1960's hairstyle using heated rollers

1960's hairstyle using heated rollers

Research - 
1960's fashion we saw diversity and saw many different trends and styles influenced by working classes, music, films and social movements.

In the UK, fashion came from Paris to London with popular fashion designer Mary Quant (a welsh fashion designer and British fashion icon) Mary led the 'swinging London' revolution. Vidal Sassoon ( a British hairdresser, business man and philanthropist) transformed women hairdressing, taking the bob hairstyle and transforming it to the suit the mood of the decade.  Sassoon created iconic styles os the 60's, popularising short hair with geometric and asymmetrical cuts that revolutionised women styling.

(Mary Quant and Vidal Sassoon)

Film - Since film was invented many film stars have had a massive impact on the influences of fashion trends. Iconic artists of this era include Julie Christie, Catherine Deneuve, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Birkin and Audrey Hepburn who each had there individual style and signature look. 

Below is a cover of 'LIFE' magazine, May 1967, with Mia Farrow supporting Vidal Sassoon's bob cut created for her role in the film Rosemary's Baby 

Another example of movie stars with 1960's hair is Audrey Hepburn presenting the big loose soft curls.

Hairdressers have always influenced and changed the fashion of hairstyles and keep developing new modern ways to develop each hairstyle through time. The 1960's brought the voluminous beehive created by Vidal Sassoon. Other popular hairdressers of this period include Louis Alexandre Raimon. Louis created the Elizabeth Taylors Cleopatra look and styled many movie stars like Greta Garbo and Raymond Bessone who trained Vidal Sassoon and is believed to have influenced the modern bouffant.

Music - Music has a huge impact on fashion and hairstyles. Ever since the late 1950's, the styles worn by the rock and roll singers and popular bands of this period were embraced by lovers of the music and many teenagers developed there own 'street fashion'.

The well known music band 'The Beatles' influence the 'mop hop' hairstyle which influenced mens hair for a generation and is synonymous with the 60's. In the later half of the decade, political activism, social changes and psychedelic rock music led to hair for the men and women becoming longer and left natural, in keeping with the care free yet still resembled the hippie subculture. 

Hair Assessories - 

Wigs and Hairpieces 

Fake hair was the big hair accessory of the 1960's and was worn by many women openly. Wigs were made of real hair and generally came as a pull on and wear style. Hair pieces which were also made from real hair were attached to the back of the head which created width and height making big hair even bigger. These hair pieces could be used to create a top knot. Contrasting colours were used as well as those matching the persons natural hair colour. False hair attached to a wide velvet headband was very popular, as were bows with hair attached to them. Clusters often had a comb attached to help attach it to the natural hair. 

Comb and Slides - 

Combs and slides were made of plastic and then decorated with bows, rhinestones, bright swirls or mod-inspired black and white geometric patterns. To prevent the beehive hairstyle from collapsing women would use the Spanish mantilla comb. 

Headscarves - 

The young and fashionable liked to tie there headscarf right on the point of their chin as opposed to being tied under the chin like their mothers. Another way the scarves can be tied is at the back of the head at the nape of the neck. A longer scarf would be crossed under the chin and then wrapped round the neck and tied at the back. to make this look even more fashionable women would wear huge dark sunglasses.

Popular hairstyles - 

The Bouffant - 

The bouffant was from the 1950's and cried through to the 1960's. During the 1960's it varied in size from rounded to big. This hairstyle was easy to wear and was very popular with women of all ages and was reasonably easy to create. To create this style women would set their hair in large rollers to create height and lift. The hair was then back combed and finished with a smooth round exterior.

The ends of the curls were either curled, flicked up or smoothed under. Either way the hair was set with a mosquito clearing cloud of hair lacquer to keep the curl secure into place. Famous Bouffants wearers include Jackie Kennedy ad Bird Johnson.

The Beehive - 

The beehive is one of the iconic hairstyles of the early 1960's. This beehive is a hive shaped, backcombed and lacquered mountain of hair that would last for a couple of days with only the need of a tiny bit of tweaking. The beehive could also be twinned with longer hair in a half up half down style. Margaret Vici Heldt created the beehive. This hairstyle came about when  Margaret had been asked by the editors of Modern Beauty Salon to design a new hairstyle that would reflect the decade. This elegant up-do was very popular worn by famous people such as Dusty Springfield and Audrey Hepburn. 

Long hair would be put into a high  pony tail which were worn combined with ether a bouffant or a beehive at the front. Fringes were also popular in the 1960's. When worn they were full, straight and came in to at least the eye brows length. The side swept look was also fashionable in this period but not as popular as the original fringe. 

Electronic tongs and the new styling wand(hairdryer/curler) enabled women to create big loose curls and produce lots of lift. Heated carmen rollers were readily available making it a lot easier for women to set and curl the hair at home instead of going out to the hairdressers. Older women would not usually go for a fashionable modern style and may still have worn more mature style from the 1950's.

My final outcome -  

Below is my final outcome done in lesson. We were learning how to use heated rollers and learning how to create the bee hive. I decided to do a half up half down style with a beehive on the top half of the head with the left over hairs swept across the right side the shoulder with a pin curl to hide the hair grips from the beehive. Overall i enjoyed creating the beehive and feel that achieved the desired look i wanted. I would like to experiment with the beehive and see what other styles i can create using this technique.

How to - 

1) Set the hair into large rollers into brickwork formation

2) Once the rollers have cooled down , remove the grips and take out the rollers

3) Style the curls starting at the top and being back combing to bring lift

4) Once i had finished back combing the top pat of the head i twisted the hair to create the lift and shape

5) I then took a section of hair from the side of the face and created a in curl to hide the hair grips and to add my own little twist to it

6) Lastly i swept the leftover curled hair down one side of the shoulders