Can Someone Explain 80’s Hairstyles

Whatever. Sarah Jessica Parker looked a LOT better with curls than she has for the last 20 years without them.

like from dinosaurs of old, drag queens and feminists evolved,

from shoulder pads to hair was to mark their entry into mainstream society and the corporate world to scare off penises

I get shoulder pads though. Millennials had a shoulder pad phase post-Lady Gaga boom except it was different. Like leather jackets with shoulder pads were GREAT.

Teased 80’s permed hair? I don’t get it.

seriously from an evolutionary behavioral pov, we could argue that the need for women to make themselves appear bigger, wider, taller is akin to the dynamics of predator and prey. . . and also akin to mating rituals as well, the competition with other women (as all feminine fashion is; contrary to the ya-ya beliefs of the feminist theory's wackier, superficial, wings... women were moving into high powered positions in greater numbers in the 80s and many women of the era do account that wearing exaggerated heels, shoulder pads and teasing their hair as high and wide as it could go was about masculizing their presence, making themselves appear bigger and more powerful than they were. most of these lasses were under 5'7. So, one part boosting their physical presence (or esteem), one part intimidation, one part sexual mystique. Just consider how many women believe that manspreading is social rather than anatomical. So one might buy into this theory, at least from their perspective).

The Farrah Fawcett layered hair went spiky and the layering became more extreme. Tons of mousse and sculpting spray. Perms made a comeback. Assymetry and the off-side ponytail was a think. Big influence of arena rock and punk.

The shoulder pads, makeup stripes and spiky hair were about looking fierce and tough for women; the opposite for men.

how much easier it would be for modern lasses to go for the natural fro or massive hair, landing strip shoulder pads, cone bras, giant heels or platforms... than being traumatized by balls.

Yuppie women and spokesmodels had fabulous hair in the 80s!

Yuppie men with those collegiate traditional cuts, but a little long- heaven. They all looked like Southern fraternity boys and upscale Englishmen. Hawt!!

Executive fraus had those kicky bobs, which I as a youngish gayling just loved. This continued into the mid 90s. The secretaries usually didn’t get it right.

I also loved soft, bouncy perms on pretty black fraus and Mediterranean-type fraus.

LINDA DANO YES GAWD HUNNY!!!!

Gel.

related: The snooki poof trend circa 2008

The bigger the hair the closer to God.

As a woman of a certain age who was in high school in the 80s, I say bring it back! I love big featured teased hair. Hairstyles today can be so boring.

Even my straight brother said when we were watching some vintage commercial on YouTube, and the frau had a soft, bouncy perm “Why don’t women do their hair like that anymore. It looks good - all fluffed up”

This stuff was the bomb. I loved the copper gel.

I felt like hot shit buying my products from a salon, while lesser gaylings were still making do with drugstore crème rinse.

I don't understand it. It could have been an extreme movement away from the Hippie and natural styles of the previous decades.

R14 is that Kathy Najimy?

R11 And mousse..

Short hair was definitely a thing on both men and women in the 80's. It looked better than the big hair

Miss America contestants with highlighted bobs were a cute look.

The poodle perms (see Kath and Kim) were really bad, but the kind of big hair that Cindy Crawford and Christie Brinkley made popular looked fabulous on everyone with enough height to carry it off. It was teased for volume, certainly, but long and otherwise designed to look naturally tousled. Kirstie Alley in Cheers was a less exotic example. Women with high foreheads didn't need bangs because the extra height made their faces the right shape.

Sociologically, it's true that it made women bigger and, I think more to the point, more noticeable. Straight men notoriously love long hair, and this style made everyone's hair look thicker and more abundant. I think it's probably more related to the sexy lingerie that was also very popular in the 80s: women wore tailored corporate-looking suits, but the underwear and the hair (also fragrance, which was a big deal that decade) were the feminizing components.

(I think that was the last decade in which fragrance flourished before the French instituted that regulatory body that has since banned about 90% of the substances that were in it. It may not be toxic any more but it certainly doesn't smell anywhere near as good.)

