My husband had a head of thick, curly hair.  My hair is straight as a string and thin.  I bought a home permanent to make my hair curly.  My husband knew nothing about this.  I surprised him with the whole kit on our tiny kitchen table. It was a Saturday.  He had time.

He read the directions carefully and began the process.  The little curlers and tissues covered my head.  He mixed a powerful potion in a plastic bottle.  The smell was so strong we had to hurry to open windows.  He squeezed the stuff onto each curler and then we set the kitchen timer and waited.

Halfway through the process he undid one and my hair was still straight.  We reset the timer for more minutes.  We both were dizzy from the smell.

He removed the curlers and the tissue wrappers.  I raced into the bathroom to see my curly hair.  It was sort of curly.  I think there was a neutralizer for the permanent wave solution.  I then dashed into the shower to wash my hair.  I was so hopeful.  He had brown curly hair and I had blonde curly hair.

I rinsed and rinsed and hopped out of the shower.  I tried to dry my hair.  The top of my head had sticky, gummy hair that would never dry. I tried, and sadly dragged myself to the scene of the crime with hair trimming scissors.  We had to cut all of my hair off, and it fell like slime.  We used an electric razor to reach the scalp.

I wore a variety of scarfs or hats for a full year.  It took that long for my hair to grow back straight as a string.  It was not my husband’s fault. He has never tried to be a hairdresser again. I never tried to have curly hair ever again.