It’s not like the Soviet people had nothing better to do than fuss over their hair - there was maintaining your household, caring for the family, the “five-year plans” at work. The hair sort of took a backseat, frequently concealed beneath all manner of headdress, or simply with a modest headscarf. Not many had the money for salon treatments. But there was a solution. Perms! They held true for long periods, often sustained by hair curlers for prolonged effect.
However, on rare special occasions when the situation demanded it, the “workers and kolkhozniks” of the time made the effort and ritualistically sprung for a new hairstyle at a proper hairdressers. Documentary photographers sometimes happened to be nearby (for some reason), and he or she would document the whole process for us to marvel at decades later.
At the hairdressers, 1956
Valentin Kukhlaev/Valentin Khukhlaev archive
At the barbershop, 1956
Valentin Kukhlaev/Valentin Khukhlaev archive
A Moscow Barber, 1960s
Alexander Steshanov/MAMM/MDF
At the hairdressers, 1965
Vsevolod Tarasevich/MAMM/MDF
‘Golden Hands’ master Tatyana Konstantinova at a competition, 1962
Maya Okushko/MAMM/MDF
At the barbershop, children’s styling. 1966
Vsevolod Tarasevich/MAMM/MDF
At the barber’s, 1968
Viktor Gorkin/MAMM/MDF
At the hairdressers, 1971
Viktor Yershov/MAMM/MDF
At a Tallinn hairdressers, 1970s
Alexander Steshanov/MAMM/MDF
Hairstyling competition, 1978
Viktor Akhlomov/MAMM/MDF
Barbershop. Men’s hall, 1981
Vladimir Sokolaev/MAMM/MDF
Women’s hall at the hairdressers, 1981
Vladimir Vorobyev/MAMM/MDF
Women’s hairdressers, 1981
Vladimir Sokolaev/MAMM/MDFIf using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material.
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