Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

I can honestly say that through the years I have been influenced by current trends. In the 60’s I wore bell bottoms pants, love beads, and I grew my hair long. I bought into most of the fads of the 70’s and 80’s. My female counterparts had huge hair and dressed like Pat Benatar. I wore Members Only and Nehru jackets. I kept up with the hit songs and hot bands and wore platform shoes.

Men getting permanents was big in the 70’s and spilled over into the 80’s. That’s when I got mine. In 1985 I was talked into getting a perm. Bon Jovi was still rocking his big do and I was in a band so I went for it. The first couple of weeks it was tight curls. Then a few weeks later it was starting to get wild. I could comb it so it was really big as you can see in the photo. I could actually even get it more poofed out than that.

I was playing in the band The Hypnotics in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1985 and I was flying home for Christmas. My father who hated beards had special instructions for my mom who went to meet me at the baggage claim. He actually told my mother to “leave him there” if I had a beard. He was very surprised when he saw that although I was clean shaven, I had a big head of curls. He didn’t say much on the way home.

I particularly enjoyed women’s fashions especially during the 1980’s. Yes, I always fell victim to trends and fads. I kept up pretty well at it.

I have a few social media friends commenting on the subject of big hair:

“I got one around 1983, tight waves.”

“I had a big hairdo during the Disco era. Lots of hairspray.”

“It was fun being in our 20’s in the 70’s. Now, being in our 70’s in the 20’s … not so much.”

“Somerville had some very hot ladies with their poofed up hairdos. The bigger the better.”

“I looked like a Chia-Pet!”

I really enjoyed the big hair era. Now I’m in the grey hair bunch.

One thing is for sure. Big hair, small hair or hairless, Somerville girls rock.