I can still hear my sister frying her hairsprayed hair with the curling iron and crimper.

Ah yes, the crimper. I once saw a modern ballet where the prima ballerina had long crimped hair, and honestly I don't know how her partner managed in the pas de deux, because by the time it reached her shoulder-blades the outside edge stood about 9 inches out from her body. It certainly was a way of looking feminine while taking up a hell of a lot of space.

[quote]in the 70’s because of the invention of blow dryers and curling irons.

Seriously? Do you think nothing was in the world until you were born or knew about it?

Hot rollers, body waves, and good brush outs still existed.

Asymmetry was big in the 80’s. My crowd experimented with different weight lines (long and then shaved- like a bowl cut). It was also the beginning of hair color on “punky” styles. Thar was the rebellious youth giving the finger to the Reaganism. There was also a product called Tenex that was the forerunner to mousse that allowed for spikes.

I really love 80s hair. My mom had this gorgeous, thick voluminous black hair similar to Kirstie Alley in Cheers. It was what she got the most compliments on!

[quote]Hot rollers, body waves, and good brush outs still existed.

If only they existed now! I'm so over that stupid look every woman on TV has, where they do the curls backwards from the way hair naturally falls. People are going to laugh and point as much at that style in 10 years as they do now at poodle perms.

The 'punk rocker' on the left, being interviewed, sitting down with the two other, is DEBI MAZAR! I'd recognize that voice anywhere and it sure looks like her. And yes, that does look like Kathy Najimy.

The joke is, most of those people managed to get into some level of showbiz, while the other became doctors, lawyers and are working in mainstream society now, well, the ones who didn't OD.

It was the same with the generations before them. Nothing is new in pop culture, most people eventually conform. Everyone wants money, while others want fame and attention.

The frau on Matlock had cute hair, the prettier one.

I never understood the hairstyle demonstrated in this youtube video, it's the trashiest hairstyle ever.

As R11 pointed out, the products being used on hair evolved. Back in the 70s it was all about hairspray, but in the 80s gel and mousse became things and whole new hair vistas opened up.

Mousse was invented. They had to do something with it, Rose.

Funny, when I clicked on this I thought you all were going to focus on men's hairstyles of the 80s, all those Flock of Seagulls style haircuts

r21 is partly right- makeup/fashion/hair styles are often the opposite of the previous generation. Also the more excessive clothes, decor, architecture, the more that that is a harbinger of the decay of that particular culture (i learned that in an architectural class). The 90's brought the sleek neutral "Calvin Klein" esthetic and heroin chic in knee-jerk response to the 80's.

It was a psyop to pollute the earth with hairspray

Only poor commie countries had flat hair. Big hair and big everything was a US, Cold War value

Setting lotion would like a word!

Aerosol hairspray caused a hole in the ozone layer.

Yes, that's actress Debi Mazar. being interviewed. Hilarious!

Debi went on to become Madonna's makeup artist, then became an actress. Now she's married to some Italian prince or something. From punk princess to a real princess!

Mazar is the iconic Shauna, the PR agent from "Entourage" a show I suspect few DLers watched as they are not the demographic.

But she was brilliant in the role and nailed a certain type of PR agent perfectly

The 80s were flush. Money seemed to have a lot to do with it, being able to afford going to the salon. Who can afford that now? Plus the prices at the salon back then were not bad. 8 bucks to do your hair in the salon was not unheard of. Hair products were all the rage from the mid 1970s onward and to do some of it at home was to be able to keep those salon do's, saying 'I have money'. The shows like Dynasty and Dallas promoted the whole rich look and women wanted to look like they were taking charge. Big hair...like when a cat gets in a fight and puffs up the fur. Don't mess with me. I'm big.

I'm thinking since we're all going to be broke for a while hair styling is going to go back to more natural.

Judith Light as Angela in WHO’S THE BOSS epitomized big 80s corporate lady hair.

The point was volume. That’s it.

There's nothing wrong with big hair!

