Women's Hairstyles for People in the 50s
- Women in the 1950s often slept with rollers in their hair to achieve the perfect pin-curled look. Hair was secured with pins and then sprayed to secure the curls. This was an arduous, time-consuming process, but women put in the time and suffered the discomfort of sleeping in rollers to produce the soft curls of stars like Sandra Dee. Women whose hair didn't hold curl well would often get perms, which could be done at home.
- Young women in the 1950s would sometimes pull their hair back into a ponytail. This wasn't the messy ponytail of today, however -- hair would be carefully combed back, possibly curled at the end and secured with a stylish chiffon scarf. This was never an evening look and was worn mostly by teenagers and women in their twenties.
- The poodle was a style popularized by Lucille Ball on "I Love Lucy." This look was achieved by sleeping in very small rollers. Once the curls were set, a woman would brush her hair upwards and secure it with a comb so the curls would sit tightly at the top of her head like a poodle's fur. Unlike other smooth, polished styles, the poodle was often frizzy.
- Toward the later part of the decade, the bouffant was popularized by style icons like Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and Queen Elizabeth II of England. The bouffant was typically done with short hair and gave an impression of volume. This look was achieved by assiduously backcombing hair that had been curled in large-barreled rollers. Some women took the look even farther, creating beehives that could be up to a foot high.
