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View Full Version : 60's REAL hairstyling methods



Fairina
March 31st, 2015, 03:42 PM
I am having such trouble finding actual instructions for 60's hairstyles. Most are "60's inspired" and a lot use heat. I would really love some help from ladies who maybe were alive and hairstyling in the 60's or possibly who learned the "old fashioned" way of doing it? Especially if you've incorporated your own no heat methods! Picture instructions are always helpful if you have those or old magazines. This is what i'm looking for:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fd/6d/0a/fd6d0a26c6095a99d5eaac51cd9f73d2.jpg
http://reilas.weebly.com/uploads/5/3/0/0/5300676/2216435_orig.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/8a/e5/fe/8ae5feb7d351a1f058707abdc15bb2e2.jpg

I'm in love with 60's hair and makeup! soo glamorous :pegasus:

MINAKO
March 31st, 2015, 03:46 PM
I think the 60s were all about hooded dryers, no? So not exactly no heat. That sort of movement came much much later.

Carolyn
March 31st, 2015, 03:51 PM
OK well back in the day I washed my hair at night and set it before I went to bed. I used a combination of mesh rollers with the brushes taken out, magnetic rollers, orange juice cans and tomato paste cans. I used large long bobby pins to secure one roller to the next. I covered it with a large mesh triangle shaped net to hold the rollers in while I slept. Sometime I would use Dippity Doo as a setting lotion. Most of the time I didn't because I felt it took away the shine and made my hair feel sticky and coated. In the morning I would take the rollers out and give my hair a good brushing. I might tease it a bit and spray it with Aqua Net hair spray. I did that every single night when I was in high school. Weekends included.

ETA: I still have my rollers. If I had a date on Saturday night I would wash my hair in the early afternoon and dry my hair with a soft bonnet dryer.

Sarahlabyrinth
March 31st, 2015, 03:54 PM
OK well back in the day I washed my hair at night and set it before I went to bed. I used a combination of mesh rollers with the brushes taken out, magnetic rollers, orange juice cans and tomato paste cans. I used large ling bobby pins to secure one roller to the next. I covered it with a large mesh triangle shaped net to hold the rollers in while I slept. Sometime I would use Dippity Doo as a setting lotion. Most of the time I didn't because I felt it took away the shine and made my hair feel sticky and coated. In the morning I would take the rollers out and give my hair a good brushing. I might tease it a bit and spray it with Aqua Net hair spray. I did that every single night when I was in high school. Weekends included.

Oh you have me giggling here. I remember as a little girl watching my elder sisters walking around the house wearing these giant curlers in their hair and the following day all the backcombing and gallons of hairspray! This was in the late 60's.

Fairina
March 31st, 2015, 03:56 PM
I think the 60s were all about hooded dryers, no? So not exactly no heat. That sort of movement came much much later.

I've been attempting to use large velcro rollers on damp hair and sleeping with them in a silk cap and getting okay results but I want to know all the little ins and outs of how they style it so it has that authentic look.

Fairina
March 31st, 2015, 03:58 PM
OK well back in the day I washed my hair at night and set it before I went to bed. I used a combination of mesh rollers with the brushes taken out, magnetic rollers, orange juice cans and tomato paste cans. I used large long bobby pins to secure one roller to the next. I covered it with a large mesh triangle shaped net to hold the rollers in while I slept. Sometime I would use Dippity Doo as a setting lotion. Most of the time I didn't because I felt it took away the shine and made my hair feel sticky and coated. In the morning I would take the rollers out and give my hair a good brushing. I might tease it a bit and spray it with Aqua Net hair spray. I did that every single night when I was in high school. Weekends included.

ETA: I still have my rollers. If I had a date on Saturday night I would wash my hair in the early afternoon and dry my hair with a soft bonnet dryer.

How long was your hair then? I have about 1" above BSL. I'd like to get my roller size correct! I don't know how you had the energy to do that daily/nightly! But I would like to do it for fun some days :)

browneyedsusan
March 31st, 2015, 06:49 PM
I'm a little young to help you, but will share what I know.
Roll your damp hair around pop cans (beer cans, soup cans, whatever!) and let it dry. Then tease and hairspray the bejabbers out of it!
I'm not a huge fan of teasing and hairspray because it can cause damage, but if you don't do it very often and are gentle/careful with it, you should be okay. :)

Also, my mom had a wig that she wore sometimes. Wigs were really popular in the early 70's where I grew up. All the ladies had them!

Fairina
March 31st, 2015, 06:54 PM
I'm a little young to help you, but will share what I know.
Roll your damp hair around pop cans (beer cans, soup cans, whatever!) and let it dry. Then tease and hairspray the bejabbers out of it!
I'm not a huge fan of teasing and hairspray because it can cause damage, but if you don't do it very often and are gentle/careful with it, you should be okay. :)

Also, my mom had a wig that she wore sometimes. Wigs were really popular in the early 70's where I grew up. All the ladies had them!

