I’m in the “old people” category myself! I remember women used to have standing appointments for getting their hair done and would wear scarves outdoors, shower caps when bathing, all to get that style to last awhile. Even my MIL was doing it in the 90’s. When did that stop being a thing?
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Well I never did it so it’s not a habit. My mum didn’t do it either. My granmumma did but she was an actual hairdresser
Oh man, I remember when I was a little kid back in the 60s and I had to go to the hairdresser with my aunt when she was getting her hair done. That place was the female social center of town.
It seems like people hold on to the styles from their youth, sort of. The 50’s had the beehive hairdo thing going on. I knew many older women (I am in my 60’s, so like 70’s to 80’s) who would go once a week to have their hair washed, curled, teased. They would take care to make the hairdo last until the following week.
I think it stopped being a thing, as women from that age bracket started dying off. Hopefully those who are left have caregivers who are taking them to get their hair done!
I think sometime in the 1970-ties? I do remember my aunt and my mom doing it then
I associate those hairstyles – short hair that gets washed and set – with the 1950s or early 60s. Most older women today have worn more natural styles most of their adult life, using products and tools at home to enhance curls or straighten their hair. People do go for regular blow dry appointments, it’s just a different kind of "getting your hair done ". And this does not apply to all hair textures.
For me, Covid happened. Up until Covid I did it all. Botox, hair coloring, nail art, jewelry. All the stuff. Then Covid. I aged. I got comfortable being home alone, most of the time. When we were able to safely get out after Covid, I never went back to those services. I am able to afford them money but not time wise. But, I miss looking so much nicer
It stopped when hairstyles became lower maintenance and/or more natural.
If it was a bouffant or elaborate updo, you usually needed to have a stylist do it for you, then try to make it last all week until your next appointment. If it’s natural, or blow and go, you can maintain it yourself.
My mom did it through the 80s. My auntie (age 87) still goes weekly to get her hair done. I’ve tried to get my mom to start going again, but she won’t do it.
Im Guessing we got better home tools. I remember hearing stories like my mom taking the blower tube out of the cap dryer she had and using it to blow dry her hair.
And they would preserve the hair around their face with Scotch pink hair tape and sleep on a silk pillow case…
My mom did this my whole life, into her 70’s until she said enough’s enough. She also quit wearing a bra at the same time. I think this died out when the boomers said oh hell no.
Those who have short hairstyle’s have to get it cut more often. Long hair is in style now and doesn’t need that. I am so thankful that we don’t have to be as fussy as people were in the past.
that went with a certain hairstyle… "The Hair Helmet"
as i got older i had to start telling stylists… do not give me the hair helmet!!! i want a cut that moves. but still they’d brush it into smooth perfection and reach for the hairspray and say no no no and scrub my scalp like i was washing my hair and mess it all up.
They didn’t. Where I am (UK) there are more hairdressers than any other kind of business, since it’s easy to get started in with only limited capital and training. Many more than there were a generation ago.
Some still do — sort of.
The woman who cuts my hair has a standing appointment every Friday with a client (not elderly) who comes in solely to get her hair washed and dried.
She’s apparently pretty rude, insists my stylist use the shampoo she brings with her, and doesn’t even have some complicated style. She’s just too lazy to wash her own hair.
My stylist charges her $60 just to feel like it was worth it to spend a half-hour with this numbskull.
The Beehive! Blue hair! Having to wait a week to wash the hair again at the next hairdo. Clips and bobby pins and curlers and hair spray and toilet paper and God I am so glad I was born a male!
It took a while, but I learn to cut my own so I can no longer give a date, but I’d say at least 30 years.
It stopped when hair styles became more natural and didn’t rely on setting, teasing, etc. in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Some hairdressers had to learn new skills because having your hair "done" weekly hid bad hair cutting skills. Others never learned because they kept their clientele.
Shampoos and conditioners became big things because more women started washing their hair at home. (If you went weekly, you got it washed weekly at your appointment).
