60's Bouffant Hair How To

Bouffant hair is becoming increasing popular with today's current hairstyles and it gets its roots from the 60's. The 50's were a time of more conservative styles for hair and then came the next decade which brought about many changes in culture, fashion, and style. This style was known for its height and fullness at the crown of the head which was quite the change from the pixie cuts and ponytails from the prior decade. Women of the 1960's spent a great deal of time to achieve this poofy hair and read on to find out how they did it.

Keep in mind that this was a time before hand held blow-dryers and so there was much more preparation involved. Styling usually began the night before and usually women slept with rollers in their hair. Apparently looking good was much more important than sleeping comfortably.

This picture of this young woman was taken for high school graduation in 1962. This was a very typical look back then.

I happen to know this gal as she is a close relative and I asked her to share her stories about hairstyling way back when and here they are.

First of all, people in this decade were thrifty with money out of necessity and so the use of home-made hair products was common. To make hair more likely to hold the curl and style, some opted to purchase a product called Dippity-do. This was a strong holding hair gel, and much to my surprise, this product is still available through some online merchants. This product worked well if applied to damp hair prior to rolling hair around the rollers. However, those who could not afford to buy this product, made their own.

Water was placed in a saucepan, about 2 cups. Then about 1/4 cup of sugar was added and then this mixture was heated to a boil and then left to sit until cool. A comb was dipped into this potion and combed through the strands before hair was wound around the rollers. A hairnet was placed on the head before bed. In the morning after the rollers were removed, the locks were back-combed at the roots to get that ratted appearance. The top layer was smoothed over and then lots of Aquanet (hairspray) was applied. Hair was very stiff and had no movement. I hate to think about the outcome if one was stuck out in a downpour: a sticky gooey mess.

So, there you have an explanation of how these styles were done in the 60's. Modern versions of this retro 60's bouffant include long straight or loosely curled locks in the back with the sides pulled up and secured in the back with a low ponytail. The top rear portion is then back-combed and finished as described above. Thankfully, we have modern conveniences that make it easier so a blow-dryer can be used, as well as Velcro rollers, and root lifting products.

Some other websites have copied this article and this picture onto their sites without my permission. This article was written word for word by me and it is not ok to steal it or the picture. What is wrong with this world?