My mom rocked her hair old school – every Saturday morning she headed to Palisades Park to get her hair “done” at Lou’s Salon. As gross as it sounds, my mom, in the 2nd half of her life, sort of gave up on washing her hair. I don’t know why and I never asked her. But every Saturday, no matter how tight our budget was, she drove to Lou’s, drank coffee in styrofoam cups and had her hair washed and set.
Lou’s Salon was your typical joint with bad prints of 70’s hairstyles on the wall. It smelled of ammonia, setting gel, and drip coffee. He was an attractive man with dark hair, glasses and a cheesy porn mustache. He styled hair with an up-raided pinky swathed in a cloud of Aqua Net while clad in a polyester shirt and tight jeans. I’m sure 85% of his married, haus frau female clients had some serious “take me while I’m under the dryer” fantasies about good old Lou.
After her Saturday appointment mom would not wash her hair for the entire week. She’d take baths to avoid it getting wet, and sleep on a satin pillow to keep her hair from getting too messed up. In the morning, she would adjust her misshapen dome into a hairdo and blast it with a quart of hairspray.
Saturday through Tuesday, she looked like a million bucks. But towards Wednesday and Thursday, depending on the weather, her hair would take a serious downward spiral. Let’s be honest – you can only maintain a shell of lacquered hair for so long. By weeks end it was time for the big guns.
The wigs. My mom had wigs. Kim Zolciak? Step aside. My mom rocked the wig when you were still walking around in Pampers.
The wig I remember the most was one with tight, red curls. One day mom would have her usual dome hair. The next day? Little Orphan Annie. Twas not the smoothest of transitions. When wigs didn’t work for some reason, she’d resort to the do-rag. Usually it was a bandanna wrapped around her hair – personally I would have rather broken down and washed my hair before resorting to the do-rag, but my mom marched to her own drummer.
I had my hair done TONS of times at Lou’s. He gave me my rockin’ spiked haircut in 1985 – a style which I maintained for at least 4 years after. I’m sure I had at least 25 hair cuts under Lou’s masterful scissors, not to mention my sisters.
And, when my mom died, I walked into his salon to ask if he’d do her hair for the very last time. I had to wait before I could talk to him, and I sat in a chair looking at the bad hair model photos on the wall – now upgraded from 70’s styles to circa 1988 even though the calendar read 1995. He approached me, and I told him of my mom’s passing, and he said that nothing would give him more pleasure than to send my mom off with a true Lou ‘do.
He made her look beautiful for at least 20 years, and in death he did not disappoint. She was as lovely as ever. And even with the massive amounts of flowers in the funeral parlor room, I think I could still detect a whiff of Aqua Net.
Typical Tracy 
Loved reading this about your mom, thanks for sharing.
Diane
I started blogging largely because of her. I hope you keep reading, and feel free to give any family input you have. I know so little about your side of the family.
My grandmother employed the same hair tactics. I remember going with her sometimes and watching her having her hair set. The salon sounds much like the one you described, sans Lou. Instead, my grandma’s hair maven was actually named Louise. Go figure… Anyway, I remember my awe at the amount of hairspray that went into the process. Little did I know, as a soon-to-be teen in the late 80s/early 90s, I would learn the gravity-defying wonders AquaNet could perform.
Thanks for sharing another great story!
I bathed in Aqua Net in the 80’s
LOL… I remember buying a special Nexxus shampoo to break the hairspray up, and then still needing to wash my hair a second time with regular shampoo. Hopefully we aren’t all suffering from some lung disease someday due to all the crap we breathed in while spraying that stuff!
Breathing takes second to lacquered beauty.
This is really beautifully written. It’s funny to think about that while our lives are so small and insignificant to the universe, we do live for sometime. Since I’m a teenager and haven’t really experienced life to it’s fullest extent yet, I’ve just come to realize that 10, 20, maybe even 30 years from now, the people that I know will still be around. Not only people, but the restaurants, the houses, and the museums that I’ve gone to will be standing (although they may take on a different identity). I haven’t experienced the whole feeling of such intense nostalgia but I’m sure it must feel real trippy.
Thanks for the kind words. I actually don’t know if Lou’s is still there. My mom died 17 years ago, so chances are, good old Lou hung up his scissors quite a while back.
However, you hit the nail on the head about nostalgia. It’s part of the reason why I started blogging to begin with – to invite my two daughters into MY life. My teen years were pre internet, pre xbox – When HBO and a VCR were the “it” things to have, and MTV played nothing but videos 24/7.
tracy,
leslie nuchow here. i just read the piece you wrote about my birthday party a million years ago. drop me a line. evan gsell and i are hanging out these days, and i would love to hear how you are.
x
leslie
One minor note: washing your hair only once a week is a GOOD thing. Really. Not to the extent your mom went through because it is a good idea to rinse it with water once a day & combing conditioner though the wet hair & rinsing every other day is good but you only really need to wash your hair with shampoo a maximum of twice a week. Any more & you’re stripping your hair. If you have dyed hair (like I do) once a week is a must…learned all of this when I went prematurely grey.
my hair would get so greasy. Even the day after I wash it, it is impossible and looks gross. I need to wash every day or keep it up in a pony tail and only wash my bangs.