Naturally Curly Hair in the 1960s: Mad Men-Era Style Guide

The years spanning the 1960s make up an exciting decade to emulate stylistically and your naturally curly hair will make for a great base to work with for these fun vintage hairstyles.

I could go on for hours about how much I love the hairstyles in the tv show Mad Men, but there isn’t a ton there if you are looking for ideas on how to style natural curl.

If you got here because all of the images of 1960s hairstyles you came across looked like they were built for straight haired girls, then you have come to the right place. In this blog post I am going to show you how your natural curl is so helpful in styling the mod styles of the 1960s.

See the full series of Vintage Hairstyles for Natural Curls here.

Curly Hair in the 1960s

In the early and mid 1960s, hair fashion ranged from sleek flips to high-volume bouffants, and big, controlled curls played a central role in achieving both. In these early years, the curly look was more about a big bend in the hair.

Toni, the common home permanent of the time, released Smooth ‘n’ Sleek Toni, “the uncurly permanent” in 1963.

But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a place for curly hair in the 1960s. Roller sets remained essential at this time. Level 2 curls could be smoothed into shape as the roller size grew bigger than the look of the 1950s. Teasing and hairsprays added lift and hold.

For women with level 4 natural curl, texture could be smoothed with relaxers for controlled styles and reshaped with big rollers to create the fullness that defined much of the decade’s look.

The increased availability of inexpensive modacrylic wigs also offered an option to natural curl women wanting a quick solution to these well formed styles.

Hair falls, switches, and wiglets were also very popular at this time thanks to the availability of faux modacrylic hair to make them.

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But in a huge swing away from the taming of the curl, the late 1960s also saw women embracing natural curl. Young women of all races at this time embraced natural as part of their rebellion. Hippies grew their hair long and wore whatever natural texture they had and the Afro gave the black curly haired woman freedom from the expectation to look “white”.

circa 1968

Using your natural curl in a 1960s hairstyle

Smooth, Round, Big… That’s 1960s hairstyles in a nutshell. And with your natural curl, you can smooth it out if that’s what you want, but first let’s just start with Round and Big.

There is no need to make yourself insane trying to copy the curl level or texture of a vintage style. For a finished vintage hairstyle to look great, getting the silhouette and form right makes all the difference. The silhouette or form in hairstyling refers to the outer shape of the hairstyle. Manipulate your curls to emulate the silhouette and you are ready to go. 

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Mad Men actress Teyonah Parris has worn some wonderful 1960s inspired hairstyles using her natural level 4 curl to both shape and fill the big, round ideal.

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Mad Men inspired hairstyle

For this style, the silhouette I’m going for is the bouffant look of the early and mid-1960s. 

Section a small piece at the bang area and gently comb it forward over the forehead. For just this one look it might help to use a large barrel curling iron or straightening iron to get the front section to swoop over to the side nicely. Direct it forward and to the right with your fingers. Roll the ends into a small pin curl. Pin the curl at the hairline.

Pull the rest of the hair back into a ponytail leaving the hair loose on top of the head. Flip the curly ponytail up on top of the head and push it forward to add height to the style. Pin everything in place.

With just some simple building up of the curls, you can build a sophisticated 1960s inspired updo.

Modifying your natural curl

Modifying your natural curl, for when you have time, can be done with some very simple tools and steps.

Roller Set

A roller set with magnetic rollers or tension rollers will smooth natural curl beautifully and gives hair that great 1960s volume we all love.

This is a wet set option. So you set your hair while it is damp on a good set of rigid rollers to help keep the tension to straighten the curl out more. Dry the hair completely, either with time or a good hood hair dryer. Check out my recommendations here.

Round Brush Blowdry and Rollers

Single-pass Curl Reshape

Retexturizing (Relaxers)

A relaxer is a permanent chemical process that breaks down the natural curl bonds in the hair to make it straight. Once it’s relaxed, the curl is gone for good. You can still curl it with rollers or curling iron, but you’re working with straightened hair. The natural curls won’t spring back on their own and a roller or pin curl may not hold as well. But since the 1960s hair ideal was a smooth bend in the hair, setting relaxed hair with roller could give you the look you want.

Relaxers and keratin treatments often get talked about together, but they’re actually very different. Keratin treatments don’t permanently change the curl pattern. They coat and smooth the hair, which tames frizz and can loosen curls for a couple of months. The trade-off is that the coating can make hair resistant to curling tools, so getting a good, lasting set with rollers or a curling iron can be trickier until the treatment wears off.