Hairstyles We Loved
(and Sometimes Hated)

Ah, gone are the days of the big hair or the super short hair or hair down to your knees but don’t be too hasty. Everything old is new again, they say, and chances are a favorite hairstyle of the past will come around again. Here are a few from the 1960s and 1970s you might remember:

Bouffant – Long curled hair piled up on top of the head. (Think Barbara Eden aka "Jeanie" or JoAnn Worley from Laugh In and Aretha Franklin wore one too for a time.) Although, her hair was more like a moderated beehive, Jackie Kennedy's hair was often described as bouffant, which I suppose came to mean any big, high hair.

Beehive – Hair teased or ratted upwards or back combed on the top underside with smooth hair brushed up and over. Dusty Springfield had a great beehive in her early career. Also known as a B-52 for it's bomb-like shape, this style is a favorite of the retro crowd such as the aptly named B52s or anyone from the cast of Hair Spray.

Updo – Exactly what it says; hair pulled up, usually secured with a rubber band and bobby pins, a favorite for long-haired women at weddings and proms..

Afro (or Natural) – This back-to-roots style was a source of Black pride (although some white kids with the right hair tried it; remember Greg Brady). Some sported twa’s (teeny weeny afros) while others combed longer hair into perfect halos. Of course, Angela Davis' hair was as legendary (and revolutionary) as she was!

French Twist – Longer hair rolled to the side and up, secured with bobby pins

Pixie – Super short, a favorite for young girls whose mothers didn’t want the fuss and later by big-eyed skinny models ala Twiggy.

Flip – Shoulder length (usually) and flipped up at the ends. The effect was created in longer hair using very large rollers. I'd say Jackie's was more a pouffy flip than a true bouffant.

Pageboy – The Flip, flipped under.

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Celebrity Hair
We’re certain a whole generation of little girls before us wore pin curls ala Shirley Temple and women in the 1940s took cues from the soft wavy styles of Lauren Bacall and Veronica Lake, but it seemed the 1970s put celebrities and their hair on superstar status

Farrah Fawcett Hair – long luxurious locks with lots of soft curls piled high on the head and swept outward like wings from the face — this was the hair all the girls tried for. The period saw the invention of the electric hair curlers and curling irons which made the look easier. Farrah was one of the first “big hair” queens of the decade.

Dorothy Hamill’s Wedge – This perky little skater stole America’s heart. She was the little sports “it” girl appearing on magazine covers from Time Magazine to McCalls showing off her easy-care little do. Straight, thick hair worked best with the cut, a deep inverted “v” on the sides moving to a point at the back. There were softer variations but this was the anti-Farrah look and the first step away from long, unstyled 70s hair.

David Cassidy's Shag – Yes, David. The 70s was the era of unisex hair and David popularized the heavily layered Shag haircut. Everyone wore it in one variation or another from Goldie Hawn to David Bowie (as Iggy Stardust). The Shag has never died, just grown longer as in Friend’s star Rachel’s hair in the 1990s, simply a long Shag.

Cicely Tyson's Cornrows – Long before Bo Derek washed up on the beach, Ms. Tyson brought African inspired styles to the forefront. As early as 1963, she wore Cornrows on the tv show East Side/West Side. Cornrows and other braiding, as well as the Afro, were a reaction against unnatural styles for African Americans of earlier eras that involved harsh chemical straightening and processing.

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— Betty