July 27, 2007

Wig-Klean, Hairtainers and Olay, Oh My!

I just made myself a "Macro Photo Studio" using these directions, and experimented with it late into the night, fueled by a restless mind and several iced coffees. I thought it would be a perfect time to share some more of my vintage beauty products with you- products which appear to be magically suspended in snowy white infinity.
This pinktastic tin of Wig-Klean is still full of the no doubt toxic elixir, and the fabulously graphic bottle of Hair Arranger also sloshes with some greasy, Cold War era fluid.


It's not that possessing their original contents somehow ups the value of these bottles for me, it's simply that I am much too afraid of the poisonous stuff inside to dare unleash it on the community water supply via my toilet, or, for that matter, my little family's lungs and mucus membranes. These chemical cocktails date from a time when doctors were telling pregnant women to have a stiff drink and a Miltown to calm those pre baby jitters and that smoking was a soothing balm for the throat and lungs. I think I'll just let sleeping dogs lie. Sleeping, carcinogen-filled, flammable dogs. Take a look at the back of that Wig-Klean (click to enlarge). "CAUTION! Never clean hair piece immediately after drinking liquor." See, I told you this stuff was dangerous.

This "Grip-Tuth Hairtainer" card is just twelve kinds of wonderful. It's the "Successor to the Comb", or so those Hairtainer ad men would have us believe. That lovely lady moon face is just gorgeous.


It gets even better when you flip the card over to learn that the Hairtainer "Saves time! Stops annoyance!" and "Ends Hairfussing!" Finally and end to my incessant hairfussing.


Here are some lotion bottles. Something about the name "Tritle's" makes me purt near "tritle" my drawers giggling.


Some oil, long ago extracted from the mythical "Olay" awaits your perusal in this next photo, along with two perfume cream jars from Avon.

Actually, I've always wondered how they came up with the name, so I consulted good ol' Wikipedia and found that "olay" is a little play on the word "lanolin", one of the key ingredients. No need to thank me, Dollfaces. I'm happy to research these important matters for the sake of satisfying all of your inquiring minds.

7 comments:

Thriftin' Gal @ Junk In My Trunk said...

Ha! Don't you just love the vintage packaging and products? I bet you could even clean the wax off your kitchen floor with that WigKlean stuff!! That was thoughtful of them to mention in the instructions to not drink liquor before cleaning the wig - guess you had to wait to get sloshed until AFTER you cleaned your hairpiece *giggle*

And thanks for the link to make that macro studio - I had kind of rigged up something a while back so I could take decent pix of the jewelry I make, but it was not as snazzy as that one, I will have to make this one soon. I also added your site (I love it!) to my Blogroll, if that is ok with you :)

Nick said...

You can't beat products that have more warnings on them than most industrial cleaners, but really not booze? Come on...

jungle dream pagoda said...

Yippeee,FINALLY an answer for all my fake hair cleaning needs!!!!...and I'm on phase 1 of southbeach this week so no alcohol worries for me!!!...but wait... what will I do when I'm on phase 2?

Harry said...

I am wicked impressed by the lightbox thing - the photos turned out fantastic! I don't actually have anything to shoot, but when I think of something I'm definately making one of those!!

fancy said...

I think my father-in-law might be in need of some of your wig cleaner. Care to share?

Angelina said...

I am fascinated by all the early and mid century beauty products that people used to use. I don't collect the actual articles but I love seeing the ads in the old magazines I collect.

I think the wig cleaner is especially amazing.

Anonymous said...

Also, one should never try to bake Christmas cookies immediately after drinking liquor. I tried it one year and it was a disaster.