well, pennies and not much of a job, watering the plants and putting out the indoor-outdoor's cat food every day and washing its bowls for the neighbours when I was ten. They had the entire line of the almond perfume Vidal Sassoon products. A long row of the brown bottles, prominently displayed. Opened one and sniffed it of course. At home we had the cheapest Palmolive shampoo, no conditioner, my mother didn't believe in them. So I was in awe of their VS line up. Of course nowadays I wouldn't use marzipan smelling hair products.

Now I love conditioner. And need it. Because I have fine straight hair, and it's between APL and BSL self trimming is just really hard as every slight unevenness shows. So huge extravagance, I wince every time at the bill, I get my hair S&D and dusted at the London George Michael salon. If I don't dust I get splits, and my hair does not grow fast. I had a local salon and I was not growing my hair below APL at the times so they cut off one inch every ten weeks and my hair gradually got shorter. Even wearing my hair up and S&D at home, not trimming not an option. So ouch, George Michael in Mayfair. But the trims are really good. Three times a year.

They still do the old style three part regime. A shampoo of several, a conditioner of one or twelve minutes, a cream rinse. The light emulsion that came before the modern conditioners. You get a plan, a prescription for eight weeks to improve your hair. You always use the shampoo and the creme rinse. But I was prescribed weeks with " no conditioner" as part of the " cure". My poor hair without conditioner. Needless to say I didn't follow the plan. I don't have nostalgia for conditioner less days...........

[Mainesongbird]

Really cool! =D

[SunnyIC]

Really interesting video, thank for sharing with us. I always like to read about personal hygiene from times that passed, the other day I read an article about medieval hair care and bathing and was fascinated to learn that they actually bathed more frequently than I was taught. I snickered a little when the narrator said frequent washing and then followed it with once every two weeks, oh how times have changed!

[chen bao jun]

Notice that she washed with soap, they said 'mild soap'. So she needed the lemon juice or vinegar.
I read also that 'shampoo' (as opposed to just using soap) was invented in the mid 20th century as they got city water. City water is harder and you needed something stronger in it to get your hair clean, so they invented shampoo which is basically detergent. Then the detergent was harsh on your hair so they invented conditioner. But I don't remember people using conditioner until the 1970's. there was 'creme rinse' before that and its not the same. It was considered optional.
We also always washed once a week (Saturday so our hair would look nice for church on Sunday).
But I think this depends a lot on how much water you have. In the early 50's a fair amount of rural people still didn't have piped in water. I can tell you, you don't wash as lavishly when the water doesn't come out of a faucet and not because you are 'dirty'.
I do think that most people (probably not all, but most) who need to wash everyday have got their scalps used to washing every day and could be trained out of it, but it is a serious pain to do that, and I can understand why people would rather not.
The 70's was a milestone time in hair care. Not only conditioner got invented, but also the blow dryer. And I saw the first electric curling irons and curlers that I saw (they may have existed before that). And that was when chemical straightening first became a real option for black women. Before that, they just had lye and people feared burning their hair off.
70's hair in general though looked way better than hair does now (probably because no one was used to these new inventions yet). and women didn't dye their hair at all, except for covering greys. Hair like that girl has in the video that just looks so beautifully healthy and natural was commonly seen back then instead of unusual like it is now.

[Michiru]

^^ That's really interesting. I wonder if soap was made differently back then. I can't imaging using a bar soap on my hair. I do live in a city. Maybe I should get something to soften my water.

[jupiterinleo]

Whoa, that video was not what I was expecting at all. I love it! It's my ideal hair routine, and what I'm striving for right now.

I'm really interested in the brushes they were using; they looked like plastic? I kinda want one of those. Would that work as well as BBBs?

[Babyfine]

When I was in middle school(or junior high as they then called it) (late 1960's) I was looking at pictures of my hair. Mid back, slightly wavy very fine but abundant, shiney, blunt cut except for bangs. I thought the nice looking hair was due to youth and good health but recently I got thinking about how I cared for my hair back then. I shampooed about twice a week with Johnson's baby shampoo. Don't remember using ANY conditioner, maybe a cream rinse. the rest of the time got up and brushed out my hair with a BBB my mom got me. No chemicals ,no heat styling which didn't exist back then. Looking recently at a bottle of Johnsons baby shampoo it seems to be sulfate free wonder if it was then.

My hair seemed to get more frizzy and damaged and harder to get long in high school when I started washing more frequently with commercial shampoos and conditioner, and used Sun-In.

Interesting they seem to think less of chemical color than perms in the video.