No this helps! It sounds like very big rollers were key. Maybe i'll drink some sodas tonight (*^ - ^*)

Stormynights
March 31st, 2015, 06:58 PM
This is just a bit of history and not relevant to the question, but Laundromats had hood hair dryers that you could put a quarter in to dry your hair.

Back to the question. Large rollers and Aqua Net and Dep or Dippity Doo.

roseomalley
March 31st, 2015, 07:50 PM
I washed my hair at night and set it while damp on giant, mesh rollers that had bristles inside them. I would tie a scarf around my giant rollers and attempt to sleep. On Saturdays, I washed it early in the day, set it and then sat under a hooded dryer about an hour before my date would arrive. My bangs, I would scotch tape down while damp. My style was usually a page boy with long, straight bangs. Once in a while, I would iron my hair with a clothes iron. Oh yes! I never got into teasing my hair, but most girls did so.

Sarahlabyrinth
March 31st, 2015, 08:00 PM
Haha, I remember ironing my hair with a clothes iron in the 70's in a vain attempt to straighten it. Cringe.

lunalocks
March 31st, 2015, 08:44 PM
I had long, straight hair. I wanted curls. Rather my mother wanted me to have curls. (I have never know her without a perm) Until I was 10 or so my mother put my hair up in pin curls with bobby pins every night. I wore it in 2 pony tails, one on top of the other. (Who else ever did this?) In the late 60s she convinced me to cut my hair to a bit below shoulder length. It was terrible. I still have pictures. The first time I ever went to a salon. Teased and curled in a flip and hair sprayed to death. Just like the Lennon sisters, only blond. I hated it and, of course, could do nothing with it after all that spray was washed out. So I wore it just straight. All through high school. Except when I curled it with dippity doo and pink sponge rollers. I also had some of those black rollers with the wire brushes inside. I had a bonnet type hair dryer that was a birthday present. Eventually I took the bonnet attachment off and just blew my hair dry. That was way BEFORE blow dryers were invented.

Sometime in high school I started to curl my hair using socks. 6 socks. Gave me waves and volume. (maybe I should try that again now?) I did that through most of college - until the PERM. But that's another story and well into the into the 70s.

lunalocks
March 31st, 2015, 08:47 PM
I do remember, as a child, having one teacher and several stay at home moms on my street with bee hives. They were huge. I am sure they must have been semi wigs that sat on the backs of their heads.

DizzyGinger
March 31st, 2015, 09:33 PM
I can't advise on the 60s specifically but I've been styling my hair using methods from the 20s-50s for a few years now (pin curls, finger waves etc) and I learned most of it from YouTube tutorials and Pinterest. If you look, you can find hair styling diagrams they used...by the 60s things were a lot more relaxed but the principle is...google, google, google! Glamour Daze is a website that's a good resource

kidari
April 1st, 2015, 12:22 AM
Even though a lot of it has to do with the texture, length, and haircut I imagine not a lot of the styling techniques were all that "healthy" for the hair. It was set in rollers and they probably sat under a hot dryer for about an hour or so until it dried. Then it was brushed out, arranged, teased, and hair sprayed. The only good thing was probably that they didn't do this every single day as that was so time consuming. In order to not have to do this tedious styling process, they tried to preserve it as long as possible by stretching washes and using dry shampoo (added bonus being that it helped add more volume).

I adore the 60s look and I feel that layers and not having extremely long hair help achieve this style best. I'd say BSL is best but anything shorter than hip would work as long as you had some layers. Overnight sets with large rollers would give similar results without the damage. I personally can only sleep on foam rollers but they don't make them as big as soda cans, plus the weight of your head would crush the roller and leave a dented wonky curl. I just get the largest foam roller I can find and simply roll larger sections onto them and make sure my hair is a lot less damp. Over directing the hair when you put the roller in helps with root volume. (Lightly rolling it helps give bigger curls whereas tightly wrapping gives tight ringlets, and etc.) This method of curling allows my set to last without me having to use any setting or finishing product other than simple water. 2nd day hair and dry shampoo eliminates the need for teasing for me. The most important is the hair you are starting with, the method and technique used in setting the curls, and how you arrange the hair afterwards. If my set comes out too curly and perfect I just wear it in a loose bun on top of my head on the 1st day and by the 2nd day it's perfect.

theoperative
April 1st, 2015, 03:01 AM
60's hairstyles/make up ROCK! Here's a nice tutorial on "la choucroute" type hairstyle made famous by the immortal Brigitte Bardot. I intend to do this on the wifey…..:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt3mevqJ_fQ

I'll see if I can find something more complex as well and post it for you.

Enjoy ;)

T.O.

