Back in the 1960’s, women used hair rollers in order to curl their hair. We didn’t have blow dryers or straighteners and the nearest hairdresser was 46 miles away (74 kilometres). Life was extremely busy, so we were usually a bit overdue for haircuts when I finally found time to do them. Haircutting was a family event, so I would cut my own hair by cutting each tuft before rolling it on to a roller and then I’d cut the children’s hair, oldest to the youngest. After that came Ian, my husband. Boys and men wore their hair with short back and sides in those days and it was an art to get it to look ‘right’.
I went to town to do some shopping one day, leaving our two sons with Ian. Ian’s hair was down to his shoulders and the boys were quite a bit more than short back and sides – I hadn’t found time for haircutting! Ian decided that it couldn’t be that hard to cut the boys hair and started wielding the clippers. I arrived home to find two little skinheads (it was not in fashion in those days) and Ian was now sporting a mohawk. I was speechless!
By Margaret Irwin