What Was I Thinking???

I made mention in my honesty blog that the topic of my home perms deserved a post of its own.  Really my home perms should never have happened in the first place and why no one was honest with me back then and screamed out to me "Robin!!!! stop!!! that is soooo wrong!!!!"  Instead I had my mom's support (she was the one purchasing and administering the home perms).

Now I should say in all fairness that growing up in Ontario, Canada with humid summers and freakishly flat hair... the two do not combine very well.  So it didn't matter how much time I spent in the bathroom curling and styling and applying mousse, hair gel, or super duper extra strong hair spray to my hair.... the second I stepped foot out the door and the humidity hit my head - poof!!! flat as a pancake (actually that isn't a very good analogy because my husband's pancakes are really very poofy so I should be more specific and say flat as MY pancakes).  So there was logic behind the home perm idea - get some curl in my hair that I did not have naturally and could not maintain no matter how hard I tried because of weather forces out of my control.  

But perhaps I would have been better off to have lived with flat hair as a teenager instead of the curls I ended up with.  For now when the pictures come out of me as a teenager, all my husband can do is tease and make fun of me with my perms.  Now I'm secure in my husband's love for me... don't get me wrong... but for some reason I'm touchy when it comes to him teasing me about my perms.  It's kind of like the unwritten rule for Canadians....  Canadians are allowed to make fun of Canada and silly Canadian things but Americans are NOT allowed to make fun of Canada and Canadian things... that makes us mad.  Or you can make fun of your own family but when an outsider makes fun of your family you get touchy about it.  That's kind of how I feel when my husband makes fun of my perms.  Are they hideous ???? yes!!! are they curly??? you bet!!!! will you laugh at them??? I can't imagine that you wouldn't.  Of course by default in a couple of these photos you will see my sister (or could we just pretend that is a neighbor visiting our house????) made the same choice I did so I was not alone in my perm-making decisions.  (you realize of course that I am a dead woman after this post).

Apparently overly large glasses were all the rage too.  Oh who am I kidding!!!  I was no fashionista.  I'm wearing a Mickey and Minnie sweatshirt for crying out loud!  You think I would be any better at choosing frames for glasses???? 

If I was to go back and do it over would I not get a perm???  I don't know.  That's the funny thing.  People with straight hair are often wanting curly hair and people with frizzy curly hair are always trying to straighten their hair.  Perhaps though I would have a professional do it.  Probably not... come to think of it ... I still today choose the home option.  I color my hair at home instead of getting it done at a salon.  Some things never change I guess.  Weird eh???