Fifties Hair

Fifties hair for women was a symbol of the more established gender roles that came to define the decade. Pompadours were still popular in the fifties which carried over from the forties. Curls were popular, especially short hair. Movie stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe helped ushered in this soft, feminine look for women. Those who had long straight hair would curl their long locks. Naturally straight hair would not become popular until the late sixties and seventies. Fifties hair for women was pristine and signified a very standard of beauty for women of the decade. Women’s hairstyle is always a reflection of a given society. Usually soft, curly hairdos with grandiose pompadours are signatures of societies which emphasized more rigid gender roles, decades in which women were home-makers while the men went off to work such as the fifties.

A perfect description of fifties hair for women was soft, delicate curly and short. Hair was pinned back and held in place by a chiffon scarf. Fifties hair followed in the tradition of holding hair in place through pin curling and rolling. Just like the forties, women kept their in place by leaving in curlers over night and reserved for extra styling in the morning. The fifties was also the first decade in which women needed to visit the hair salon’s regularly to keep up their hair. Updos were quite popular in the form of beehive hairstyles and other updos that would set the stage for bouffant in the coming sixties.