14--MOTHER'S NEW DAUGHTER

think it's all done with rollers."

MORE OF ALLISON...

Two months later, the Woman's Life magazine had another layout featuring Allison. It was a four-page makeover. On the first page, her hair was long and straight---almost to the middle of her back.

Mother was looking over my shoulder as I commented, "Wow! Her hair really grows fast. It's much longer than mine."

"I bet yours is almost as long without the natural curl." She took the back of my hair and pulled it out and down to the middle of my back. "See. You just don't see the back when it's wet or blown out straight." Her hair was nearly down to the middle of her back, lightly layered and just a bit shorter close to her face.

My spirit faded as I turned the page. Allison suddenly had a long curled hair. "How'd she do that," I asked mother.

"I don't know," she said studying the pictures, "but I would guess it's some kind of a curly perm. Your hair is getting too long for a boy. Trying something like this would make it look shorter."

I finally agreed that my hair was getting too long for me to take care of without looking straggly. Mother made me an appointment.

When we arrived at the salon, Pat was putting another person under a big hooded dryer. Since I always took the last appointment of the day, I was sure there wouldn't be a lot of people there. It was one thing to look "geeky" with a head full of rollers, but it was too much for strangers to

see me.

Luckily, they were turned away from me. I could only see the woman's nyloned legs and she could not see me at all. I hoped she'd be under there for a while.

Pat finally came over and said, "OK, let me see that model this month." She looked at the picture and said, "WOW! You want curls like her, right?"

I nodded and blushed.

"Okay!" She sat me down as she went to get supplies while I looked through the "Woman's Day" magazine. As

SANDY THOMAS ADV. -15

I thumbed through the magazine, I got a little bit anxious when the magazine kept opening up to Allison's curly do!

Pat returned with a wheelie full of stuff. She combed through my hair, kind of primping it a bit and looking at Allison's picture.

"This is a big job," she said to my mother who was looking over her shoulder.

"Will it be hard for him to take care of?"

"Very easy." They discussed it for a while and without asking me, mother gave her approval. This wasn't going to be cheap.

Pat added, "Thank goodness we have another client and I can't leave anyway or I'd ask you to come back during the day."

She outlined what she had to do; "I have to give you a shampoo, some long, light layering to encourage curl, the perm, and then the drying and styling."

She had me change into a salon smock. It was actually more like a hospital gown, but pink. "The perm solution could ruin your shirt."

I could see that the other client was wearing one too, but she was facing the other direction. I was real happy with that.

Pat put a towel around my neck and had me lean back as she pulled all my hair into the bowl. The combination of the warm water was nice. Mother and Pat talked as she worked shampoo into my head.

I couldn't hear all that they were saying because of the water and the little bubbles from the shampoo got into my ears, but I heard Pat say, "Most boys wouldn't be caught dead in here."

When finished, she took me back to her chair, and began to comb out my hair. Wet and heavy it hung down my back. She sectioned it off, clipping it up with butterfly clips into sections.

I looked so silly. I kept looking at the woman under the dryer, hoping that she wouldn't be done before me.

Pat looked at the pictures of Allison carefully and blunt cut the bottom layer to where Allison's was in the "before" picture.

She continued to check the pictures and cut the layers very carefully. She said, "OKAY! We could make you look