THIS WILL CURL YOUR HAIR

"Getting your hair done was worse than anything." - A.M.

Hair curler

From interview with A.M. 2006:

"I don't remember when I got my first perm, but I remember being strung to the ceiling at the hairdresser's place. The hairdresser lived on the street further down. I don't remember what the cost was. Ellie put these curlers in and then she put a clamp on top of these rods and they were pretty heavy. Then she had this machine up there and she would pull it down with cords on it and she would attach the cords to the clamps and then she would turn on the power."

"Everyone would want a perm bad enough, that's all there was.  And then it would get hot on your head!  It was burning hot. She would then fan or blow on it...something to cool down where it was burning. You were under these for so long, I don't remember definitely. And then she would take off the clamps and actually you would have burns in the scalp but not deep ones but enough that they were there and they were sore."

"So that's how we got our perms."

"Ellie's was the first one with that machine in Nipigon.  If you wanted a perm that's what you went through."