Over the ages, there have always been women who wanted to stand out from the crowd. Each era had a different look they could bank on to be different from the rest. In the 80s, it was the colorful clothing; in the 70s, it was the hippie lifestyle spent in the pastures, and in the 60s, it was the dramatic hair.

The bigger the hair, the greater the attention they received. The amazing thing about hairdos in the 60s was that women didn’t really care much about what the men thought. The new age of feminism had caught on, and it was time for women to rise, literally.

The big hair trend dates back to the Victorian ages of the 1600s and 1700s. White wigs were adorned by women as well as the men, and were a sign of stature and money. By the middle of the 19th century, white hair was preferred by all, and was dyed using a special mixture of plaster of Paris, starch, and flour.

While wigs were used largely until the 19th Century, the 20th Century saw the role of natural hair in creating unique coiffure styles. The 60s were the time when coiffure became the ultimate party hair. Jacky Kennedy gave the look a slight push, and before one knew it, all of America was pulling off the big hair, soon to be followed by women from around the globe. Mr. Kenneth was an award-winning hair stylist who was an expert in the bouffant and made it famous on the worldwide stage using Mrs. Kennedy as his ultimate muse.

The bouffant has its roots in the French word for swelling. It makes the hair stand up in a rounded shape, and was a sign of sophistication and achievement. The hairdo was so complicated that it was really hard to get the look at home. The 60s thus meant booming business for hair stylists, who women would visit at least once a week to touch up or redo the swell.

Some diehard fans of the bouffant were actually brave enough to try this look at home, using rollers the size of coke cans in their hair. Because the hair had to be in the rollers for a massive part of the day, most of them just preferred to go to bed with the rollers on, much to the dismay of their husbands. The look was always completed by a final but liberal amount of hairspray.

There were modifications one could try with the bouffant like the “party curl” or “piquant pixie” that always had straight bangs as a common factor. During this period, hair color became popular too, and added more dimension to the bouffant.

For women who weren’t blessed with thick and voluminous hair, wigs created using natural hair were easily available. These could simply be clipped on to their scalp, and looked as good as a salon-done coiffure. This was widely used by Hollywood stars for filming in the 60s.

Some remarkable spin-offs of the bouffant were the Beehive that was made popular by Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, and Aretha Franklin, and the Afro that was born in the lap of political movements of the 60s.

Even though the 60s are gone, we are left with memories of some of the most powerful and gorgeous women in the bouffant, and we definitely don’t mind if the big hair trend comes back. We know we are ready for it, are you?

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by StyleCraze via STYLECRAZE