Tales from the Diary of a Hairdresser

What makes us chose the careers that we do?  When a teenager it's difficult to know what you want to do for the rest of your life, with many of us doing the complete opposite.  As a youngster I thought of becoming a nurse, but got married instead.  Back in the fifties, society frowned on working mothers.  Being a mother was your career, balancing another was certainly out of the question. Boy how times have changed.  Necessity along with the God given talent of being able to curl and arrange hair is why I applied for entrance into the Fall River Academy of Beauty Culture.  Even though it's not the career that I would have chosen, I've been very happy in this field, giving me the opportunity to meet many people, touching many lives, they enriching mine, and implanting many memories into my diary's mind of hairdressing tales.

Gert Brennan, owner and instructor of the Beauty Academy was the first character I met upon my enrollment, and a character she was.  With her gruff manner of speech transmitting an appearance of a "Hard Hearted Hanna", but given the opportunity to know her, as I did, you find that she has a heart of gold. She was tall of stature, sort of stately appearing in her crisp, white uniform.  Her brown, gray streaked hair always impeccably styled framing perfectly made up features, instantly proclaiming her knowledge of this field. Her teaching abilities were unsurpassed. When she spoke you listened, teaching one phase at a time.  Not until you fully understood or accomplished the method did she proceed, no matter how long it took.

About three quarters into the course a situation arose forcing me to go to work. Working at the Firestone plant buffing gas masks with changing shifts Mrs. Brennan allowed me flexible school hours. This went on for several weeks, then she informed me that she arranged a written exam at the State House in Boston for me, drove me there, waited until I finished, then brought me home. The following week I took the practical exam with the class that had finished the course.  Thanks to Mrs. Brennan I now have my operators license enabling me to work as a hairdresser. Three years working for some Beauty Salon and I will have my full Cosmetology License.

The full course consisted of 1000 hours of schooling, very extensive just to be a hairdresser.  Besides learning how to give shampoos and rinses, scalp treatments, manicuring, hair cutting, finger waving, hair styling, heat permanent waving, cold waving, theory of massage, facial treatments, facial make-up, hair tinting and bleaching, and the removal of superfluous hair, depilatories plus the science of cosmetology consisting of anatomy and physiology (cell, tissue, organs systems, skeleton and muscular system of the head, face, neck, arms and hands.  Hang on there's more, if you can believe, bacteriology, sterilization, and sanitation.  The only subject that was missing was a course in psychology, as you will see it would have come in handy.