Remembering that Tuesday in March when every client wanted a perm

It was about three years ago, and I had five appointments booked, all for perms. My hands were raw from the rods and the smell was intense. The last client, a regular named Carol, brought in a photo from 1987 and said, 'Make it just like this.' I got it perfect, and she tipped me $40 cash. Do you ever get those weird days where one trend from the past just comes roaring back?

3 comments

3 Comments

knight.dylan15d ago

Was it the smell of the perm solution that really got you? (That stuff is brutal.) I swear, my whole high school smelled like that for a solid year when the 80s curl came back. It's wild how a whole style can just wake up one day and decide it's popular again, like it never left. You just have to roll with it, even if your hands are wrecked and your sinuses are fried by closing time. Getting it right for a regular like that must have felt pretty good, though, cash tip or not.

rose_reed15d ago

Right? @knight.dylan, that perm smell sticks to your clothes for days. My salon still gets waves of it when the curl trend comes back around, and my eyes water every single time.

joel_clark3715d ago

Man, I read this article last week about how trends come back in 20-year cycles, and it totally made me think of stuff like this. It's like @knight.dylan said, a style just wakes up and decides it's time again. That perm smell is a whole time machine, and getting a big tip for nailing the look must have been the perfect end to a wild day.