Permanent For Life

But before I could question her or even think about it very much
Ms. Merrill had snapped several shots of me entering the door,
and Janice was leading me to the working area of the salon. At
this time I can not even remember agreeing to let them give me
the machine permanent, but it seemed the resistance I had
initially felt to this idea was rapidly vanishing. Although I had
not seen myself in a mirror yet, the clothing I was wearing was
having a definite effect on me.

I seemed to feel very passive,
and was actually filled with anticipation for what was to come.
Janice led me into a room set off from the main salon. It
contained a mirrored wall with low cabinets in front of it, a
shampoo bowl and chair, a styling chair facing the mirrors, and a
hair dryer attached to a chair.

In one corner was a large machine
on a stand that I assumed must be the permanent wave machine. It
had a large number of insulated wires, with clamps on the end of
each, dangling from what I thought must be a control head since
there were several dials, lights, and switches on the front of
the large round top. I had no idea at this time what part the
machine was to play in the waving process but it was most
imposing, maybe even frightening.

“Please remove your blouse, we don’t want to spill any thing
on it.”

Janice’s words startled me back to attention, I must have
been staring at this machine longer than I realized.

“Put on this smock and lean back at the shampoo bowl.”
Janice instructed.

Janice was very thorough and I really enjoyed the way she
shampooed my hair. Wrapping a towel around my hair like a turban
she told me to be seated in the styling chair. She removed the
towel and used it to dry my hair and then used a blow dryer and
brush until it was barely damp. While she was drying my hair I
was staring at myself in the mirrors and as she fluffed my hair
out the excitement I had been feeling seemed to grow even more.
Perhaps because of the excitement or maybe fear I had begun to
tremble and now was actually shaking. She began removing trays
of different items from the cabinets and placed them along the
top in convenient reach. We were now joined by Ms. Merrill, who
was carrying my camera, and another beautician whom she
introduced as Tara.