At your own peril and risk – hoping that there will be no chemical burns.
Now we can safely dye our hair in all colors of the rainbow, and not only, without fear of spoiling the quality of the strands, because the technologies are so advanced that most dyes do not contain ammonia. Unfortunately, our mothers and grandmothers did not have such a luxury, and they had to go to all sorts of tricks to change their image.
The stylist of the La’Queen beauty studio.
– Soviet women were not as spoiled by the range of hair care products as modern women of fashion. Hair could only be dyed in two colors – red or black, using commonly available henna or basma. These dyes are made from natural ingredients, so the hair usually remains alive and well. But the painting process took 4 to 6 hours.
But becoming a blonde was much more difficult. The girls risked harming their hair and being left without them altogether. They applied hydrogen peroxide to the strands, dissolved hydroperite tablets and, hoping that the hair would not fall off and there would be no chemical burn, waited for the result. Peroxide lightening gave an ambiguous result by modern color standards. Hair burned out, had an unnatural yellow tint, became brittle and dry. After that, I had to spend a lot of time repairing damage. Ladies who treated their hair more carefully lightened it with chamomile broth or lemon juice.
Desperate Soviet women were quite inventive and ready for much. They mixed black ink with shampoo, as a result, they achieved the color of a crow’s wing. And older women, who had gray hair, were eager to hide it and thus got purple hair.
Staining techniques
Highlighting was considered a popular staining technique. A rubber cap with holes or just a plastic bag with holes in a checkerboard pattern was put on the head. Thin strands were taken out through the holes and painted with hydroperite (hydrogen peroxide), then wrapped in foil. In the common people, the technique was simply called “feathers”.
Care
Balms and conditioners did not exist, therefore, of course, folk methods were used as care and restoration: they made masks from onions, rinsed the hair with vinegar. Chamomile tea was used to shine the blonde’s hair. Castor oil was applied to the hair to restore dry ends.
Perm
It is worth noting that at that time many women were striving not only to change the color, but also to be “forever” curly. Perm was the most fashionable hairstyle in the USSR. The queues to the salon took from 7 in the morning, and many tried to combine painting and curling in one session, thereby risking being left without hair.
Qualified masters had the title of “master of hairdressing”. Special courses were organized, where a qualified specialist trained apprentices. Dolores Kondrashova was one of the most successful professional stylists in the USSR. The hairdresser who changed the world of haircuts and dyes, introduced her own professional techniques and created the Union of Hairdressers and Cosmetologists of Russia, being its president at the same time.