Frida Kerner Furman - Facing the Mirror: Older Women and Beauty Shop Culture

Facing the Mirror

Facing the Mirror

Older Women and Beauty Shop Culture

Frida Kerner Furman

ROUTLEDGE

New York and London

Published in 1997 by

Routledge

711 Third Avenue,

New York, NY 10017

Published in Great Britain in 1997 by

Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park,

Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Copyright 1997 by Routledge

Design: Jack Donner

All photographs, including cover photo, by Caryn Chaden.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Furman, Frida Kerner, 1948

Facing the mirror: older women and beauty shop culture / Frida Kerner Furman.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0415-91523-6. ISBN 0-415-91524-4

1. Aged womenUnited StatesPsychologyCase studies.

2. Aged womenSocial networksUnited StatesCase studies.

3. Jewish womenSocial networksUnited StatesCase studies.

4. AgingUnited StatesPsychological aspectsCase studies.

5. Beauty, PersonalPsychological aspectsCase studies.

6. Beauty shopsSocial aspectsUnited StatesCase studies. I. Title.

HQ1064.U5F84 1997

305.26DC21 97-12407

CIP

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent.

To four generations of beautiful women:

My grandmothers, Ella Karlinsky and Ana Kerner

(may their memory be for a blessing).

My mother, Sara Kerner, and my aunt, Lily Katz.

My sister, Gina Kerner.

My daughter, Daniella Furman.

Contents

Community and the Ethic of Care at Julies International Salon

Feminine Beauty and Its Imperatives

Aging and Its Challenges

Women in Relation to Work, Caring, and the Family

An Invitation to Resistance

Acknowledgments

Many people have helped to make this book possible. Most centrally, the customers and staff of Julies International Salon allowed me to conceive of this project and bring it to completion. I thank them for their kindness and generosity, for their willingness to share their lives and experiences with me, and for all that they have taught me.

Colleagues and friends have been wonderful in their encouragement and support. I am very appreciative of the members of my womens writing group at DePaul University for their ongoing interest in this work and for their very helpful responses to earlier drafts of the writing. Thank you, then, to Mechthild Hart, Teresia Hinga, Kate Kane, Elizabeth Kelly, and Ann Russo. My special thanks to Mechthild for her encouragement from the very beginning of the project and to Beth for her thoughtful reading of every page of this book, for her excellent editorial and critical skills, and for her generous expressions of friendship. Paul Camenisch and Ann-Janine Morey read the final draft of the book and made valuable suggestions. Riv-Ellen Prell provided me with bibliographic references and organized a very useful conversation about older women with Helen Kivnick and Lucy Rose Fischer during the early stages of field research. Aminah Beverly McCloud and Susan Mezey gave me helpful feedback on the book proposal. Ruth Fuerst and Naomi Steinberg offered enthusiastic and sustaining support during the entire period of this study. Doug Hoekstra, Mari Short, and Jodi Taylor performed the laborious task of transcribing interview audio tapes. Dianne Hanau-Strain generously provided her expertise in her drawing of the salons interior, as did Caryn Chaden in capturing the salons life through her photographic work. Charles Suchar introduced me to the technique of photo-elicitation and gave me useful advice about the photographs included in the book. Chana Zelig carefully proofread the final manuscript. My husband, Roy Furman, and my daughter, Daniella Furman, put up with my extended absences from family life during all stages of this work. Roy provided editorial feedback and made numerous trips to the library on my behalf during the months that I stayed at home to write. My grateful thanks to all.

Thanks, also, to the editorial staff at Routledge, and to the anonymous readers designated by the Press, who made many constructive suggestions. I am grateful to the University Research Council and to the Faculty Research and Development Program of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at DePaul University for the research leaves and grants that made this study possible.

Facing the Mirror

Introduction

What about Julies International Salon makes me feel that I move into a different psychological space? Often when I have to go there but feel some resistance to do so (pressure of other obligations), I remind myself that it will be a haven from my more driven lifestyle. And in fact the experience there always confirms that expectation. There is something safe and comfortable about being there. What is so safe there? Is it something about the shop culture that reminds me of my childhood in its more positive momentstime with grandmothers, aunts? What is so comforting and satisfying about talking about coat sales? Or exchanging, in a somewhat competitive mood, our latest physical maladies? There is something very affirming there. It is as if one feels nurtured without having to do anything in exchange, save nurture others, which comes naturally and is self-confirming, too. Why does the concern expressed feel so warming?

Authors Field Notes, October 25, 1991

The very first time I went to Julies International Salon to get my hair cutsome eight years agoI could sense that there was something compelling about it, though I could not quite put my finger on what exactly was going on there. But it had to do with older women congregated together in an all-female salon, manifestly for purposes of hair and nail care, who seemed to be part of a lively and affirming community. For the next three years I toyed with the idea of doing a study of this beauty salon. I was held back by respiratory allergies, which I thought would be incompatible with the aromas of hair care products characteristic of beauty shops. Finally, in 1991, I could resist the place no longer; I resolved that I would deal with the air quality as best as I could.