[quote]I understood feather hairstyles in the 70’s because of the invention of blow dryers and curling irons. But I don’t understand the 80’s. Where did it come from?

"Product was invented". Hair mousse was brand new in the 1980s and hair gel was remarketed to younger people. Before this the only hair gel was just some 1960s "setting gel" called dippity-do

I wish some actual hairstylists would weigh in on this topic.

Why did women with super thick hair beautiful wavy hair always end up getting their hair teased and looking like a hair helmet?

Big hair on men is back (sadly). Have you not seen the wet mop look on virtually every under 23 year old TikTok idiot? They look like they have a dead poodle sitting on their forehead.

[quote]I wish some actual hairstylists would weigh in on this topic.

Oh, you won’t find any of them here. We’re manly men at Datalounge.

😂

Tenax was the hair gel with hold we used in the 80’s!

R53, I was a hairstylist in the early 90s, and I lived through the 80s. Hair just got big and wild - it was liberation from structured sets, and everyone got permed to pump the volume up. The 80s also carried on some of the punk look from the 70s, which is where the flock of seagulls thing comes in. Lots of individuality. It’s no different than what you see today with fades and rainbow hair - just fads.

Unfortunately, the worst is when people need to conform because everyone else has some stupid hairdo specific to an era or due to the style of their fave musicians or movie stars. If people were true individuals they'd wear their hair however the hell they wanted.

My elderly aunt was a hairdresser in the1960s and 1970s, she told me there were so many women with beautiful thick wavy hair who would come in asking her to straighten it, the stringy hippie look was in. and so many young women wanted that hairstyle. Hair straightening chemicals are very dangerous, a new report stated there is cancer connection to those awful chemicals.

If you did it right, it didn't look like a helmut r54.

Women are not doing anything at all with their hair anymore. It is a shame. Fashion is also a shame. The 80s were the decade of greed and Reagan but the hair and fashion were great.

[quote]Asymmetry was big in the 80’s. My crowd experimented with different weight lines (long and then shaved- like a bowl cut). It was also the beginning of hair color on “punky” styles. Thar was the rebellious youth giving the finger to the Reaganism. There was also a product called Tenex that was the forerunner to mousse that allowed for spikes.

YES! When I think of the 80's I definitely think of asymmetry.

They all came from Texas. Bigger was better.

Women needed big hair with TONS of volume in the 80s to offset the shoulder pads. Without the big hair they would have looked like line-backers.

Everything was just so much more glamorous then.

Pageant hair in the 80s was off the charts contrived. Here's the introduction of contestants in the Miss America pageant of 1984. (It starts about halfway through the video.) Vanessa Williams is Miss New York. When she lost her crown, Suzette Charles, Miss New Jersey, the first runner-up, completed the 1984 reign.

I remember the preppy fraternity men in the 1980s. They wee dressed to the nines in Ralph Lauren, Izod Lacoste and Lands' End and their hair blow-dried backward, straight and high on the head.

Then you led them to getting naked and you find they have thick ungainly, disheveled bushes which were not blow-dried and styled. They were just like all the other guys. But blowing a preppy fraternity man felt like a victory of sorts. I took a Polo shirt from one of them; he was wearing four of them, collars popped, and I doubted he missed it.

Brad Pitt in the preppy 80s.

Why are you so obsessed with women's hair? Are you all drag queens? Just go full Lady Bunny.

Punk influence, MTV, hyped music videos and fashions. Rebelling from the natural look of the 70s. And hair products were huge!! Mousse was new and gel was marketed heavily. Curly and spiral perms were trendy and suddenly everything was just bigger and bolder: especially in fashion, makeup, There were a lot of trends but also a great deal of individuality and creativity. I miss the lightheartedness of those times. It was fun and exciting.

Jem, silly

Reaction to the 70s…long & unkempt & natural became tamed and styled…then began getting bigger!

[quote] It was also the beginning of hair color on “punky” styles.

No, David Bowie was doing that in the early 1970s.

