Icons like Diana Ross, Jackie Kennedy, Twiggy, and Brigitte Bardot all had recognizable hairdos that characterized the style of the decade. They were everything from voluminous and flipped to coiffed and cropped.
Bored Panda reached out to Kate Ross, hair specialist at Irresistible Me, to learn more about the features and intricacies of the ‘60s hair.
“The 1960s were a revolutionary decade for hair. It was a time of bold experimentation, and hair was often used to make a statement. There were two main trends that dominated the era: sleek and sophisticated styles on one end and big, voluminous hair on the other,” she explains.
“One of the most iconic styles was the bouffant, with its height and volume. This look was often paired with a rounded shape, which gave a glamorous effect,” says Ross.
The hairdo widely varied in size and shape, from slightly rounded and sleek to big, tousled with curls and waves. It wasn’t one particular look but one that involved big pouffy hair. The hairstyle’s advantage was that it was easy enough to create and wear during the day-to-day for women of all ages.
“The beehive was another big hair trend. It featured hair stacked high on top of the head, creating a kind of rounded and towering look,” adds Ross.
It was invented by a hairdresser, Margaret Vinci Heldt, and entailed stacking a woman’s hair on top of the head in a cone shape, locking it in place with large amounts of hairspray. As the name suggests, it was named after its size and resemblance to a real beehive.
“For those who preferred something edgier, the pixie cut, popularized by icons like Twiggy, was a bold and daring choice,” Ross says. When the model Twiggy became a fashion icon in the early '60s, short pixie haircuts became all the rage, modernizing women’s looks. The hairstyle was highly appealing, as it was easy to manage with a light spray of hair lacquer.
“On the more minimalistic side, we had sleek, chin-length bobs, often with sharp bangs, as seen on fashion-forward women like Vidal Sassoon’s clients,” Ross mentions.
The ‘60s was also the decade when women of color started to embrace their natural hair more. Tired of straightening their curls for more than a century, they left them natural and cut short. This was their way of expressing their black pride and identity. As women got more comfortable with their hair, their locks got longer and were teased into a classic Afro hairstyle.
Since most of the 1960s hairdos were all about height and volume, they required a lot of work and definitely weren’t a quick process, says Ross. “To get that iconic volume, women would backcomb or tease their hair, focusing on the roots to create lift. This method involved combing the hair backward toward the scalp to create a cushion of volume underneath the smoother outer layer. After teasing, hairspray was a must to lock in the height and hold the shape throughout the day. Hairspray became every woman’s best friend in the ‘60s!”
Sometimes, to achieve even more volume in the hair, women would use additional hairpieces on the crown, creating towering hairdos. Sometimes the extensions didn’t have to match the natural color—all that mattered was the height. The famous ladies who frequently sported this hairstyle were Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, The Supremes, and Dusty Springfield.
