Hair-raising Adventures

Thursday. Gin and tonic time.
Number 1 Son bounds into the house like a cocker spaniel on speed
“I’m getting a perm tomorrow,” he announces.
I splutter and wonder if I heard him right or should give up the gin and tonic.
He nods, adding a sheepish grin for good measure.

We’ve deliberately encouraged the offspring to take risks, to give things a go, to be open to new experiences, always half-expecting that this policy might cause the odd moment of angst.

But a perm?

And why?
Where have we gone wrong? Did we let him watch too many re-runs of old sit-coms? Has he been led astray by Starsky and Hutch? Couldn’t he experiment with something more normal like a tattoo of the Queen on his butt or a nose ring that glints in the sun and inspires wild impulses for grabbing a red cape?

I try to counsel against such a reckless course of action.

“You do realise ‘perm’ stands for permanent wave.”
“It does?.”
"Uh-huh." (My turn to nod.) “I used to get one all the time. It was mandatory in the eighties."
“But it will wash out eventually," he says.
Oh the optimism of youth! “No," (I explain this with a certain amount of perverse glee). "If you get a perm you will be a permanent poodle until it grows out or you cut it all off.”
My radar is picking up on a bit of a what-would-you-know-vibe emanating from the offspring so I go for the big guns.
“You know that you can’t flick a perm?”
A brief flicker of consternation passes across his eyes. He spends hours flicking his long, brown, wavy locks as if he is swatting away the girls.


Gen-Y is more prone to believing Google than their parents so Rapunzel spends the next hour researching perms on the net. I try again to dissuade him from a folly he may regret. I press for an explanation, a reason for this insane desire.

Finally, the explanation comes.
It is the same reason young men are prone to such feats as diving off cliffs or riding motor bikes off really big ramps...


A dare.

His honour is in question.
He has given his word. And what is a man without his word.
Rapunzel's rationale goes like this.
“My boss said, ‘you should get a perm’. I said, ‘I will, if you pay for it’ but he is such a tight-arse I never thought he would stump up the cash.”


But he has…
And here I sit.

Holding my husbands hand.

Waiting for the results.

We hear Rapunzel’s car in the driveway. The front door opens.
Footsteps. Loud and sure.
A head appears around the door.

OMG!

I’ve spawned Mike Brady.
The curls are tight. The grin is wide. Old episodes of The Brady Bunch flash before my eyes.
We all roll around on the couch laughing and laughing.
Actually, when you get used to it, it’s not so bad.
It could have been worse and turned out more like a Jimmy Hendrix 'Fro.
In twenty-odd years of hairdressing the stylist has never done a Man-Perm before but she has done a pretty good job. Her best piece of advice..."Mousse will be your best friend."


She was right. Mousse keeps the spring-like tresses vaguely under control.
Rapunzel is now a minor celebrity, the star attraction on the hairdresser’s Facebook page. The ‘Journey of the Man-Perm’ has been recorded in glorious colour photographs and is fast becoming a modern urban legend.

Posters of ‘Before’ and ‘After’ shots adorn the various workshops in the industrial complex where Rapunzel works. The Man-Perm is a radical concept in the man-heavy habitat of panel beaters and air-conditioning mechanics and electrical wholesalers.

And as for Rapunzel’s parents, we are still somewhat in awe and bemused. Our son took up the challenge to let down his hair and offer it up in the interests of follicular experimentation.

A mother should be proud.

You may also be somewhat bemused and wondering what does any of this have to do with looking after your body? Or even with writing for goodness sake?
(Apart from the fact that it’s a good story.)

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions but here are some of mine. Like any good fairy tale the story of 'When Rapunzel turned into Mike Brady' is a parable rich with useful advice.

l. You never know where the good stories will come from.
2. Take a risk. Why not go with the whacky suggestion and see how it works out?
3. If something doesn’t turn out so great, you can always CUT it!
4. Always do your research before you commit to any kind of body modification.
5. Human to poodle shape-shifting may be taking things too far.
6. Fashions come and go. There is nothing new. Experiment to find your best style.
7. Bad writing is a whole lot easier and quicker to fix than bad hair.
8. Even a Man-Perm can grow on you.
9. Laugh about the bad hair days. You might make someone else laugh too.