I know trends and fads will always exist, but there were some truly awful hairstyles back then. It started in the 1970s and got really ubiquitous by the mid-1980s. During the 1990s, it was like one long de-evolution that was finally complete in the 2000s. Though, there will always be the odd person unironically sporting bad poofy/mullet-y hair.

Everything in the 80s was BIG and PUFFY. That was the aesthetic. Pants were pleated and ballooned. People wore oversized shirts and sweaters. Casual or work dresses were shapeless. And so their hair was also supposed to look BIG by being grown a=out and fluffed out and permed out.

People's actual bodies were dwarfed by their gigantic hair and clothing. That was the aesthetic.

The absolute WORST hairstyles were on the metal hair band musicians who had thin stringy hair, but teased it up and used a can of hairspray. Their hair looked disgusting.

Dyed platinum blond thin teased hair, which looked like cotton candy plopped on their heads, was absolutely revolting. There was nothing sexy, hot or fashion forward about that look.

Most of those metal hair band musicians had really bad hair.

Ditto to the big clothes/big hair/big accessories bigness of the 80s. Belinda Carlisle looked extra fat back then because of those oversized styles.

[quote] Dyed platinum blond thin teased hair, which looked like cotton candy plopped on their heads, was absolutely revolting. There was nothing sexy, hot or fashion forward about that look.

Not now. But it was quite the style at the time, so most people thought it was all those things back then.

[quote]Not now. But it was quite the style at the time, so most people thought it was all those things back then.

No dear, not ever. Those big hairstyles would have looked good if these men, and women, had naturally thick big hair. Teased up THIN hair is horrible. It looked so fake and silly.

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin had gorgeous naturally thick hair. In fact, all of Led Zeppelin had naturally good hair, their hair better than some woman's hair.

This is Plant's naturally thick curly hair, there was no teasing and hairspray in sight. You cannot compare this beautiful hair with the teased-up thin hair-sprayed mess most of those metal bands had.

When you see the full sized, original magazine cover shots from the 80’s without the text there’s usually enormous hair, so it would flow out of frame when it was later cropped.

[quote] No dear, not ever.

Don't call me "dear," cuntface.

Princess Diana’s wedding dress is the epitome of poofy 80s bigness.

I’d rather see over styled hair than the flat looking, I just came out of the pool look. Often on the red carpet, you’ll see a beautifully dressed star with her gorgeous face . . . and terrible hair. At least put hair up into a glamorous bun.

[quote]Don't call me "dear," cuntface.

OK DEAR, I won't call you cunt face either.

Triggered much?

What a bunch of sensitive snowflakes are now posting at DL. Pathetic.

Everyone trying to look like Madonna. The 80s were all about more-more-more, including LOTS of hair.

R76 is a crazy frau.

Those guys were HAWT

[quote] This is Plant's naturally thick curly hair, there was no teasing and hairspray in sight.

And this is Phil Spector’s.

😂

It looked so fresh and trendy compared to the played out straight sleek hair of the 60s and 70s.

Take a look at trends now. In a few decades the exact opposite with done because it will seem refreshing and new.

Big hair was in

[quote]R85 Everyone trying to look like Madonna. The 80s were all about more-more-more

She had an “out there” look that was copied by club kids, generally. Or more accurately, that she stole from club kids.

Didn’t they call it mall hair? You’d walk out of a hair place at the local mall you come out looking like that. I was just a kid then, but if watch straight 80s vintage porn, you’ll catch a glimpse, and oh is it painful.

[quote]She had an “out there” look that was copied by club kids, generally. Or more accurately, that she stole from club kids.

Madonna herself has said that she didn't invent her early 80s look that caused a sensation and so many people copied, she was just dressing like everybody else dressed in the East Village. She just happened to be the one who got famous. She's never taken credit for that look. And she was a club kid herself, she didn't "steal" anything. TONS of people looked like that in downtown NYC at the time.

Tim Daly had the best 80's hair.

Since they were always ahead of the glamour curve even after Diana left, I think it all started with the 1976 Supremes (Mary Wilson, Scherrie Payne and Susaye Greene), here:

You had to have big hair in order to balance out the shoulder pads. Otherwise, you look like a pinheaded linebacker.

