# Why Do The Women On Christian Broadcasting Have Such Big Hairdos? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441 "2003-07-28T14:53:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2023, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/41 "2023-06-09T19:09:43Z")
What a coincidence! The ladies of the French Revolution had the same idea! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2023, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/42 "2023-06-12T18:53:40Z")
Back in the 50s (at least in Midwest Suburban Evangelical families), a woman wasn’t expected to have a career. Sure, she could be a teacher or a nurse until she got married, but then she got to (actually, kind of _had_ to) quit and be a stay-at-home wife and mother. So your one chance at a comfortable life was to be attractive to men. The right (“feminine”) hair, the right makeup, the right clothes made a HUGE difference. My mom often regrets that she didn’t really have any marketable skills, and wished she’d gotten a medical degree: “But that just wasn’t done. Women didn’t have a career in my day.” “Oh, really, mom? So you were born before Marie Curie? Or Elizabeth Blackwell?” (just looked her up, that was 1849!) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2023, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/43 "2023-06-12T18:57:18Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > > Why Do The Women On Christian Broadcasting Have Such Big Hairdos? > > Because God loves a tryer? Hmmm… I read that at first as “God loves a _fryer_,” which I also believe to be true. I think they wear Big Hair because it comes in the box with the Big Eyelashes. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/44 "2023-06-13T04:04:04Z")
Big hair makes you closer to God. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/45 "2023-06-13T14:35:25Z")
_My hair points to the sky The place I want to be_ [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/HQiC3LD5CAE/maxresdefault.jpg "Home Permanent") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQiC3LD5CAE) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/46 "2023-06-13T14:42:14Z")
“Fundamentally Oral Bill”: > **[Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed for July 07, 1987 | GoComics.com](https://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/1987/07/07)** > > July 07, 1987 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/47 "2023-06-13T14:44:42Z")
Aimee Semple McPherson, early 20th century superstar female evangelist, was not a believer in big hair. [![](https://www.rd.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/shutterstock_6670372a-scaled.jpg?resize=640) ](https://www.rd.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/shutterstock_6670372a-scaled.jpg?resize=640) ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/48 "2023-06-13T15:02:10Z")
> [@digs](#): > > “Oh, really, mom? So you were born before Marie Curie? Or Elizabeth Blackwell?” (just looked her up, that was 1849!) “Let me disprove your wider point by introducing these extraordinary women as exhibits A and B.” It’s true, there have always been individuals like Marie Curie, Joe Carstairs, Walter White, or C.J. Walker who were able to go against the norms and expectations of society at that time, but that doesn’t change the truth that women or others who wanted to become medical doctors or have certain careers had the deck stacked against them. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/49 "2023-06-13T17:27:47Z")
I don’t know the answer to the OP but it could be they were influenced by the hair styles of many women who are country music artists. Dolly Parton is usually seen with ‘big hair’, it’s a wig of course, but at one time it was typical in the genre. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/50 "2023-06-13T17:46:34Z")
Are the styles similar to the styles worn by TV women at the time these women were in High School? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/51 "2023-06-13T17:55:38Z")
I don’t know that, but that’s another probable explanation. I don’t know who these women are because I don’t watch Christian Broadcasting. I remember Tammy Faye Baker went over the top with hair and makeup as well, but she had a special type of insanity. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/52 "2023-06-13T19:44:30Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Are the styles similar to the styles worn by TV women at the time these women were in High School? Nah. Mainstream TV women never had hair like that. Especially network TV. I have no first hand knowledge of small town southern TV. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2023, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/53 "2023-06-13T23:39:08Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Many female christian braodcasters are southern ladies of a certain age. At one time big hair was very popular in the south, think of Dolly Parton or Loretta Lynn 30 years ago. These ladies seem to be stuck in that era and the people around them are too nice to let them know. I have heard these bouffants referred to as Phds - Pentecostal Hair Dos. Twenty years on, we can now apply AI (or rather Big Data) to the question. Pudding.cool analyzed 30,000 yearbook photos from 1930-2013 to track the rise and fall of Big Hair. [The Big Data of Big Hair](https://pudding.cool/2019/11/big-hair/) For women, Big Hair’s peak was in 1986. Small hair’s trough was in 1930, the beginning of the dataset. Oddly, dude big hair peaked in 1978, almost a decade before the female peak. Texas Monthly, Dec 1992, indicates that the style has always been controversial and a cause for speculation. Hooray for Big Hair!: > It arrives like a blimp, floating ethereally through the door before the rest of the woman’s body does. For a moment, you can look at nothing else. You try to stare at the woman’s face, at her dress, even down at her shoes—but your eyes keep wandering upward. No matter how many times you’ve seen it, you find yourself once again awestruck by that towering, impenetrable edifice known as . . . Big Hair. > > The most scorned fashion statement of our day, the target of rabid eradication campaigns by modern hairstylists, Big Hair hangs on like a buzzard in the desert. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/54 "2023-06-14T06:26:11Z")
> Aimee Semple McPherson, early 20th century superstar female evangelist, was not a believer in big hair. Is that why she had to [disappear/be kidnapped](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Aimee_Semple_McPherson)? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/55 "2023-06-14T16:39:25Z")
_Big hair, you’re such a honey_ _I wanna take you to a pretty place that I know_ _Where we’ll be unmolested_ _And we can jump and shout until the morning glow_ - “Big Hair” by Nick Lowe ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/56 "2023-06-14T17:42:48Z")
Big Hair can be dangerous, too. If you style it into a beehive, you might attract black widow spiders. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/57 "2023-06-14T19:07:29Z")
At one point, supposedly, some 10-15% of Los Angelenos went to get church. Can that be true? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/58 "2023-06-14T19:13:54Z")
Church’s Chicken? Frank Church? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/59 "2023-06-14T19:33:31Z")
_Espèce d’autocorrect! Tabernouche!_. **Her** church. To Amy Semple’s church. I read that somewhere and it seemed quite unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441/60 "2023-06-14T21:19:22Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > To Amy Semple’s church. I read that somewhere and it seemed quite unlikely. In 1920, Los Angeles had a population of about 500,000. 10-15% is 50,000-75,000. If the estimate is the total number affiliated with her church, not the number attending on any given day, I don’t find it impossible to believe. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-the-women-on-christian-broadcasting-have-such-big-hairdos/191441.md?page=4)