Читать книгу Greek Girl's Secrets - Efrossini AKA Fran Kisser - Страница 19

When Efrossini’s hair was getting almost shoulder length, her aunt took her to her usual beauty shop and told the hairdresser to cut the hair short and then give her a tight, curly permanent so Efrossini would not waste much time on her hair. Her aunt wore her hair in a permanent, but it was not very tight. Efrossini objected but it did not do any good.

Efrossini just hated that hairstyle. Older ladies usually wore a hairstyle like that.

One day she produced an idea how not to have another curly permanent. Since her aunt was very frugal and she did not have to be, Efrossini promoted a money saving idea to her. She told her, when she was shopping for her toiletries she noticed at Woolworth’s do it yourself home permanents. Those were the Toni perms, in a box.

Efrossini loved to play with her hair and she believed she could learn to cut her aunt’s hair and give her a permanent just like she wanted. It would be a soft type of a permanent, which would give her nice manageable hair where she could just run the comb thru without cumbersome rollers, the setting of her hair ritual. The perm was very inexpensive. It was much cheaper than a trip to the beauty shop. Without much thought the aunt said, let’s go to the store. Wow! Efrossini thought she finally made a connection with this woman.

Efrossini was jumping for joy. Her aunt would never take her to another beauty shop ever again.

Yes, she became her aunt’s hairdresser gladly, not to have her hair in a terrible short and curly perm. Efrossini went to the library and in a cosmetology book she looked up the directions how to give a basic haircut. She learned about conditioning treatments for hair if they were necessary, also.

She had a hobby now, she was excited. Next time her aunt needed a haircut Efrossini was able to do just that. Her aunt was very pleased. In one haircut she recovered the price of the hair cutting scissors, she said. The hair cut was very pleasing and finally the aunt praised Efrossini for a great job. Every month she gave her aunt a haircut. Every four months she gave her aunt a Toni perm. The smart girl’s idea had worked. She was very pleased with herself. Efrossini worked on her own hair and even attempted cutting it.

It took a couple of haircuts to perfect her hair cut since she had to work with a mirror to see the back of her head. Years later, her high school graduation photograph sports the very haircut and style she created for herself. It was a hit and a real classic to this day.

When she went to visit her aunt Fotini in Brooklyn, Efrossini offered to cut her hair and give her a Toni perm. Fotini was very enthused about her niece’s willingness to attempt such a technical thing. Efrossini gave her a very becoming haircut and the best perm she ever had, Fotini claimed. Together they went to church proudly in the morning.

Fotini bragged about Efrossini to her friends after church and they were even invited to a friend’s home for brunch. There, she met the friend’s teen age children.

She had such a wonderful Sunday. Her aunt took her back to her house gave her $10 and thanked her for the wonderful hairdo. She was so proud of her niece, Efrossini.

In the late afternoon she walked to the subway station, rode the subway to Corona and walked back to Jackson Heights. Her aunt Fotini and young Efrossini agreed to keep the hair works a secret, not to upset the aunt, Efrossini she had to live with. Efrossini learned to adapt to her living environment.

1940s, Achillea, Malama, and Aunt Joanne