When did our culture shift?

[In2wishin]

Recently on the morning radio show I listen to, they were talking about hair and someone mentioned the major change in our culture where it used to be that if you colored your hair people thought negatively about you (vain, a trollop, etc). Nowadays it seems that if you DON'T color your hair you are viewed negatively (lazy, etc.). Interesting thought.

When length came up one person metioned that "I don't like the Crystal Gayle look on women" and they all agreed that long hair was wrong. Oh well

[spidermom]

When I was a child, coloring your hair was definitely frowned on, unless you were covering gray. I'd say this attitude shifted in the 70s.

[hmmm]

After hippie culture waned
I think that was probably my favourite time in the history of the US.

[Maddy25]

I have been noticing this a lot too. If I go to the mall it is actually hard to spot a female who has natural hair! It is kind of sad...

[frost pattern]

Fashion changes ... in Roman times bleached hair and a blonde wig were a matter of status.

I remember my mother looking down to people dying their hair (70ties), but she went to the hairdresser forpermanent waves like about 50% of the women did then. Now the focus lies more on dying and fashion haircuts I think. Many people live on fashions (such as hairdressers), and there is a most common demand for fashion and fashion talk. The people who earn money on providing the latest fashion and the people who want it feed each other's wishes .

[Arianwen]

I was gonna say the 80s...my mom had purple hair once back then. I like being a rebel...so I will.not.dye!

[kwaniesiam]

New products and technology have made hair color more accessible to people too. I'm in beauty school, according to our text nearly 85% of women and 30% of men have colored before or still do color their hair. I think color is here to stay, which is good because I plan to make a living off of it

Natural hair is beautiful too, but not for everyone. I'm glad that it's no longer a secret shame to alter your hair to suit your aesthetics.

[eezepeeze]

While it seems that the 80s were when coloring and cutting hair really hit its stride, I actually think it all began during the 20s. Even before WWII, women were bobbing their hair and bleaching it to make it blond and wearing flapper styles. The women who maintained their length and wore mor conservative clothing were seen as unfashionable. Through the depression, hair remained short, although clothing became more conservative. During the war, many, many women went to work in factories for the first time and needed convenient hairstyles that could be pinned back for safety. Most had shoulderlength hair that they pin curled or put in victory rolls, etc. Clothing remained somewhat conservative and had simple lines due to rationing of fabric. After the war, there emerged an idea of the "ideal feminine" housewife who wore poodle skirts and had shorter, fashionable hair cuts. Think Donna Reed or Leave It To Beaver. This ideal continued through the early 60s until the baby boom generation hit their teens. With the Vietnam War raging, the youth of the 60's and early 70s rebeled against these ideals, so hair got longer for women AND men, clothing became more revealing and gender roles were changing. Then came disco and then the 80s when big hair reigned supreme as well as asymmetrical styles and even more revealing clothing. In the 90s, there was actually a backlash against the "fashion cuts" of the 80s with the grunge look. With the influence of shows like Friends, it became popular to get the "in" cut of the moment and this continues today. I'm not sure what all that means for us long hairs, but I love fashion history. It's reall fascinating how the cultural ideals of "fashionable" change through the times.

[HikerTrash]

I think it changed when our culture made a big shift toward maximizing profits and figuring out mroe and more ways to get us to buy stuff. Sometime in the 80s. At the same time that being frugal and saving your money went out of fashion and credit card and debt became the norm.

[ChatNoir]

I guess it goes in cycles, you know?
In the 80's people with crazy colours were frowned upon and called rebels. Now, it is the natural hair that is frowned upon.

I guess that makes us the rebels, people