| Barbara
Banks
"Either
in the morning or late at night we used to pin-curl our hair around
your finger and lay it flat to your head, and to go to work you'd
put a turban on to hide them all up.
You'd
take them all out of a night and brush them all up. But to do that,
you would dilute hot water and sugar, then brush it on your hair
and pin it, so it would be stiff see, like a lacquer today. In the
summer it was a bit sticky, and bees or wasps would come round.
You'd go potty then! It would last a couple of days, most of the
girls did it.
Or
perms, they had them Marcelle Wave perms then, but I couldn't afford
it. You used to go in clubs if you was at work. You'd pay I think
half a crown a week everyone, and when it was your turn you'd pick
a number out of the hat. Say you was number five, then you'd get
the perm that week.
And
stockings as well, because they were very expensive at the time
and you used to do that with them as well, and when it was your
turn you'd have the tights or the stockings. And that's when we
used to have the line up the back, and to ladder them when you'd
just got them! Oh it would be murder, 'cause you'd have to wait
for your time to come round on your turn. There'd be about twenty
of us or so, because they were so expensive, or you couldn't get
them. When you heard that a shop had got the nylons in, there'd
be a mad rush up there, and you'd queue for hours to get a pair
of tights.
I used
to go to Woolworth's to get cosmetics. I used to go in there. I
used to get "Betty Lou" lipstick, and that was a pale
pink, and then there was "Fornana" that was a perfume,
and there was another one, everyone got it, it was in a little a
blue bottle I can't remember the name, and then there was "Californian
Poppy". Now that I can always remember when I was evacuated,
and my mum would visit, I always used to smell it on her.
Lipstick
you'd rub it on your hands and rub it on your cheeks, 'cause there
was no blusher or nothing like that or you'd pink your cheeks."
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