It was my mother’s generation (born 1926) who went weekly although my mother wore a pixie cut and colored her own hair. She referred to women with "done" hair as helmet heads.
I get mine coloured every five weeks. That’s the modern equivalent of the weekly salon appointment.
It still happens, but definitely all women don’t do it now. The primary cause is that a much greater percentage of people are just more casual now, and simply don’t care about how they look. This goes for women and men. Women (and men) just don’t dress up and go out as often any more. If they are staying home all the time or eating at casual restaurants, it’s just not a thing.
In some cultures it’s still very important. I think both Black people and Latino people still have their hair styled for the most part. Whites and Asians, much less so.
And yes, my Mom (White) went to the beauty shop every Wednesday until she died at 89 a little over a year ago, even though she lived on a very limited income. I took her there when I was visiting, and there wasn’t a woman in the place less than 75.
For me, it’s when it became too expensive. I can only go every 6 to 8 months nowadays. Back then, I would go whenever I felt like it.
My grandma went twice a week for wash and sets and coloring as needed. She was always a beautiful brunette yet when the grey started setting in she turned blonde and used fanciful to keep it from getting brassy. She would be 136 if she were still alive today.
Her daughters, my 4 aunts, all either did each others hair or fixed it themselves. The ones remaining are 92, 88 and 82. My 92 year old aunt finally replaced her old copper iron when she was about 50, I never could figure out how she didn’t fry herself with that thing. She was good! The oldest goes to a salon weekly now as she’s not as nimble as she once was.
I’m 57 and have only ever been to a salon maybe a half dozen times in my life. I learned the “pony tail cut” when I was a teen and have cut my hair ever since. I finally lost the 80s hair about 10 years ago lol and just wear it straight or in a pony now. Easy peasy.
My mother did this and I could never understand how she went so long without washing her hair. She also wrapped it in toilet paper and slept on a tiny pillow to keep it from flattening. She passed in 2012 at age 90+.
Retired Gen X stylist here.
We were told it was due to the event of different haircuts that required a blow dryer and curling brush. Before then, haircuts were styled for "wet sets." Ladies must have been thrilled to save those few dollars a week cause, let’s be honest. It adds up quickly!
Then, there’s the time involved.! A wet set with thick hair could take over an hour to dry, and another hour to tease it to death. Add shampooing and styling. It could take over 3 hours.
It’s no wonder why that Dorothy Hamill cut felt like freedon!
It’s more of a generational thing, and it has mostly died out as the older generations have passed on. Some elderly women still do this weekly routine, but as the Silent Generation passes on, it continues to become less common. For smaller towns or in suburbs, the salon was gossip central. It’s where you learned about Cindy’s husband’s affair with his secretary, that Barbara’s getting a divorce, that the Benson Family was having money troubles, etc. So the weekly appointment was also a good way to get out and mingle with other women on the regular and hear the latest tea.
A large percentage of young Boomer women in the 60s and 70s either stopped doing this routine – or never started – as part of the counterculture movement, instead letting their hair grow long and free. Hairstyling tools like curling irons and blow dryers became smaller and cheaper during the 70s and 80s. They were perfect for home use, and younger people began doing their own styles, washing daily or several times per week, and only going to the salon for a haircut/color.
Also, there was definitely a class thing to it. Middle-class and above women often had standing weekly appointments, while working-class women either couldn’t afford it weekly or had to work all week, so they did their own hair.
It began in the 1920s and 1930s. When Lost Gen women cut off their hair and began wearing makeup after WWI, it sparked whole new industries to cater to them. Having their hair Marcelled at the salon and wearing lipstick and powder became seen as something ‘modern’ women did and so was very popular. The attitude was similar to young Boomer women who rejected helmet styles and began letting their hair grow long and free.
Salons as the female social center of town were a thing for a chunk of the 20th century
but its gone extinct as the women who engaged in this practice have aged and passed on.Edit: I’ve been corrected by several people who tell me that spending hours in salons getting elaborate styles done – and using salons as a social gathering place – still exist in many nonwhite communities, especially Black American ones. There is a complex history behind Black women and their hair that I don’t feel qualified to comment on, but that doesn’t make them wrong for adding their experiences to my explanation of this part of American history. Please don’t argue with them in the comments. Thanks.
