Where In the World Is Wella Balsam?
Do certain scents, food products, places, or clothing styles remind you of a past era? To illustrate, the scent of a freshly cut lawn reminds me of watching my Dad cut the grass in our big back yard on a warm summer evening in 1982. Seeing cotton candy also provides me with a sense of nostalgia. It makes me reminisce of amazing times of my Dad taking me to the fair when I was a child and going on all the rides with me. He often bought me cotton candy and let me devour its entirety.
Coming across old photos of me with my grandparents produces nostalgia. How I wish I could step back inside those photos and that particular moment of time even if it was for only five minutes. Old telephone books remind of the days when I used them to look up my friends’ phone numbers so I could call them and talk about what happened in school that day. What about products that are no longer made; what resources prompt feelings of nostalgia and generate flashbacks of certain obsolete items? If you are not too bored allow me to elaborate.
I was at Shoppers Drug Mart recently getting a prescription refill; I decided to browse around while I waited. I looked at the shampoos to see if there were any familiar brand names that were around when I was a child. I saw Pantene, L’Oréal, and the anti-dandruff ones such as Head and Shoulders, and Selsun Blue, but that was about all that I could recognize from my childhood and teenage years.
As I was eye balling the brands, I was asking myself when exactly did I get this old, and whatever happened to Body on Tap, Pert Plus, Clairol, Prell, Jhirmack, Vidal Sassoon, Alberto V05, Salon Selectives, Suave, Tame, Halo, Finesse, Breck, Agree, Silkiense, Faberge Organic, and Wella Balsam? When exactly did jojoba get switched out for argan and Moroccan oils? What contributed to the demise of those shampoos? Did factories decide they no longer wanted to make them? Did stores decide they no longer wanted to sell them?
Did too many people suffer from neck injuries from big hair styles that government regulations had those shampoos taken off the market? I have a theory. Perhaps women stopped buying such shampoos because they discovered that after years of usage there was no amount of Jhirmack, Wella Balsam, Prell, or Breck shampoo that would neither make them look like, nor have hair like Victoria Principal, Farrah Fawcett, Brooke Shields, and Christie Brinkley. I love walking into stores where they sell retro candies and vintage furniture and clothing. I wish there was a store around here where they sold discontinued shampoos and other products.
I notice that I experience more nostalgic moments in my 40s that I did in my 20s. Does nostalgia aggressively tug at your heartstrings in your 40s? What triggers nostalgic memories for you? What are some products that you wish were still around?
My favorite shampoo was Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific. My grandmother was a hairdresser so I remember all of those products you mentioned.
I remember Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific. My Nan used to use Herbal Essence. I remember as a kid that shampoo was always in her bathroom.