Here's a fun specimen of a 1950s commercial. If you knew how to make a pin curl you could use "Bobbi" to make your own version of a homemade perm. I can't imagine what this stuff would have really done to your hair, but if the actress' hair is any indication, not that much. All the effort of putting pin-curls in one's hair just to get one flip on either side of the head hardly seems worth it. You have to love the corny lounge singer at the end singing about home hair permanents, though. Classic stuff!