I went out in public with my curlers.
*gasps, shrieks, and fainting*
Granted, it was 6:15 and I was only walking to and from the laundry room in my apartment complex. And that the men who live in my complex are all frumps themselves. It takes time for those clothes to dry --- if I'd waited 'til then to roll up my hair, my hair wouldn't have had time to dry before I needed to leave for work.
Etiquette experts of the 1940s railed against the woman who lolled about at home with her hair in curlers. Your husband, particularly, should never - under any circumstances - see you in this vulnerable state. (They didn't even mention wearing your curlers outside the home. Guess that wasn't on their radar!)
There is no excuse for coming down to breakfast in hair curlers undisguised. If you put your hair up in curlers, then wear whatever is becoming to you to cover them - perhaps a bandanna tied on like a bathing cap, perhaps some pinned-on puffs. At the moments, milliners are showing evening helmets made of curled “belting” ribbon to imitate a wig. They would be excellent for breakfast! Anyway, not curlers.
“Be Polite, Even at Breakfast” by Emily Post
(Milwaukee Journal, January 28, 1940)
(Milwaukee Journal, January 28, 1940)
Women who worked outside the home had no excuses either:
She is often just as tired as her husband is - not only that but she has to take time for cold cream and curlers at some moments when they are both at home…
If you need curlers on your hair, cover them with an attractive turban. This can be made by wrapping silk or net around your head.
“Working Woman Tends to Relax Into Dowdiness”
by Josephine Lowman
(Spokane Daily Chronicle, June 18, 1940)
by Josephine Lowman
(Spokane Daily Chronicle, June 18, 1940)
Despite her dictum against hair curlers, Miss Post does relent a bit when it comes to housecoats at the breakfast table:
But may you wear a housecoat? Certainly, if it be a zippered or buttoned princess dress. But not a wrapper - at least not if you go to breakfast in the dining-room with your family, still less if you work in the kitchen. And yet - if you and your husband breakfast alone and you have servants to prepare it and serve it, a negligee (if it be glamorously becoming) does fit into the picture of breakfast-for-two-at-home.
Rats! I guess only one or two of these beauties will do.
11 comments:
I haven't checked in in awhile, as I have been busy getting ready for my move, but it seems you have been busy. My hair is SO thick if I wet it in the morning and set it, it would be damp all day! I have to set mine at night with pin curls and even then it is still damp in the morning. I am going in a few weeks to finally have a beauty day and get my hair in a 1955 bob which seems to be the opposite of my old 1990s bob,where then the back was shorter than the front, the 55 version is shorter in front tapering longer at the back, but will hopefully be better for setting easier. I think sometimes you could see women even at the grocery store and laundramat in curlers, though with a scarf tied over it. They were probably not country club members, if you get my drift, but it did happen, I am sure. Good luck with your hair endeavours.
I have not gone out in my curlers yet, but I have answered the door in them. You should see the looks I get!
Thanks doll,
The Glamorous Housewife
I completely understand. Don't feel bad. I have sometimes had to go out of the house in curlers, but I made sort of a homemade turban out of material that covered it up. As I figure it, people wear much more trashy things outdoors than curlers so they should be enbarrased - not those of us trying to look pretty.
gorgeous housecoats! We always wore curlers to the store or to work in the yard. Had to have time for hair to dry! Most of the women did tie a scarf or bandanna around their head, tho.
Darn it! I guess I'm breaking all the rules, I've worn my rollers to the supermarket across the road with a few raised eyebrows but never my ugg boots! Which I suppose is worse?
I, too, have done the turban tie cover up. Several of us burley-girls tend to do that the day of a big production when we have to be down at a theatre early for setups and rehearsals. =(
I did recently find some "curler cover ups" even at Target' They are sort of like shower caps but in colors with eyelet over them. =)
lpm
oohhh, look at the housecoat with the peplum! I love it!!
I yearn for a nice housecoat. I have a towelling dressing gown and ratty pjs, and when I watch my beloved old movies, the nightwear is so glam I feel like a proper, modern frump.
Oh, regarding a shampoo and set. I go to quite an old fashioned hairdressers who has a lot of clients who are over 70. The old girls still come in every Friday for a shampoo and set. My gran only ever washed her hair once a week at the hairdressers and it would last all week, she would pin her curls and wear a hair net in bed. Have you thought of having it set professionally? A sympathetic hairdresser might think it fun to do...oh, when I was a 1940s mad teenager my gran once did my hair just as she did when she was a young girl, it looked fab. My gran was a beautiful women with Rita Heyworth type hair.
I am glad I am not alone with curlers out in public. I don't do it often but have in a pinch .( I collect etiquette books guess I should read them) I usually pick my prettiest silk scarf to cover the curlers. I answered the door before too. "A door to door preacher" he did not bat an eye and kept on telling me about his religion. ON another note I took mom to the doctor yesterday and asked her what the 1940's were like and she said everybody could dance! Your Aunts could really jitterbug ( I thought of you) Visions of my elderly aunts young and slim with long flowing hair swinging as they danced. (everyone talks of how pretty they were)
50s gal, I wish I had tresses as thick as yours! Ah well, I guess there are some perks to having fine, thin hair. Mine is completely dry in about 45 minutes. Can't wait to see the results of your new haircut!!!
TGH, poor pizza delivery boy.
Amanda, you know it! People in their pajamas at the grocery store. People with ill-fitting clothes. Still. You never know who you're going to run into...
Packrat, I can recall seeing lots of little old ladies with their hair in curlers and a plastic hood over their heads out and about running errands. It's been a long time, though.
Rosina, don't even get me started on Uggs. Ack! It's been in the 100s every day here and I still see young women walking around in Uggs. What would make a person think that this was appropriate footwear when you were wearing shorts???
lpm, those curler cover ups sound darling!
Lila, my favorite is the creamy floral one with the lace trim.
Dulce, so Friday's the big day for hair, is it? I'd love to try that out, but - with hair that gets as oily as mine in one day - it could take several months to transition from washing every day to washing once a week.
Mrs. Tailleur, sounds like a grand idea for a mission... :)
I remember seeing women in the 1960s-early 1970s in the grocery store with curlers. They would have some kind of flimsy scarf or covering (see-through) that did not hide the curlers the way a turban would. My mother declared that those women were going out that night (we did our food shopping on Saturdays) and were "showing off" their active social life. How true that was, I'll never know.
Yesterday in the supermarket in NYC the checkout girl had her hair set in curls (secured with bobby pins)---definitely a Before look, and I would say still a no-no.
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