Women, do you remember the Shag, Bubble, Flip, Page Boy, French Roll, Pixie, or Beehive? Men do you remember the Flat Top, Duck Tail, and Crew Cut? These were hairstyles of the 1950s and '60s. Broad Ripple has always had its share of beauty salons and barbershops. Today there are more than 40 beauty salons, spas, and barbershops in our community so suffice it to say, Broad Ripple residents are well tended.

My first memories of a beauty parlor date back to following my mother to a shop at Fairfield and College. I watched her get machine perms with heavy electrical cords being snapped onto rollers wound with hair. To my child's eyes, my mother took on the look of an interplanetary visitor. Although this seemed like torture to me, her very straight hair ended up curled, and I learned at a young age that women will do strange things for the sake of beauty.

Do you remember Toni, Lilt, Bobbie, or Prom home perms? My mother bought Tonettes, perms for young girls. Anyone else in the house would head for the hills when she cracked open the chemicals because the smell was so strong. It seemed like Mom took forever layering small sections of hair between small squares of slippery papers and then rolling them around pink plastic rods. If I squirmed, she'd snap my head with the comb and exclaim,"Sit still!" Next came the ordeal of soaking my whole head with perm solution. All I wanted at this point was a gas mask. When the "beauty" ordeal was finished, I had curls for four weeks - for only $2. I welcomed the day when Toni began including paper dolls to play with during perm time.

Over a recent lunch at Petite Chou, my friend Linda told me about beginning her beautician's career with Virginia Jarvis at 65th and College. We laughed together at '60s prices: haircut - $5; shampoo (including roller or pin curl set) - $3, with $3-5 more for a fancy updo; color - $8; permanent - $20. Wow! Tips were 50 cents to $1. Times have changed, prices have gone up, and styles have moved on, but the beauty business in Broad Ripple still thrives.