Additional Coverage:
- Perms, Pins & Progress: 20 Vintage Photos That Capture the Evolution of the Beauty Salon (wealthgang.com)
Back in the Day: When a Trip to the Salon Was a Social Event
Forget today’s sleek salons. Back in the day, getting your hair done was a thing.
Think bustling beauty parlors, rows of dryers, the scent of hairspray hanging in the air, and a whole lot of chatter. These vintage snapshots offer a glimpse into a bygone era of glamour and girl talk.
1. Big Hair, Don’t Care: A stylist in a busy 1970s New York salon perfects a towering ‘do, even managing to blow a bubble while working her magic.
2. A Cut Above: Jeanne Devereux, the first licensed female hairstylist, shaves a customer in 1927.
3. Dryer Time is Reading Time: Two women make the most of their time under the dryer, one engrossed in a magazine.
4. Pampering at its Finest: A woman enjoys a manicure while her hair dries at Francois de Paris, a New York City salon, in 1942.
5. Ladies Under the Dryer: A classic scene from the 1960s: women patiently waiting under a row of hooded hair dryers.
6. Space-Age Hair Care? A young woman gets her hair dried by a rather intimidating-looking machine in 1925.
7. Beauty Parlor Buzz: A row of women sit beneath early hair dryers in a 1920s beauty parlor.
8. Perm’s for Pooches Too: Even Fido gets in on the salon action with a doggy perm.
**9. A Trim at Mrs.
Wheeler’s:** A customer gets a haircut at Mrs. Wheeler’s barber shop in Colorado in the 1950s.
10. The Perm Machine: Getting a perm in the 1950s was serious business, as evidenced by this contraption.
11. Tijuana Barber: A barber at work in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1978.
12. Poodle Power: A woman and her perfectly coiffed poodle visit a New York City beauty parlor in 1964.
13. Hair-Raising Contraptions: More intriguing devices from a 1940s beauty parlor.
14. 60s Style: A young woman gets her hair styled in the 1960s.
15. DIY Straightening: An interesting (and potentially dangerous) method of hair straightening at home in the 1960s.
16. Beauty on the Go: A traveling beauty parlor in London, England, in 1930.
17. James Dean Gets a Cut: The iconic James Dean visits a New York barber shop in 1955.
18. Multitasking Mavens: Women under hair dryers manage to sip coffee, read magazines, and get their nails done all at once.
19. Gossip Central: A lively scene in a beauty parlor, where the gossip is almost palpable.
20. Elvis’s Fresh Cut: Elvis Presley gets a haircut at Jim’s Barber Shop in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1956.