We had fun in the 80s with our hair. Can Someone Explain the horrific 90s NKOTB hair? Looking back makes me cringe thinking about Aqua Net and a pick to achieve maximum height.

r32

[quote] Tish Bellomo started coloring her hair by dipping a strand into blue ink. The result was hard, dry, metallic and far from what she wanted. Years later, she and her sister Snooky have brightly colored hair – hot pink and purple with blue highlights, respectively. The sisters co-founded Manic Panic, a cosmetic brand that popularized vivid hair coloring in the United States and revolutionized the punk scene. As Tish says, they’ve “been making the world a more colorful place for 44 years.”

28 Oct. 1982

Perms were "it" during the 80s.

[quote]And this is Phil Spector’s.

You're clearly an idiot, everyone knows Phil wore a wig.

You also don't seem to realize, back in the day when bands with naturally great hair like Led Zep hit the scene, there were next to zero styling products to make peoples hair look thick. There was shampoo, conditioners (which weren't recommended for people who had thin stringy hair) and hairspray.

Dippity-Do which was mentioned above was one of very few styling products, which was sed by women to hold in a hair setting.

[quote][R76] is a crazy frau. Those guys were HAWT

Is that the best your feeble mind can come up with, calling people here "crazy frau"?

I'm a gay man with many hairstylists and creative people in my family, people who work in the music biz and in the fashion industry You clearly know squat about much of anything.

Those metal band dudes with their bleached-out thin teased up stringy hair were absolutely repulsive.

Manic Panic was also the name of the store the Bellomo sisters owned on St. Marks Place. That store was there forever.

I remember seeing Mel Gibson on the cover of some magazine in about 1981 and he had a buzzcut. I thought, "thank god, the shaggy days are over". But I guess it didn't last, since everyone had big hair in the '80s.

[quote]And this is Phil Spector’s.

[quote]You're clearly an idiot, everyone knows Phil wore a wig.

Oh, bless your little heart, darlin. Just bless it.

Think about how many permed hairstyles mimicked pubic hair

80s pubic hair. If it wasn't curly it was dense.

R93, yes GAWD, hunny!!

R104 is having a Grand Maul Seizure!

What R1 pointed out. It distracted from unfortunate mugs.

It was awesome! That sexy, I just rolled out of bed look.

Some big poofy styles CAN make a comeback without looking bizarre

R113, today that guy would be asked about his pronoiuns.

^^ by you.

I thought the models back then were beautiful with big lush hair. It got to be a parody when old rockers started sporting the teased out hair and makeup. But some people really looked better with bigger hair. It was a fun time to be a teen.

[quote]Oh, bless your little heart, darlin. Just bless it.

Is that the best insult you can come up with? How original. zzzzz. Go back to your fucking flyover hillbilly state, fuck off troll.

Great girls, not sure about the hair.

Even bigger. This veers in to 'heavy metal hair' territory

I would if I could remember the 80's, OP. I'm pretty sure the 80's sucked.

Goddess of every avenue

The 80s were fun. I was in college. I enjoyed a little free time after I was graduated. I entered a firm I am still working at today.

How big was your hair r123?

r122 I was in HS in the 80s and I *never* thought Madonna was pretty/beautiful. Case in point (re: the photograph you posted): stupid teeny bangs, dumb fake beauty mark and her eyebrows were always offputting to me. Don't get me started on her "fashion" which she's always said she didn't originate; she said she was just copying/wearing what other girls were wearing in NYC (and clubs) at the time.

My bush is very big and very dense, R124. Never have messed with it. No complaints from those giving me head.

I used to split the hair on my head down the middle, then blow dry it toward the back of my head. Combed very neat.

Quite the contradiction between the two.

Diffuser attachments for hairdryers and lots and lots of 'new to market' hair products.

L.A. Looks MEGA HOLD gel. I think it came in blue.

