Aqua Manda

Share your memories and stories from the Hertford Christ's Hospital School, which closed in 1985, when the two schools integrated to the Horsham site....

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Euterpe13
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by Euterpe13 »

My goodness, that does bring things back ! I vaguely remember Aqua Manda, but definitely used the Gibbs in a tin - and yes, I can remember the taste too: a bit like peppermint soap !

Dry shampoo - I used to go to Spain every summer with Ma & Bro and hung out with a bunch of older french students, one of whom taught me a much better trick for greasy roots : slot cotton wool between the teeth of a hairbrush, douse with cologne and brush hair - it works a treat, cotton goes nasty grey colour with stripped dirt, and hair is light and scented!
Used that method for years - at CH it was 4711, if I remember correctly ( one of the secrets of my glossy hair, Munch!)
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by Fjgrogan »

Gibbs Dentrifice came in different flavours, each a different colour. I remember my brother and sister and I each having a different one.
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Mid A 15
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by Mid A 15 »

Fjgrogan wrote:Gibbs Dentrifice came in different flavours, each a different colour. I remember my brother and sister and I each having a different one.
I hated that stuff!

Fortunately for my longterm dental heath we had tooth paste more often than not and I too remember the red and white striped Signal with stripes. Macleans seemed to be the toothpaste of choice more often than not though in our house.
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by MaryB »

The problem with dry shampoo was that if you had Really Greasy Hair the brushing necessary to get the stuff out was enough to stimulate the sebaceous glands to the point where you finished up back where you started. Also, guess what, we weren't allowed to use it in 3s. My hair (and my friend's) was so impossibly greasy that if we did try to do anything about it during the week, between the permitted washes, it was obvious that we'd broken the rules....

This has had a lifelong impact on me: I've washed my hair every single day since leaving school, and I won't go anywhere unless I know I can use a hairdryer. CH has a lot to answer for.....

PS I regret to say that there were people who put Glitto (Vim) into my Eucryl.....
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Euterpe13 wrote:Dry shampoo - I used to go to Spain every summer with Ma & Bro and hung out with a bunch of older french students, one of whom taught me a much better trick for greasy roots : slot cotton wool between the teeth of a hairbrush, douse with cologne and brush hair - it works a treat, cotton goes nasty grey colour with stripped dirt, and hair is light and scented!
Used that method for years - at CH it was 4711, if I remember correctly ( one of the secrets of my glossy hair, Munch!)
Lor' luv a duck, Barbara! It's reminded me! Two Spanish women with whom I worked in the past told me the same. Lena (wonderfully skilled domestic lady for one of my private patients) had never ever washed her thick black hair. That made me shudder! Pacquita, with whom I worked when I first left school, did cologne-cleansing from time to time. Paquita's cologne was a Spanish brew so horrible that it used to make me quite nauseated every time I was at the receiving end of a killer whiff. I hope never to smell such a potion again. :vom: Paloma Picasso it wasn't.

It must have been really tricky with a Housemistress as vigilant as Lil. I swear, dear old Pot would never have noticed unexpectedly clean hair. I completely understand your subsequent devotion to hairwashing, Mary. Do you know - I often envied your naturally curly hair at the beginning of the Seventies?

Vim in your Eucryl. So, so mean! What did you do? Were you very noble in Forgiveness?
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by fra828 »

Reading this thread has made me SO ANGRY :evil: . WHY weren't we allowed to wash our hair more than once a week?? What a ridiculous, unbelievable rule, the misery of going around with greasy hair for days-no wonder many of us had such low self-esteem. On watching the original(1940's?) , very atmospheric, version of the film of Jane Eyre, I can't help comparing Lowood school and all 'its privations' in the 19th century, with CH Hertford mid/late 20th century! Very similar! Certain housemistresses would have fitted in very well in the former institution! :lol:
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by midget »

There were times when we were only allowed to wash our hair on alternate weeks!
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by Katharine »

I'm sure we only washed it on alternate weeks in 6s in my time, Maggie. (Frances what do you think?) If you were going out on a Saturday, which would be your hairwashing day then you were allowed to wash it the previous Wednesday, I think. As I was hardly ever taken our except on a Long Sat that never applied to me.
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by Fjgrogan »

Sorry Katharine, I really don't remember how often we washed our hair. I seem to be saying that a lot lately!
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by englishangel »

Only once a week for us but I am sure Fanny turned a blind eye.

I used to love wet Saturday afternoons in winter in the airing room with Barbara with her chestnut hair and Liga with her "Crystal Tipps" blonde hair giving us hair care tips (eat your heart out Angela) and vying to tell the filthiest joke.
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by Angela Woodford »

Crystal Tipps? Huh?

What can these have been?

(Have just been for a job interview and feel downcast. Bogger it!)
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by englishangel »

Angela Woodford wrote:Crystal Tipps? Huh?

What can these have been?

(Have just been for a job interview and feel downcast. Bogger it!)
You don't remember Crystal Tipps?

http://www.sausagenet.com/program.asp?m ... d+Alistair

I must confess it was probably only in the drying room we saw the full glory, LIga usually had tightly controlled plaits.
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Re: Aqua Manda

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englishangel wrote:Only once a week for us but I am sure Fanny turned a blind eye.

I used to love wet Saturday afternoons in winter in the airing room with Barbara with her chestnut hair and Liga with her "Crystal Tipps" blonde hair giving us hair care tips (eat your heart out Angela) and vying to tell the filthiest joke.
Mary , I am outraged at such aspersion-casting ! I don't remember ever telling filthy jokes in the airing room...
Liga did have fabulous hair indeed, and I remember putting it into ringlet rags ( in which she even went to breakfast) for a production of " she stoops to conquer"... took us hours...
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Post by Ajarn Philip »

I'm quite sure I went out with Crystal Tipps many years ago...
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Re: Aqua Manda

Post by icomefromalanddownunder »

[quote="Katharine"]I'm sure we only washed it on alternate weeks in 6s in my time, Maggie. quote]

I now have a vision of the grease soaked interiors of our chapel caps, panamas and velours.

Amazing that we didn't line them (as per our blues) or fit the equivalent of dress guards.


Aaarrgggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I'm off for a long, hot shower with lashings of shampoo and conditioner.

xxxx
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