Daring bright alternative hair colors were more common than you thought in the 1950s and 1960s.
We forget that sometimes. Blue hair, pink hair, lavender hair, aqua hair…They were all represented in the 1950s and 1960s.
A Very COLORFUL Era
The prim and proper ideal of the Atomic Era had nothing to do with being a fuddy-duddy. Those ladies were having F-U-N. They bought bright colored couches in teal, yellow, and pink. They painted their kitchens in all kinds of crazy colors. The 1950s and 1960s were all about color and that included their hair!
Every season today in fashion and design seems to have a new color palette. It changes even faster now than it ever did, but back in the mid-20th century, trends changed a little slower.
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So why? Why were they into such bright hair color?
That’s a good question. Let’s think about what was before the 1950s…WWII. Times were tougher for women in the 1930s and 1940s, tougher than most of us could ever possibly imagine. It was not the time of celebratory color to say the least.
You can see it in the changes in automobile colors. My beau has a 1950 Oldsmobile ’88, that I love, but it is in the drab color of olive green. Compare it next to my 1956 Buick Special in seafoam green and you totally see the difference in color trends of post-WWII America and the late 1950s. It’s like consumers were saying, “We have finished mourning. Let’s get back to life!”
You might also like: Iconic 1950s Hairstyles for Every Hair Length
Vintage Colorful Wigs
So this vintage beauty advertisement from the June 1959 issue of Modern Beauty Shop Magazine is such a fascinating example of the new attitude toward color and life.
The wig company lists all of the hair colors their wigs come in. It is really notable that those vintage wig hair colors include:
- Orchid
- Aqua
- Blue
- Maize
- Green
- Pink
- and Silver Blue
“Paris decreed it! Life, Vogue, Redbook, Ladies’ Home Journal, NY Times, Glamour and even the Wall Street Journal reported it enthusiastically. Great American department stores – Bonwit Teller, Carson, Pirie and Scott, The Whitehouse, Titche-Goettinger and many others, through their beauty salons, promoted it heavily.”
Want to Read More from vintage beauty magazines? See all of our posts from vintage beauty magazines…
2 Comments
Shrinky Inky
yes, blue hair IS awesome! we punk rock kids think we invented colored hair, hahaha, i love having more documentation that we did not!
Min Self
Makes her look like the mom from “Clockwork Orange.”
I have heard that colored wigs were also in fashion for a short while in the 1920s, though I haven’t seen much evidence of this (although the lack of color photography wouldn’t help in tracking this.)