Hairstyle isn’t as structured as it used to be. Women used to go and have their hair washed and set. It was hard to do perfectly and a lot of gel (dippity do) hairspray and teasing went into it. Women tried hard to protect their style. If hair was set on rollers, their hair could still look great for up to a week.
In the 70s and 80s, women started going to more natural styles that weren’t practically shellacked into place. So, it was easy to do at home. There were new things like heated curlers, hand held hair dryers and curling irons that meant you could wash your hair every day and companies realized that there was a huge profit in it.
My friend who is a hairdresser still has little old ladies come in once a week for their wash, cut and style.
I always wonder about those women. Do they not wash their hair during the week? It’s confusing.
I do think having someone wash my hair with a scalp massage would be nice without having to also get it cut
I think for many it was when blow dryers became common. I guess started in early 70s. I got my hair done in high school and wound wrap it night. The styles were done with rollers at the hair dresser and then were teased and you would keep the style for a week. But around also that was when young women started have long flat ironed hair with no teasing. When I was in college was a transition period. Done women had the newer styles and others still went each week to get hair done. By the mid 70s I was using a blow dryer at home.
Older women though often kept going to the hair dresser weekly. My mother continued until 2020.
My grandmother went once a week for wash trim and set. They’d perm it every so many months and do the blue rinse as she aged. She did this until a week before she passed at 86 yrs old. I have never had weeily appts. I just make an appt whenever it starts irritating me lol
When I was a kid, ladies a generation older than me would go to the beauty shop once a week to get their hair washed, styled and sprayed with copious amounts of hairspray. Then they would protect it with scarves, caps, etc. for the next week until time for their next appointment. I don’t remember seeing this done often after the early 70s (thank you hippies) and definitely not since the 80s.
My mom did it until she died a couple of years ago aged 88. Her hairstyle was necessarily less … complicated, at the end, but she went every week, come hell or high water.
Vidal Sassoon was the innovator in this area and popularised hair cuts in the second half of the sixties that were “wash and wear” rather than “wash and set”. This trend also aligned with the women’s movement and hippie influences that valued the “natural” over the “artificial.” From an obituary on KSBW.com:
“My idea was to cut shape into the hair, to use it like fabric and take away everything that was superfluous,” Sassoon said in 1993 in the Los Angeles Times, which first reported his death. “Women were going back to work, they were assuming their own power. They didn’t have time to sit under the dryer anymore.”
My 85 year old mother still does that. She has her hair cut every 6 weeks but will go once a fortnight to get it set.
I remember frequently seeing women at the grocery store with their hair in rollers. I’d wonder what they were getting ready for where they’d be seen by more people than at the grocery store?
I’ve nearly stopped. Once a year trim on my long hair. And it’s always been a struggle to find and keep a good stylist. So so many even years ago just didn’t listen when I’d say a couple of inches off. No more than 3-4 inches. They’d go in and wham 8-10 inches immediately. On the first snip. When I found one that we clicked. I’d go for the coloring and stuff. Highlights. But they never lasted too long. And I’d be looking again for a new stylist.
Now I’m older my hair is still long but also almost entirely gray silver. No I don’t want color. It won’t last more than a week no matter what the hair is incredibly resistant. It’s not that I don’t wish it would work. I do. But it doesn’t anymore. Just give me a little trim. Stop cutting massive amounts off. I don’t want short hair. Never have. Your opinion isn’t relevant to me. I like what I like.
Don’t forget when women went to the grocery store wearing curlers.
Thanking jeebus that crap is in the past!!!
This generally stopped in the 60s, when the long hair "hippie" movement started.
