# Tell Me About Mid 60s Big Hair

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 3, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441 "2017-07-03T15:59:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Carryon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/1 "2017-07-03T15:59:51Z")

</div>

I’ve been watching a lot of “What’s My Line,” on YouTube from the 60s and I noticed around 1964 Dorothy Kilgallen and Arlene Francis started to get big hair. (Moreso Dorothy than Arlene). Now I’m up to 1967 and while Dorothy has since passed and Arlene’s hair isn’t so big, the contestants and celebrities have HUGE hair.

It’s really piled on top of itself. Anyone here remember first hand that trend in the 60s. Both younger and older woman had it, I kept asking “how high can it go?”:eek:

Even Mia Farrow’s short hair (a celeb contestant) didn’t seem to put much of a stop to it, though I understand her short hair was also a fad.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/2 "2017-07-03T16:33:26Z")

</div>

Back then everyone thought [Mia Farrow](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/68/56/cd/6856cdfaf3426ebbe8eac3145eec933b--mia-farrow-pixie-mia-farrow-hair.jpg) and [Twiggy](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c5/e1/54/c5e15496f85f5f6eb2f97b56b95a73b7--s-fashion-fashion-vintage.jpg) looked like boys.

Compare to women like [Dolly Parton](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b8/7d/1b/b87d1b5f20825016e43cc2f0c521b769.jpg). And not just country music singers, either. [Real women.](http://glamourdaze.com/2015/12/when-beehive-hairdos-ruled-the-earth.html)

If you want real laughs, look at a high school yearbook from that period.

On the other hand, it wasn’t any stranger than[’80s hair.](https://www.google.com/search?q=80%27s+hair&num=30&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfs679xO3UAhVK5SYKHdgkA5YQsAQIJw&biw=1600&bih=770)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Reddy\_Mercury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@Reddy\_Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reddy_Mercury)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/3 "2017-07-03T17:32:39Z")

</div>

60s big hair \> 80s big hair.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/4 "2017-07-03T19:54:24Z")

</div>

I have a delightful collection of photos that give a historical perspective of mom’s big hair. I was born in '67, the apex of bouffant-ery; and, wow, did she ever subscribe to “the higher the hair the closer to God.”

I have to disagree with '60s big hair = '80s big hair. There are some quantifiable differences (that I can’t articulate at the moment, but I’ll think on it).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/5 "2017-07-03T22:12:17Z")

</div>

I believe my Mom did the “wrap your hair around orange juice cans” deal.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/6 "2017-07-03T22:43:51Z")

</div>

My 1965 high school yearbook is full of girls with [beehive](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OM5kTv0tuVY/maxresdefault.jpg) hairdos, flips (think Jackie Kennedy) and [bouffants](http://lorrye.net/images5/1116/hairstyles-in-the-60s/hairstyles-in-the-60s-46_8.jpg). The guys all have greasy hairdos left over from the 50s. Soon after my yearbook photo was taken, I fell victim to the Beatles and my greaser days were over.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/7 "2017-07-04T00:50:21Z")

</div>

Interesting how fashion always seems ridiculous in retrospect. I wonder which fashion trends today will seem ridiculous twenty years hence.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/8 "2017-07-04T02:16:13Z")

</div>

> [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](#):
>
> Interesting how fashion always seems ridiculous in retrospect. I wonder which fashion trends today will seem ridiculous twenty years hence.

Shaved head with full beard on men. Of course I think it is already a ridiculous look. No thread hijack intended.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/9 "2017-07-04T10:25:30Z")

</div>

My high school yearbook pics (class of ‘72) seem to be divided between big bouffants and long, straight, parted-in-the-middle hairdos. At my parents’ 25th anniversary party (1977) one of my sisters sported a big, piled-on 'do.

Alas, my hair has always been on the fine and straight side, so I never could make it fit any look that was “in” - an endless source of despair in my life…

😃

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/10 "2017-07-04T10:51:45Z")

</div>

> [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](#):
>
> Interesting how fashion always seems ridiculous in retrospect. I wonder which fashion trends today will seem ridiculous twenty years hence.

The 2000s didn’t have an obvious fashion trend that you can really pinpoint, I don’t think. A couple of odd things here and there, like low-riding jeans and such-like, but the 2010s is making up for it with hipster beards and skin-tight leggings.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/11 "2017-07-04T11:14:45Z")

</div>

I would say the ultimate would be [Yeoman Rand’s](http://www.trapshooters.com/threads/another-tv-babe-gone-yeoman-rand-of-star-trek.244483/) 'do.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Carryon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)\
**Post date:** [July 4, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-mid-60s-big-hair/790441/12 "2017-07-04T16:58:17Z")

</div>

When did the trend die off? I recall in the 70s every girl I knew had the Marcia Brady part in the center hair. I know both Marlo "That Girl’ Thomas and Elizabeth Montgomery losing their bangs and going for that part in the middle look.

I always get amazed at how much time those women must’ve spent building their hair that high 🙂

I just know what I’ve seen from those reruns but it seem the 60s hair, at least looked, a bit more complex than 80s big hair.
