Catch A Wave

I spent countless hours in the 80s trying to make my hair as big as possible. I got a tight, curly perm every eight weeks to make sure it wouldn’t ever look deflated. It added two inches to my height. I look back at pictures and think, Oh my! Don’t tell anyone, but I secretly miss my big hair. I am still holding out hope that it will make a comeback.
Laura Holscher
Vincennes, Indiana

A permanent at 14. Already highly advanced in the awkward stage and severely self-conscious, I took one look at myself after arriving home and covered all the mirrors with paper. Later, when I went into the bathroom, my mom had removed all the papers except one, where she had written, “You’re beautiful.” Thanks, Mom!
Lauren McClain
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

One word: perm. When I came home from the salon, my baby cried and my husband called me Harpo for days. The salon warned me that I should steer clear of perms in the future. Twenty years later, I’ve never done it again.
Patty Dove
Oakland, Oregon

When I was in the third grade, my mother gave me a home perm. I thought I was going to be the prettiest girl in my class, as if it would magically turn my long blond hair into lovely, bouncy golden waves, like the little girl pictured on the box. What I got was a yellow Afro. My bangs were like steel wool and about an inch long. The perm made me look like Little Orphan Annie.
Cynthia Cherry-Schif
St. Charles, Illinois

My biggest beauty disaster happened recently. I was standing up for my sister at her small wedding. The morning of the wedding, we went to a salon to get our nails and hair done. My sister’s hair looked great when the stylist was finished. My hair, however, was a disaster. We were so busy talking that I hadn’t paid attention. When the stylist was done, I looked like a cast member of Hairspray. Tracy Turnblad would have been so proud. My chin-length brown hair was big on top, slicked back on the sides, flipped up in back, and totally stiff with hair spray. I was horrified. I couldn’t even get a brush or a comb through it. We were going directly to the church to dress for the wedding, so redoing my hair was not an option. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. So I laughed. I rushed to a local store (embarrassed even to walk in) and bought bobby pins, barrettes, and headbands. I ended up wearing a black headband to tame the mile-high do.
Debbie Barris
Commerce Township, Michigan

Back in the early 80s, when perms were popular but good advice and products were not, my grandmother took me to a posh salon in New York City for a perm. I walked out looking like Rosanne Rosanna Danna from Saturday Night Live.
Sandy Brown
Easton, Maryland

A crimping iron. Need I say more?
April Worden
Peoria, Arizona

I wanted to have awesome high bangs and curls, like the girls on Beverly Hills, 90210. Well, Asian hair and a perm don’t quite mix. I looked like the love child of Howard Stern and Cher (circa 1989).
Tiffany Chu
San Francisco, California

My biggest beauty disaster happened 37 years ago, on the morning of my wedding. A violent storm had shut off the electricity the evening before. I awoke to darkness, no water, and, even worse, no hair dryer or electric rollers. The wedding was at 10:30 a.m. When the electricity came back on, I dashed into the shower with a sigh of relief, washed and dried my hair, and quickly put in my electric rollers. Dressed in my beautiful gown, makeup done, I gently unwound the rollers, thrilled that my hair would be perfect for this special day. After primping until it was just right, I borrowed my sister’s hair spray from her bedroom. After spritzing like crazy to make sure my perfect do would not come undone, I realized that my sister had filled a leftover hair-spray bottle with water.
Laura Kreter
Sanibel, Florida

After a long day teaching school and coming home to three small children, I washed my face and soaked a cotton ball in what I thought was astringent. After wiping my face, I felt a slight tingling that turned to a scalding sensation. I had grabbed the nail-polish remover by mistake.
Jill Hines
Nacogdoches, Texas

Adolescence in the 1980s. Electric blue green eyeliner and mascara. Not to mention using sparkly eye shadow on my lips.
Kandel Baxter
Valparaiso, Indiana