Mimha
April 1st, 2015, 03:39 AM
I remember my mother, in the late 60ties and early 70ties : she backcombed like crazy and used tons of hair spray (she had fine slippery blonette hair). I was just a little girl by that time, but I remember well how I felt horrified by backcombing (and stinky spray !!) :run: and I swore I'd NEVER do that to my hair !! (I was born a hair lover^^). I did not like the way her hair was "cemented" by backcombing and hair spray, and lost all its shine and fluidity. But my mother was beautiful and got a lot of admirers and compliments on her hair, lol. But I kept running away when she wanted to the same on me, ha ha ha !...

Silver Sister
April 1st, 2015, 05:20 AM
Are you sure you want the 60's techniques? They were really harsh on hair.

Breck and Prell were popular but my Mother would wash my hair with TIDE detergent. Talk about HARSH chemicals.

We set hair with the pink sponge curlers, "spoolies", bobby pins or resorted to harsh perms for curls. Perms smelled AWFUL and burned/damaged hair.

Yes, Dippity-Do had frequent TV commercials but I knew people who used Wave set or even Jello. Awful stuff.

Peroxide was popular as a hair bleach. TV commercials had shampoo, color (Clairol) and hair dryer ads. Blue Max was a popular hand held hair blower.

Back combing/teasing was very popular with some styles. The high school girls bathroom was a haze of hair spray. Hair looked like a messy bird's nest.

Are you sure you want 60's style hair? I'm 66 and glad that style is over.

Edited to add: In your video, you're describing late 60's early 70's hair. The early 60's were all about short, curly caps. The late 60-s'70's had European influence of teased, long hair.

allierat
April 1st, 2015, 07:00 AM
Some 60's hair stuff is nicely explained here by someone who lived through it http://modernkiddo.com/vintage-master-class-with-brigitte-50s-60s-hair/
My mom taught me how to do 60's sort of styles as I have always gravitated towards more vintage fashions, a lot of what she showed me was remarkably similar to the tutorials found on youtube now for 'scene' or 'emo' hair. The difference being that in the 60's hair would be wrapped around large rollers to prep it before styling, whereas scene hair would use straighteners to prep. Both rely heavily on layers, backcombing and hairspray. It's not very kind on hair, I styled my hair in a 60's bouffant way almost every day for around a year and it lead to me having an awful lot of splits.

hananabread
April 1st, 2015, 10:44 AM
I live with my boyfriend in an apartment beneath his grandfather's hair salon that looks and uses the same appliances as it always did. He has had the same clients from opening day in 1961 and they ask for the same hairstyles! These women have their hair washed and styled once a week when they come into the shop. He blowdrys their hair after washing, sets it in rollers and puts them under the dryers. Usually he will add hair pieces for volume. I do not know how his grandfather creates behives, but I'm sure he teases! For everything else, very low heat is involved.

Arctic
April 1st, 2015, 10:54 AM
I don't think an avarage, trendy Finnish teenager in the sixties had access to wigs or hair pieces. My late mom was of this generation, and having seen her photos, and some school photos of her class mates, they had really healthy looking, shiny hair for the most part. The beehives weren't massive, and my mom told me they mostly just teased their hair. Maybe used sugar solution on it too. Wetsetting and rollers, sure! Hand held hair driers for home usage, I doubt those were a common thing here at that time - were they even intented yet? I seem to remember they became widely available (in Finland anyway?) in 70s?

allierat
April 1st, 2015, 12:04 PM
Hand held hair driers for home usage, I doubt those were a common thing here at that time - were they even intented yet? I seem to remember they became widely available (in Finland anyway?) in 70s?
Hand held dryers were available from the 1920's, bonnet and hood dryers from the 1950's...however I have no idea when they became normal household objects in particular countries. They were invented though :)

Arctic
April 1st, 2015, 12:12 PM
I think things were much more advanced in USA, than in peripheria that is Finland, back then :D

Fairina
April 1st, 2015, 12:36 PM
Thank you all for your replies! Once I have a few hours to myself i'll try styling my hair and post pictures. And yes! I was thnking late 60's early 70's hair not the shorter styles :)

Yarrow
April 1st, 2015, 12:50 PM
Oh yes! Do post the results! This is so interesting.
What I heard is that ladies actually went once a week to get their hair done and the rest of the week they warped their hair in silk scarves and had something like a head rest for their neck, so they wouldn't smushed their hairstyle while sleeping.
I imagine must have been so uncomfortable but this sounds like much effort put into styling. So they probably didn't want to repeat it daily.

Wusel
April 2nd, 2015, 03:29 AM
I love the 50s and 60s. I actually wear only 50s/60s clothes. High waisted pants, saddle shoes, polkadot blouses... And as for my hair, I have bangs and curl them under with a flat iron to make them look like bettie bangs and wear a high ponytail with a scarf wrapped around my head and tied in a bow in the front, above my ear. That's it. Nothing too difficult.

Wusel
April 2nd, 2015, 03:35 AM
A ponytail with a bouffant is great too. Just tease the hair on the top of your head a bit, secure with a bobbypin and make a ponytail. But in general a headband or headscarf with a cherry, polkadot or leopard print makes every ponytail look sixties.