Around here, they got their hair "did", not "done"! 😂
Has this only ever been a well-off people thing? My parents and all my aunts and uncles are Silent Gen and none of them did that, not my mother, not my aunts, none of their friends. They wouldn’t have had the money. My mother did own a wig at some point, not because there was anything wrong with her hair, but simply to have a nice hairstyle for going out, but that was long before I was born so must have been in the late 60s or early 70s.
I know plenty of women who go every month or bi-momthly to have box braids, weaves, & other intricate hair styles refreshed.
But everyone, except me, is going to the nail salon weekly or monthly now.
In the early 70s I had a Saturday job at a hairdresser’s salon. At the beginning of my couple of years there it was all shampoo and sets, sitting under the dryer for an hour followed by lots of backcombing and clouds of lacquer.
Then blow drying came along. In the early days, the salon owner, would only pay out for one dryer, so we had to be careful how we booked in the appointments. Then came the day when the owner had taken the dryer home the night before for his wife to use – and forgot to bring it back next day. Lots of fed up hairdressers and angry customers, who took their business elsewhere.
Oh man. That takes me back to when my Mom and Grandma went to the ‘beauty parlour’ to get their hair done, drink coffee and kvetch every Saturday. This post made me all verklempt thinking about those innocent times.
My grandmother is 84 and her best friend still does her hair every Friday! Funny story–My grandmother never went grey; as soon as my grandmother had one grey hair, her friend put a rinse in it and she remained a brunette up until her friend got cancer and couldn’t do her hair for a while. My grandmother cared nothing about being brunette so the replacement didn’t color her hair. Once her friend got better, she was back to brunette LOL
I used to get a mani/pedi monthly but it’s more than $100 now because you have to tip. Same for a decent haircut. I color my own hair which saves $150.
My mother in law, 96, still has it done every week, as do most of the women in her senior living facility.
Bold of you to assume we’ve stopped. At all ages, I might add. What exactly do you think places like Dry Bar and Blomedry do?
Never. I’m guessing you are white. Many Black women still go to the salon and spend hours and a ton of money every few weeks to get their hair done. They then wear bonnets to sleep to protect their hair. White women stopped depending on their age. Boomers were the original flower children, and they rejected the styles of their Silent Generation (and earlier) parents, which meant hair with fewer restrictions. There are outliers, of course. My stylist has some Silent Generation clients who still get their weekly set. The majority of the Boomers I know who are in their seventies have stuck with their wash and go hair ways.
I worked as an assistant in a hair salon in the early aughts and man, I HATED Friday mornings when those old ladies would come in for their weekly wash and sets. The minute the hot water hit that week-old unwashed hair, the smell would make me gag.
They didn’t stop. They still come to the salon weekly for a wash and set. It’s more elderly women though who can’t do their own anymore.
My mother, born in ’36, did it every week. She would go to the hair salon and get her hair set and heavily sprayed with hair spray, and it would stay that way till she went back. No one my age ever did that. I was born in ’57 and came of age in the 70’s, when long, loose straight hair was in.
My mother lived to be over 100 and never missed that weekly hair appointment. As a small child in the early 60’s , I spent many an hour at the beauty parlor every week. Then we would go out to lunch afterward. I hated it at the time but think back to fond memories of our favorite places and even our favorite lunch foods at each place and always getting the ice cream sundae for dessert. As a 70’s teen with hair past my waist I scoffed at beauty parlors and said I was traumatized by them due to my childhood! Then in my 40’s had my hair professionally dyed for about 25 years until Covid. No longer. Fortunate to have thick full hair shoulder length. Still getting used to it being white.
If I could afford it, I would just schedule a weekly shampoo, deep conditioner, blowout, and curl. I do that at home every weekend, so it’s sort of the same routine. I just protect it all week and stay out of the rain!
Seriously, it changed when blow dryers became standard issue in every home and hotel room…do you own hair and look fresh every day, rather than squashed Aquanet hair for 6 days of the week. Imagine only getting your scalp washed once a week…
Women who are working and also have family responsibilities don’t have time. They pick an easy hair cut and get that redone every couple of months.
People wash their hair more often, styling at home is easy, and the looks are more natural.
