Retro: Great-Grandmother's Hair Care Routine

[Moonlake]

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[Deelight]

That's cool.

[jacqueline101]

That's neat don't forget the wives tales 100 strokes a day braid by night and up by day. You mentioned the up in the day part.

[Moonlake]

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[ktani]

My Grandmother told me that both she and my great-great-grandmother's hair care routine (~1940~) consisted of basic five-and-dime store shampoo with one teaspoon of shampoo stirred into a cup of water to keep it from stripping all of the oils out of their hair. Afterward to take care of the ends they would put mineral oil they added scent to, to the ends of their hair. Great-grandmother owned a hair drier but they just didn't use it. On shampoo day they would let it air dry and stay at home.
Since it wasn't lady-like to wear their hair down during the day they wore their hair up unless they were at home or going to bed. School girls wore cotton strips wrapped in their hair at night to get ringlet curls, and wore their hair down during the day until they were grown-up. Men put oil on their hair too.

Grandmother liked the new shampoos and conditioners better because, "all that oil on everyone's hair was really hard on the hats and would get on the hatbands inside." They wore hats a lot.

Now... we, (no cones girls), like her old fashioned way better. :blossom:

Very cool!

Now it is about using much less of it in different ways and the same great results can be had without that oiliness, lol. http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=86298

[Moonlake]

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[ktani]

I tried a little baby oil in a spray bottle of distilled water today. My hair LOVES it instead of rinse out conditioner. :blossom:

Ktani: I enjoy honey and EVOO treatments too. Your avatar makes me want some honey.

LOL, I am immune to my avatar now, lol. It used to make me hungry too, lol.

Glad to hear that you are enjoying the mineral oil, modern edition lol, as well as honey and evoo. There is room for many oils in hair care. They all have uses.

[jojo]

I guess im just an old fashioned girl afterall! I do all these!

[einna]

That is a really interesting read! So much like LHC ways! =)

[Lissandria]

Very cool. Seems not much has changed in long haircare (well for us LHCers anyways). Thankyou for sharing :)

[Renate]

That is great! Thank you sharing this with us!

I think I'm going to give a try to the diluted shampoo :)

[kidari]

I love hearing about things like this, thank you for sharing with us! I think it's so crazy how we went from that to doing way too much to our hair: constantly changing hairstyles, almost daily washings, almost daily heat styling, tons of chemical treatments including dying and straightening, and using way too many products! At the end of the day old-fashioned is better almost all of the time.

[skaempfer]

My mom told me that my grandmother (this would have been in the 20s) used to use baby oil as a deep treatment. Combed it through her hair, put a hot towel on it, and left it for a half hour or so.

I was always too chicken to try this with any kind of mineral oil (which johnson's baby oil was- or still is? don't know) but she swore by it.

[gracenotes]

I love hearing about things like this! Maybe I *will* have to try mineral oil after all; I keep hearing good things about it!

[Neneka]

My grandma and her mother and grandmother were kind of poor. They just went to sauna once a week and washed everything there with home made soap that was propably made of animal fat. Hair was kept up and very often under a scarf. Very simple. :) They lived in a countryside.

[Sushi144]

My grandma and her mother and grandmother were kind of poor. They just went to sauna once a week and washed everything there with home made soap that was propably made of animal fat. Hair was kept up and very often under a scarf. Very simple. :) They lived in a countryside.

Are you from Eastern or Northern Europe for them going to sauna ?

[sfgirl]

I come from a long family line of people very hard on their hair. Besides my mom (who is half native American so it would look ridiculous), everyone bleached their hair, curled it, hairspray'd it, the works. Turn of the century? My family was using hot irons to do their hair that they heated in the fire!!!!. My great Grandma told me about it. She never had longer than shoulder hair, and she usually kept it more Jean Harlow length. And before that, the flapper bob!
Abusing you hair is seen as normal in my family. You're at least getting perms and highlights by 11 or 12. Keeping your natural color and just wearing your hair in updos is seen as boring.

So I'm a little envious of your family hehe. :)

[Moonlake]

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[Lady Neeva]

My Grandmother barely had a routine-I think she just used WO. The earliest photo I've ever seen of her at 19, she was wearing a three strand.
Since she also lived in the time of rationing, she diluted shampoo (my mom does that), and sabotaged a bit of whatever oil was in the house. I know one thing, though: she put her hair in curlers every day.

[spidermom]

My long-haired grandma would only wash her hair in rain water, and if there was no water in the rain barrel, she simply did not wash her hair. It smelled pretty gross sometimes. It was quite pretty, though, although yellowy-white in color, which most people hate. I've seen no shortage of threads about getting the yellow out!

