Marcy's Travel Blog- A Stewardess Remembers- It Wasn't Always Glamorous!

When I first started flying, uniforms were very different than now. We had pill box hats that were to be worn at all times, even while serving. Struggling to keep the thing on my head, I solved the problem by putting three brush  rollers in my hair, held by pics under the hat, thereby keeping the thing from falling into  my passenger's coffee. One spring day, while flying up north in a Convair turbo prop, we hit turbulence. Boom! The ceiling seemed to come down on my head. The next thing I knew, I had landed on a sleeping man's lap. The man was startled, but not hurt. I apologized, felt I was o.k.- and went about my business of serving. Shortly before landing, a passenger came up to me and urged me to sit down!! "You're bleeding!", he said. He had this "Oh My God!" look on his face! I looked my body over.  I didn't feel any pain.  He pointed to my head.  A quick check revealed my hair was matted with blood!  I called the cockpit, to let them know I was injured. They, in turn, called for paramedics and told me to sit down and remain seated. They'd take care of getting the passengers off the aircraft.  We landed, the first officer let the passengers off the plane and the paramedics came on board. Only then did I realize I was going to have to take off that darn hat! Oh NO! Rollers! Clutching my hat, I said "No! I have to keep this on!"The paramedics looked confused, until they took off my hat and my rollers were revealed- then they laughed! I was humiliated! This was NOT suppose to happen! The pics that held the rollers in place had pierced my scalp! They walked me to the "blue room"- which is what we called the bathroom. They bent me over the sink and started rinsing my hair! Oh God!  There goes my hair-do! After rinsing my hair and finding the little holes in my scalp, they applied something that stung like crazy,  gave me a gauze bandage to hold against my wounds,  and left the plane, still grinning. (Little buggers!) Note to self:  Use bobby pins to hold the rollers in place, NOT pics!  A check in the mirror revealed the worst! My false eyelashes were half off, black eyeliner was running down my face and my makeup was completely gone. I looked like a drowned rat! Worse!  I looked NOT like a glamorous Stewardess!  I looked like something out of a horror movie!  Having curly hair, it started frizzing in all directions while it dried! I remember telling myself that the whole situation could be a lot worse, like having a broken neck!  I looked in the mirror and started to laugh! (Was I hysterical? It's possible! Ha!) I did what I could about my appearance. Thank goodness I at least had makeup with me! I greeted the passengers who boarded for the flight back to Detroit (frizzy hair and all),  but gave up on wearing that hat for the rest of that trip. Now we have no hats to wear while serving, thank goodness. The airlines have in place a more sophisticated way to warn crew members and passengers about turbulence. And I have an amusing if not slightly embarrassing story to tell! Life is truly an adventure, even when it's a bumpy ride and less than perfect appearance!