This was very much a return to the 18th century sandwiched in between the neat and stylish hairstyles of the 1950s and the bitty, anything-will-do hippy styles later in the decade.
But, it was a time of elegance for both women and men when the high-hair styles contributed to the neat and tidy look of the early 60s.
The Beehive
The beehive was a a hair design that resembled, in shape at least, a beehive. That is the old fashioned sort of wicker beehive and not the square beehives popular with bee keepers today.
So far as I can ascertain, the beehive was an original hairstyle created by Margaret Vinci-Heldt in the USA in February 1960, although it might have taken a few years to reach it’s peak (pun intended) in the UK. The date for its creation is also given in some texts as the mid-sixties but I think the date I have used is correct.
It’s created with an excess of hair spray, lots of “teasing” and quite a lot of hard work since it can take around 2 hours to finish. It was originally created as a hairstyle for a magazine.
So much for the creator, for the customer it was a long, unpleasant and often hot experience but the result was worth it. A beehive hairstyle made women look elegant and sophisticated. By adding height to the hair it accentuated the head and face and made the wearer more noticeable; it also had the effect of making shorter girls look taller!
I remember at the beginning of the 1960s working in an office were most of the girls wore beehive or bouffant hairstyles but, as fashions go, these styles were all gone in a few years to be replaced by a less attractive look.
The Bouffant
This hairstyle, popularised by Jacqueline Kennedy, was, I believe, created first and here is a trick question – what’s the difference between a bouffant and beehive?
There seems to be very little difference as far as I can ascertain. A beehive is just a variant of the bouffant (or the other way round). The difference seems to be that the bouffant had more hair hanging down at the sides and, to my mind at least, looked a little more elegant.
However, I can find very little information on the various hairstyles and as this is an important part of 60s history if anyone has any more information or was a hairdresser at that time please be kind enough to tell me below.
(Jacqueline Kennedy was married to John F Kennedy, President of the United States and famous for his assassination. Always stylish and well dressed, she was considered a setter of fashion trends and what she wore one day the world wore the next.)
Whatever you want to call these hairstyles, they certainly contributed to the ‘look’ of the period and, for a short time, they were worn by all women. Although they required a lot of work to create and maintain, they did give women an elegant look so I wonder if they will ever come back?
The photo used above is taken from an image, which is well worth seeing in full, by Lorena Cupcake here.