[Amiblue]

I don't know how long my great grandmothers hair was. She died when I was about 7 years old and all her pictures always had her hair up. I remember it had waves even though it was in a tight flat bun she would pin down. My grandmother cut her hair into a longish pixie long before I was probably born, and kept it that way all the way up to today. Mom has hers at shoulder length and said that when I have children I need to cut my hair to be a reasonable length (I was about apl at the time after having another hair dresser take way more than expected and ended up at just above shoulders. Yikes!) The length it is now drives her nutty. Especially since I have two little ones and we plan to continue, all while my hair just keeps getting longer. :D
I wish I had family who went for the long hair too. It would have been nice and I would have known how to not only care for it properly, but handle my curls as well. Thank you for sharing!

[sfgirl]

American Indian hair is so beautiful! I bet all she needed to do to it was to rinse, comb, and look stunning! :blossom:

She was kind of err, the black sheep of the family. Every one else is very Danish, so her skin, hair, and eye color was way different. She said her mom didn't use to buy cream rinse and just used vinegar for her, and apparently she had frizzy hair until she moved out and learned about conditioner! It's kind of funny because now when I talk about AVC she just gives me this horrified look.

I'm so jealous of people with gorgeous, long, thick, dark hair though. It's almost a problem; I see someone with WL+, and if its long and thick I just ASSUME they must be this good person haha.

[Neneka]

Are you from Eastern or Northern Europe for them going to sauna ?

I am from Finland. :)

[ktani]

My mom told me that my grandmother (this would have been in the 20s) used to use baby oil as a deep treatment. Combed it through her hair, put a hot towel on it, and left it for a half hour or so.

I was always too chicken to try this with any kind of mineral oil (which johnson's baby oil was- or still is? don't know) but she swore by it.

I suggested that recently too. The amount needed was the question as too much of any oil can require repeated shampooings and even, so I have read here on the boards, more than one conditioner only wash. That no doubt also depends on the oil. Some oils are greasier and heavier than others and drying oils can be very difficult to remove from hair.

I suggest using mineral oil drops in my latest blog post because that allows one to slowly build an oil treatment. At least if too much is used the drops may help one figure out at what point so many drops was too much, lol.

The point of a pre-wash treatment with oil is to offset the harshness of a shampoo and not remove too much oil (including natural hair oil or sebum). That may be tricky to adjust at first but in your case, you can ask about the amount used lol, and how well it washed out and how little or not was left behind.

ETA: It is unclear to me exactly what year Johnson's baby oil was introduced, http://www.jnj.com/connect/about-jnj/company-history/healthcare-growth/

ETA:2 Light cosmetic mineral oil/baby oil is not a deep treatment though, as it cannot penetrate hair, even with heat ETA:3 on clarified hair. I did not notice that until now in your text. I have been reading too fast today, lol.

[ktani]

My mom told me that my grandmother (this would have been in the 20s) used to use baby oil as a deep treatment. Combed it through her hair, put a hot towel on it, and left it for a half hour or so.

I was always too chicken to try this with any kind of mineral oil (which johnson's baby oil was- or still is? don't know) but she swore by it.

In your grandmother's time a vegetable oil would have penetrated her hair if she had used it for a deep treatment, providing it could do so, as back then the kinds of things that can prevent that were either not avaiable or used much.

Today it is a different matter,
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=1974079&postcount=229

and
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=1974141&postcount=231

Unless the hair is well clarified first, no vegetable oil is going into the hair, or if it is mixed with conditioner or shea butter or jojoba oil. It cannot get past the coatings, even if used on clarified hair.

ETA: That is exactly why "crunchy" dry hair is reported so often here from more that one type of vegetable oil used over conditioner. That does not happen when oil is used on well clarified hair. If too much oil is used, the hair just gets oily.

[mz_butterfly]

My grandma and great aunts had almost the same routine. I have seen pictures of their updos and they looked fabulous. My grandma washes her hair about once a week now, she said she still thinks it's too mcuh but in her elder years her hair is thin and oily.

[Sushi144]

I am from Finland. :)

So both North and East. ^^

[Iolanthe13]

This is interesting - I envy people with long-haired family members! My mum's hair is longer than mine, and is turning into the most gorgeous silky silver stuff, but it's pretty thin; she swims in chlorinated water, washes it daily, and rarely uses any conditioner. Every few months she has me chop off the most damaged bits, but it makes me sad...

Her mother hates the effort involved in long hair, and keeps hers in a sort of bowl cut (which she imposed on her daughters, as well, while she could). She tried to grow it to shoulder length recently, but it broke off. I think that's because she washes it in steamy-hot water twice a day! I guess we all have different priorities...

[Lipbalmbabe]

This is awesome! Before my grandmother met my grandfather she used shoe polish as mascara. Luckily now she doesn't have to worry about money any more and I am able to take buckets of her very nice hair/skin/makeup products she doesn't use! I adore her :)

[rena]

Since it wasn't lady-like to wear their hair down during the day they wore their hair up unless they were at home or going to bed.

Sounds like I would have fit right in! My hair doesn't do so well down, never has. Up, up, and away for me :).