Lady telephone operators had to keep their hair short --because electricity. Or something. But as seen in this pic, short, tightly curled styles were mandatory.
When lady operators finally broke free and quit the switchboard they ran straight to the beauty parlor to get a new hairdo. This common occurrence and the interactions between hairdressers and newly emancipated telephone operators that followed led to a change in salon parlance, and is how hair stylists came to be known as "beauty operators."