Two of my fraternity brothers blew their large bushes dry every morning in the 1980s. They looked like the rounded puffs on a groomed poodle's ears. It was very impressive to watch the routine.

I wonder if the bushes held up inside their underwear during the day.

WTF is going on here? A take on Gary Oldman's poofed-up hair in Dracula?

Big = better

Bigger = best

Be bigger, be best

Kelly Lebrock had amazing 80s hair.

[quote] Many women of the era do account that wearing exaggerated heels, shoulder pads and teasing their hair as high and wide as it could go was about masculizing their presence, making themselves appear bigger and more powerful than they were. most of these lasses were under 5'7. So, one part boosting their physical presence (or esteem), one part intimidation, one part sexual mystique.

You even saw it in 1980s subcultures, particularly pop, rock & metal music, where female artists struggled against breaking through male dominance.

E.g. the power-ballad hairmetal all-female band Vixen rocked their big hair, to match their vocalist Janet Gardner's BIG voice. They were very feminine-looking still, though, often donning stage attire that was skin-tight or lacey and also wearing heavy but glamorous femme makeup.

[quote] Related to the sexy lingerie that was also very popular in the 80s: women wore tailored corporate-looking suits, but the underwear and the hair (also fragrance, which was a big deal that decade) were the feminizing components. That was the last decade in which fragrance flourished before the French instituted that regulatory body that has since banned about 90% of the substances that were in it. It may not be toxic any more but it certainly doesn't smell anywhere near as good.)

R27 fuck IFRA for that, honestly. The allergens and such they removed from perfumes in the name of general public health have since been proven to affect only a tiny majority of people when sprayed in or around skin. Oakmoss, civet and the like were unfairly scapegoated for wider industry issues.

There are many 'natural' scents that are equally allergenic and hazardous, but those aren't banned. Likewise, extraction methods for many natural accords nowadays use toxic chemical solvents, but no-one is talking about that either. And don't get me started on synthetics--synthetic amber should be banned for crimes against taste. If they really wanted to clean up the perfume industry, they would have audited manufacturing practices and cracked down on extraction poisons, waste disposal, packaging, factory pollution etc.

My Mom born in the early 60s has rarely given me any serious warnings or advice, but when I was a young teen she sat me down and gravely advised, "NEVER get a perm, even if they come back into style. Promise me you won't. It will ruin your hair, trust me on this."

Sound advice, as my curly brittle dry Caucasian hair is already poofy and frizzy on its own, and doesn't take well to most chemical treatment. My Mom has much straighter and more naturally smooth hair, so perhaps she had a taste of the frizz lifestyle in the 80s and got PTSD.

The mirror opposite of the 2000s, when suddenly every young trendy guy had to have dead straight flat-ironed, bangsy and floppy midlength or long dyed hair (usually with gothy makeup and delicate piercings) so they could seem more androgynous-feminine and artistic and moody and interested in their looks, but also TOTES PUNK RAWK SO THEY CAN GET ALL THE GET ALL THE CUTE EMO GIRLZZZZ!!!!! <3<3<3

r136 that really depended on where you lived and your socioeconomic level.

I wish beehives and flips would make a comeback.

Everything was big in the 80$

Take a look at photos from Woodstock. Ever wonder why so many of those people seemed to have naturally beautiful thick hair, even though they hadn't washed their hair in days?

Aside from the young people with good hair genes, there weren't as many chemicals added to food back then. People normally ate healthier back then, because food wasn't as processed. Today unprocessed food is called "organic", back then food was just called food!

So many of today's hair products do great damage to the hair, back then, there were no mousse, volumizing products and other styling products with tons of chemicals and alcohol added.

Those kids in the 60s wore their hair all ratted up like teenage Jezebels!

[quote]Those kids in the 60s wore their hair all ratted up like teenage Jezebels!

R141, no they didn't. The look in the 1960s, for teens and people in their 20s, especially those who were part of the hip music and fashion culture, was to keep their hair in its natural state.

Eric Clapton and the rest of the band CREAM, with their natural hair.