When hairstyles changed.
Vidal Sassoon introducing the five point Bob cut in 1964 was what ended the era. It is historically viewed as a huge step forward in feminism because it created an avenue for many women to wash and style their hair at home easily without lots of maintenance or weekly trips to the salon.
Probably when it became too dang expensive to do so. A basic haircut from a decent hairstylist runs $70 unless you want to risk getting a hack job at supercuts for 35. Toss in a color and style and it becomes $200.
Probably when dropping half a week’s wages became the new norm on salons.
My grandma who’s 92 still does. Every Saturday!
The price is too high now, styles require less maintenance, and tools to use at home are better.
My mother did but I never did. I was born in 1956 so I’m guessing probably things started changing in the late 1960s.
The coveted standing hair appt was on Friday. Then out to dinner Friday night and nice hair for the weekend. Bygone days.
Older ladies no longer have permanents. They went to get their permanents redone.
My dad had a hairstyling product business, he was basically an independent sales person for a small local company.
He retired last year at the age of 77. I helped him getting bought out of his contract.
His business went downhill
He cut down his clients list to mainly old fashioned salons run by elderly owners frequented by elderly women. Who were thrilled to have coffee chats. He drank a lot of coffee.
In 2021 right after one of the lockdowns partially ended he took me with him on a business trip for one week when my company temporarily closed because of lack of business.
It was eye opening … all of these elaborate curls and colours and everybody was so excited and chatting and drinking coffee (aaaand selfmade Eierlikör).
Most of these salons closed 2022-2024 because they never really financially recovered from the Covid period and most of them went into early retirement.
(and btw the trip was absolutely thrilling – it was the first time I was able to get out of town and into hotels and eating out after months and as it was a very scenic region (part of it in the Black Forest) with great views… we had a blast 🤣🙃 It was also the most time I spent with my Dad after leaving for uni decades ago without arguing much)…
When the prices started getting ridiculous. The beauticians started getting out of hand and the internet taught people how to do their own hair. I learned how to cornrows when I was 7. That was in the 70’s
Funny enough, if you go to a retirement community in the us, the ones with multiple levels, that culture survived there. There is a beauty shop, women wear little rain bonnets to protect their hair, the gossip train is still going.
It’s less practical for women now who work out and have active hobbies
Might be a bit of a controversial take but I’d also wonder if it stopped when women started really entering the workforce in ways other than office assistants and living their lives in ways that didn’t revolve around pleasing men.
When women started working in more diverse sectors, playing more sports, having hobbies, etc., it seems that their value expanded beyond being a pretty wife/assistant and mom.
It’s nice to look nice and feel good, but maybe the pressure to do this all the time decreased with the expansion of women’s roles in society?
Well because a lot of those styles had to be set by the stylist. Old ladies had perms, which were then teased and coiffed and sprayed into submission. They could lay down with some sort of bonnet to keep their ‘do on shape.
Nowadays old people are old hippies. And nobody gets perms anymore.
Women being in the work force needing low maintenance functioning hair styles that can be done at home, no time to sit in a salon every week and get done.
It stopped when women were expected to take care of the house, raise children, AND work a full-time job. Ain’t nobody got time for getting their hair done.
1970s? When hairstyles become more natural. The 1960s bouffant hairstyles were godawful.
I can barely afford a $50.00 haircut, never mind $150.00 for a dye job. Those pampering days at the salon are over for me.
I was in cosmetology school in the 90s and most of the appointments we did were for perms and roller sets, both things I never did in the salon after graduating. I wonder if they are still a requirement. We had to do a certain number of different types of services.
Our roller set clients were 70-80 years old back then. I don’t suppose many ladies are still doing that now. If my mother was alive she would be 85, and she never had a weekly hair appointment. She shampooed her own hair and used a blow dryer.
