I was looking at the shower cap that had been set, neatly in a small white box, on the complimentary toiletries tray in the villa where we stayed with precious family in Thailand. Now these shower caps are very useful, as that talented decorator and home designer, Sue Alderton, once told me. When one wants to keep ones carpet clean, put a pair of shower caps over ones shoes, and hey presto!! In this particular Villa, the shower had a mind of its own, and a shower cap was necessary to contend with the vagaries of the water!!
This shower cap was bio degradable apparently, I wondered if this would still have the same shoe protection qualities Who wears a shower cap I mused to myself, Mom used to wear them, but my unruly locks have to be washed daily to look halfway acceptable!! That led my mind to the days when we used to wear our hair 'flicked' up like Dusty Springfield. In order to keep them flicked, a certain method of styling was needed, to give graduated support at the base, but it work just as well if curled up over the finger and fixed with bobby pins overnight!
Then there were those Helen Shapiro hairstyles, the beehive! You know the one where the long hair is swept back high off the face, secured with an elastic band, and then a massive display of curls was artfully arranged like a great bowl of oranges, on top of the head!! 'Upswept' I think it was sometimes called, some stylists could manage this beautifully, but it was impossible to do one's own hair in this style, unless you were an Orangutan!!.
My friend Avril used to secure her upswept hairstyle overnight by wrapping it lovingly with swathes of toilet paper.
We used to think hairstyles were complicated in the sixties, but these days hairstyles are even more elaborate with the advent of the hair extension. We girls had our hair braided in the Bahamas once, it was particularly uncomfortable, the beads were heavy and the littlest one ripped hers out on the car ride home!
Stylists in the Good Old Days come to mind, Roy and Raymond Brassington, Darryl McNeilage, Poppet and Petal, Merle and Pia.
WATCH DOG