Eileen O'Connor's clientele came from all walks of life.

Under the hairdryer, a Taoiseach's wife, Joan FitzGerald, theatre director Sheelagh Richards, the Overend sisters, who arrived in their gleaming Rolls Royce, sat alongside women who came on bikes, the tram, bus or on foot. They came for the first communion, the debs' dance, the wedding, the cut, the weekly shampoo-and-set, and of course the 'perm', the permanent wave which inevitably wasn't. No men darkened these doors, nor even women. At Eileen's, all were ladies or girls.

A Dubliner, Eileen O'Connor was just 17 when she left the city in 1933. She spent the next four years in London's fashionable salons, learning to cut hair, to shingle and tint, and how to make face creams.

In 1937, armed with a certificate from the Gallia Institute, she returned to take over Miss Carter's hairdressers, above Storey's chemists at the Morehampton and Marlborough Road junction. In 1944, the Munster & Leinster bank swapped No 81 Morehampton Road for the corner site.

It is still a bank.

A new purpose-built salon took shape on the ground floor of No 81, where Cafe Java is now. Marcel waving was all the rage. Tongs were heated on open gas jets. The stylist checked the heat by putting the tongs to her lips.

Many a burnt lip took a long time to heal. Later, the back of the hand was used and stylist Ida Clery has memories of Christmas with a row of burns on the back of her hand.

Ida Clery stayed with Eileen's until she retired after 55 years. She remembers one young customer who very usefully kept other customers entertained. "They were listening avidly to the stories she told." A wider audience was to be entertained by novelist Maeve Binchy.

The Marcel wave gave way to the 'Eugene perm', done with an appliance much like a hood dryer, with electric wires hanging down. Hair was rolled in a spiral, then heated to make a permanent curl. This cost a guinea.

Instead you could have your hair finger-waved on top with tiny pin curls round the ends.

These were secured by crisscrossing two fine straight hairpins. The hair was dried and stayed in place for many weeks. This cost a more modest 2/6d.

It was hard work. The salon opened five-and-a-half days a week, though it did close for a day in 1942 when Eileen married Tom Bastable in 1942 in nearby Donnybrook church. The business grew and with that the staff. Maizie McEvoy, Bridie Goodman and Ronnie Redmond became long-serving members of the team.

Clients were always surrounded by curtains. Having colour was risky, with only four colours, black (as a crow), brown, blonde which could be very brassy-looking, and henna which turned out a reddish shade. People never admitted to colouring their hair.

The roller did not arrive until the late 1950s, and blowdrying in the 1960s. The new backwash basin was greeted with suspicion. Stylist Mary Heslin, who joined in 1967 and has just retired, recalls the customer who was given a choice. "'Would you like backwash or frontwash?'" The response was frosty. "'I would like both the back and front of my hair washed, please!'" In the early 1960s, clients became more comfortable about admitting to having colour and perms. Eileen removed the cubicles and put in a drying bench, where four clients could dry, elbow to elbow. A few customers left, never to return. Sheelagh Richards, a regular client, was heard to exclaim:

"Changed, changed, changed and a terrible beauty is born!"

In 1967, Eileen's daughter Elaine Cogavin opened a gift boutique in the same premises. The hairdressing salon moved upstairs. Eileen Bastable retired in the early 1980s, and died in 1997. Meanwhile, Elaine Cogavin took over the business. In 1992, the building was refurbished and a coffee shop opened on the ground floor.

"Sadly there isn't another generation willing to take the salon on, " says Elaine Cogavin, who is now retiring.

"We are all very proud of Mum, bringing up a family of four and running a business which played a vital part in life in Donnybrook for so many years."

The letting agent for the "rst "oor of No 81 Morehampton Road, Dublin4, is McCormick Estate Agents 01-6766902