One of my aunties still sleeps in pink foam curlers, bless her!
probably when women werent working, even if they had kids those kids eventually went to school. so women had time for homemaking activities – more homemade meals, more gardening, more knew how to sew. and therefore more also had time to pop into the salon during the week. This was also a social setting for women as well.
some of these homemaking activities are making a comeback as some of us have more time bc we work from home – i know i personally started gardening after covid bc i work from home now so theres a good 2-3 hours a day i used to soend doing makeup and driving in rush hour that i can now use for other things.
but i dunno the salon for high maintenance hairdos hasnt gotten popular again because people have more access to at home tools and youtube vids, and also we all dont have the expendable income people used to. yeah if i garden it costs some extra money but at least im home to enjoy it.
hair dos cost money and frankly we alll arent going iut as much as we used to.
they still get their hair done, they just don’t use technology from 1962 to do it lol
My grandmother (born around the turn of the last century) went to the beauty parlor every week and wore the scarves and raincaps to keep her hair styled until the next appointment. My mother (born in the late 20s) went to the salon somewhat regularly, although not every week. She had very fine hair that she could never get right; she bitched about every perm she ever had. In her last years, she went to get her hair done once a week, but that was more because she couldn’t do it herself any more. Me (born in the 50s): I have naturally curly hair, so I was miserable in the 70s when straight hair was the style. Nowadays, I go to the stylist every six weeks for a cut and color. There’s no way I will cut my own hair; I have way too many whorls and cowlicks affecting how it lays, on top of the curls themselves.
Probably the better home tools, and the types of styles that we wear now can be done without a stylist. Lifestyles have changed as well. People are running around busy all the time and it would be hard to make and keep an appointment. I’ve noticed that my generation is exceedingly bad at keeping appointments. I used to go in to get my hair trimmed once a month but learned to do my self because it would always end up being a hassle trying to get there on time and I do not want to be the rude customer coming in late
It ended with women wearing their hair long and that was the late 60s.
I go to a trendy salon and they still offer this. I had a medical procedure and they invited me to come in to get my hair done if I wasn’t up to doing it myself.
I remember in the 60s my mom’s friends would go to the hairdresser once a week and sleep on satin pillow cases so as not to mess up their hair. My mom actually started wearing wigs so she had it easy!
My dad was a hairdresser in NJ. He had 2 shops, one for the younger folk, and one for the older ladies, set and curl , with standing Saturday appts for years! Actually, one of the ladies, Jon Bon Jovi’s grandmother was my dad’s client for over 35 years.
Not sure of the answer but i highly recommend this documentary from the early 90s called "Three Salons at the Seaside" about 3 hairdressers in Blackpool. Hairdresser salons used to be a bit of a social centre for women.
https://youtu.be/aUIr-UB7eEQ?si=mSI5Xor2xYYHm84G
I thought by the time I hit 30, I would be required to go to the salon every week just like my Mom. Thank goodness for Vidal Sassoon and his blow dryer.
Women got jobs and no longer had the time for all that.
I think once women moved away from that short “old lady” haircut and also the advent of blow dryers in the 70s caused a revolution in how women took care of their hair.
I think it’s generational. My grandmother went to the hairdresser every Thursday morning for a wash, set, dry. She had one of those typical, teased out, permed short cuts that were popular with the Greatest Generation ladies.
I can remember when it was raining that she would wear one of those plastic rain hoods when she went out. She would also try to make us girls wear them too. I haaaaated that.
Oh course, that looked old-fashioned to my mom, and my mom washed her hair every day, so she had a different look.
Meanwhile, there’s a woman at work who is in her late 70s (and is trying everything she can to convince people that she’s not—she’s starting to look a little ridiculous…) and I swear that one day a few weeks ago she came into the office all curled and pouffed and sprayed and I wondered if she had just come from the salon.
It also got way to expensive
It’s too expensive now. I’m not paying $500 for someone to braid my hair. I’ll do it myself.
My mom got her hair done every week but honestly, I couldn’t live that lifestyle because if my hair is dirty I wanted to wash it. I’m glad we’re not in that era anymore. I think the adoption of the handheld hair dryer got rid of that sort of thing.
Everything is expensive