QuoteReplyTopic: The afro look in the 70s Posted: May 30 2001 at 10:10am
A horrid thing happened to my mother in about 1974. She and a friend went to a good salon, and it was to be the first time that my mother had a perm. She says that at the time, the "afro look" was in. I know blacks had it then, but white people? Well, the stylist first cut her hair in the right shape, and my mother loved it. Now she regrets not asking the guy to stop right there. He then set the rollers, and left them on too long. The result was a disaster. Her hair was not only badly shaped, it seems to have broken over at the roots.
I asked my mother why she bothered with the perm., She said that back then, "everyone had to have" the afro look. Is this true? I have seen few, if any pictures of white women with afros in those days. How common was this practice really? And just how tightly were the afros permed anyway? In big curls, or in teeny tiny ones?
demodoll
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Well Duke, as a child of the `70s I can tell you that lots of women (and men too) permed their hair into afros in the mid to late `70s and those sort of graduated into the permed horrors of the `80s that I keep hearing are coming back.
I tried it once myself in about 1977. It was the biggest disaster ever in the history of my hair horrors. What happened was I went to my hairdresser for a trim and he talked me into allowing him to set my hair all over on perm rods. No perm, just a set. Well, it looked really great (or at least so everyone thought back then) and I went out that night and had a blast. So I thought I might like to look like that all the time and the best way to achieve that was a tight, curly perm (think the smallest perm rods) and heck, everyone was getting them and you didn`t have to do a thing to your hair except wash and shake. My hairdresser was out of town so I went to the first salon with an opening that day (big, big mistake). Long story short, I looked like I had stuck my finger in a light socket. Tight, curly, frizzy. But it did stick out all over my head in a rounded shape. I didn`t have the correct products to make it look right and quickly had most of it cut off and rolled the rest every day and it actually looked pretty good then. But it wasn`t an afro like that.
But to answer your question, yes, lots of people had those perms and they were done on tiny rods so the curls were very tight, just like a natural afro. The biggest drawbacks were the flat on top look when it was growing out, and the frightful damage it did to the hair.
"It is better to look marvelous than to feel marvelous" Billy Crystal
Hi Duke and Demidoll, I had one of those afro`s in the 70`s and it came out great, so great that I kept getting them for 5 years. My hair was fairly long for a guy back then. It was about 8" long all around. My hair dresser didn`t use the real small curlers, she used small but not the real small that most stylists used. She trimmed my hair so I had bangs and it just about covered my shoulers. I used to get a LOT of compliments on it, especially from women. It came out very soft and curly, not kinky or frizzy. I guess you get what you paid for, as it cost me over $100.00 back in `76. Sometimes between trims, I would set it or have it set at my salon on medium sized curlers. Then I would get beautiful ringlets. As I write this, I realize how much I miss my hair in this style. It was very flattering. When I needed a new perm as it did grow out, I either had a root perm, or a couple times I had a piggyback perm. All in all, I really enjoyed my "afro".
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I understand that perm technology has come a long way from the `70s (I don`t believe that BUT...). Why don`t you get another one guywithbraids? The good ones really were pretty. I just didn`t see that many that turned out well. I did have one friend in about 1979 who had a nice one. That inspired me to try again. That time I was living in Los Angeles so I assumed (country girl that I was) that everyone doing hair out there knew what they were doing. After the first perm, my hair wasn`t curly in spots. So I went back and the guy permed over the perm. Horrible mess. Broke off and there I was with short, short hair again. My husband was just beside himself (he doesn`t even look at my hair anymore I have had so many disasters).
"It is better to look marvelous than to feel marvelous" Billy Crystal
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