The nostalgia of Soviet barbershops (PHOTOS)

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/MDF

READ MORE: Soviet life in AMAZING photos by Anatoly Boldin

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