at left (is that Kelly LeBrock?) is one of the ads. i've not had luck finding the ad yet, but it was an ad for a hair product that drew me in. i ripped it from the mag and took it to Vegas with me when we travelled there to pick up the $50,000 my dad won when he bet that the Bucs would win the division championship (for the first time -- in the '70's). we stayed at the MGM grand, and i got my perm there. in the salon, they styled it just as in the picture, but little did i know that perms sort of "shrink" your hair, so i had a very short version of what i'd wanted, which was a longer, looser version, like this (right)
. i was crushed with my short mom-do.
so i ran back to the room to wash my hair and style it myself, thinking i could fix it. but, the horror -- unfamiliar with permed hair, i felt a crunchy web of prickly wire and beheld in the mirror my new look, Anne Wilson (Heart). i was sad because i'd wanted that supersmoothe look, and my Vegas vacation was ruined (i've never liked Vegas, ever; think it's connected, Paul*?), but i learned to live with it and even grew into the bad-girl image it inspired.
there is much more to say, including some stuff about how my first Barbie came with 3 packets of hair color. you would dip her updside down -- hold her by her crippled ankles -- into a cup into which you'd mixed one of the packets' contents with water. out she'd come, a brunette or redhead or whatever. fabulous (not really; it was actually pretty scary because, well, Barbie is a blonde, and the quality of the color product was pretty low).
there is no conclusion. i'm still captivated by hair ads. and today's digitally-enhanced supershinyhair is actually frightening but fabulous at the same time. siliconiscious, it is.
* shoutout to Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
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