In response to Irene A Waters at Reflections and Nightmares this post is about haircuts.
I’m a Baby Boomer who grew up in an Australian capital city.
I have a strong memory of my hair when I was little because I had to suffer Mum’s brushing of it. Clonk, drag, clonk, drag, she never demonstrated much finesse when it came to fine motor skills. My hair was always in two plaits with ribbons on the end. A vision has just popped into my head of Mum reaching out to get a rubber band from a door knob so she could fasten the end of my plait. I don’t think I had my hair cut much before I was about 10. I remember the awful disappointment as I left the hairdressers then with what I considered a “boys’ cut”. Maybe Mum was fed up with me complaining about her rough hair styling and sent me off to be shorn.
When I was in secondary school I grew my hair long and when it was in the intermediate stage I permed it myself. No nice styling before or after the perm and I was horrified when I saw the initial result but by setting it in quite large rollers it looked presentable when I left the house.
My brothers had their hair cut by Dad until secondary school. “The Oracle” remembers going to a barber for the first time when he came through the city on his way home from school. There were never any fancy cuts for them, just a short back and sides but at least Dad had enough skill to avoid the “Basin Cut”.
Musings of a Retiring Person 
I had plaits too like you and my hair got cut when I was 10 or 11. before I went to boarding school. I loved having short hair. and mine got shorter and shorter. Once I got to college I had streaks and used magic silver white. ironic when you start to get old and it happens naturally and you don’t like the silver then.
I also used Magic Silver White and used it when I was on a college trip to Brisbane. My hands turned purple and I had to wear gloves when we went to check out Brisbane Uni. I don’t know why I used that stuff because it was before I ever bleached my hair. I think silver is a lovely hair colour!
Thanks for giving me a whole lot of memory prompts. Your Dad’s clippers look like an instrument of torture but you look sweet with your plaits. I think our generation had either long or short (boys) hair but there was no styling involved. I think it would be a totally different matter for children today. Rubber bands were used on my hair as well – now it is a definite no no. I remember the pain of taking it out when the hair became all twisted around it. You reminded me of brylcream. Thanks for joining in – sorry I’m so late getting to your post – it somehow bypassed me.
Pulling those hairs tangled in the rubber bands really hurt!
Yes it did. I don’t know whether someone spread the rumour that rubber bands gave you split ends simply to not have to go through that pain.
I’m sure no-one had ever heard of split ends when I was a kid, dandruff didn’t even rate a mention.
I agree. I think the split ends came into being either end of high school or when I’d started working.