The 1960s were a decade of enormous change. They came in with the Kennedys and ended with Woodstock, and in between everything changed, including the hair.
When American-born actress Jean Seberg appeared with her hair nearly shorn in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 film Breathless, critics and audiences alike were wowed. “La Seberg coup,” as the style was known in France, became a signature look for rebellious women of all stripes.
The beehive was born in 1960, created by Illinois stylist Margaret Vinci Heldt. In just a few years, it had caught on across the country and was further popularized by stars like Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin.
When her husband became president in 1961, Jacqueline Kennedy brought a whole new era of elegance to the White House and inspired millions of American women to change their style. With her smooth, perfect bob and always-fashionable hats, she practically changed the entire female silhouette for the first half of the 1960s.
Folk singer Joan Baez (seen here in 1963 with then-boyfriend Bob Dylan) may be the original hippie girl. She had her first gold record in 1962 and was wearing the centre-parted, long, natural hairstyle typical of the late 1960s — almost half a decade before it caught on.
The Fab Four had their first hit with “Love Me Do” in 1962, but their mop-top hairstyles also quickly took both sides of the Atlantic by storm. At the time, their “long” hair was considered unkempt and rebellious, and young people wearing the look were actually arrested and forced to have their hair cut at police stations.
As sweet Samantha on Bewitched, the lovely Elizabeth Montgomery inspired a whole generation of American women to try the flip, a long bob that literally “flipped” out at the ends, creating a bell shape.
Diana Ross and the Supremes were one of the biggest female groups of the decade. Their highly styled and straightened hair had a profound influence on young American women of all ethnicities. African American fans repeatedly requested that the group wear their hair natural, but producer Berry Gordy thought that doing so would alienate the group’s white audience.
Twiggy made short hair with long, side-swept bangs the look of 1960s London, defining the entire mod era.
Loretta Lynn created the standard for country music hair: voluminous with big, hair-sprayed curls.
Vidal Sassoon completely changed women’s hairstyling beginning in the mid-1960s. His creations ranged from the famed five-point cut seen on swinging London icons like designer Mary Quant (seen here), and thoroughly modern hairstyles for celebrities like Nancy Kwan, Mia Farrow and Twiggy.
Jeannie’s fantastical hairstyle has been a byword for over-the-top styling since the show debuted in 1965.
Bombshell Raquel Welch hit the scene in the mid-1960s with flowing, voluminous hair that was a total rejection of the stylized, “mod” looks coming from England.
UCLA professor Angela Davis was unfairly fired from her post in 1969 because of her involvement with the Communist party and Black Panther party. She was even later arrested and tried as an accomplice to murder. Despite her (literal) trials, she remained unbowed and was one of the first women to popularise the afro.
In 1968, an adorable Goldie Hawn became a star on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Her sexy, just-rolled-out-of-bed pageboy cut took a style that had been popular for over a decade and gave it a fresh, modern twist.
At the end of the decade, rock and blues legend Janis Joplin appeared on the scene with hair that looked, to older observers, positively dirty. Ratted, wavy, voluminous, and totally natural, Janis’s style would influence rocker chic hair for decades to come.
