The '80s was a decade full of neon leg warmers, power ballads and big hair. But how did we get that big hair that was so bad it's good? A little bit of teasing and a lot of chemistry.
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Ms. Beautyphile helps us tackle the science behind perms and crimping and overall big '80s hair

​A lot happened in 1970, the Beatles disbanded, the US invaded Cambodia, Boeing 747 made its first commercial flight to London, and men in the UK began buying toupées in droves.

February 1970 marked the winter of bald men’s discontent, the Observer Magazinereports. In an issue devoted to ‘The Hair In Our Lives’ and illustrated with a bald Rudolf Nureyev, who in reality had a full head of hair, Maureen Green gets to the root (sorry) of the exponential boom in the male hair industry. ‘Because a man’s hair is so openly admired as an increasingly important part of an attractive appearance,’ she writes, ‘the onset of baldness causes more masculine dismay than ever. Baldness is a disfigurement.’

With such attitudes flying about, it’s no wonder men were seeking drastic measures to restore their follically ravaged heads. In 1970 alone the NHS provided £1m of wigs. One dermatologist told Green: ‘I’ve suggested to long-haired patients who are young and balding that they should become skinheads, but they are horrified. It’s worse than switching from modern jazz to swing. You just don’t do it.’

And it’s not just the NHS that was under strain; hairless men were turning to crime to disguise their gleaming scalps. ‘Just as in 18th-century London, a robber might lift an expensive wig from a fashionable head, so again wig makers and hairdressers are the victims of persistent burglary.’

However, a pioneering technique was about to shake things up: enter ‘hair weaving’, the process of ‘attaching extra hairs to those that still remain’.

According to Iain Kelly of the Hair Extension Centre, the psychological benefits blow those of the humble toupée out the water. ‘A man never sees himself as bald again. With a toupée, he takes it off at night and reminds himself. With extensions, he can be lost in his new hair. The boost to the male ego is immense.’ Thank goodness for that!

This article appeared on The Guardian

Show Highlights

• The low status of the barber profession in the 19th century
• The high status a black slave barber could gain in the white community
• The tensions that existed between black barbers and their white customers
• How one slave barber ended up financially supporting his master
• How freed black slave barbers became some of the wealthiest men in the African-American community
• The political influence many black barbers had in the Republican Party after the Civil War
• How black barbers created the luxury barbershop in the 19th century
• What black leaders like Frederick Douglass thought of successful black barbers
• The apprenticeship process the Knights of the Razors developed to train future black barbers
• How the apprenticeship system helped cement the centrality of the barbershop in the African-American community
• The successful black barbers who started the first insurance companies for African-Americans
• Why white men preferred to get their haircut by black barbers despite the influx of white European barbers in the late 19th century
• How state licensing in the late 19th century helped lead to the segregation of the barbershop
• How the invention of the safety razor contributed to the decline of the barbershop in the late 19th century
• Why the barbershop had a stronger toehold among African-American men than with white men
• And much more!

"balayage au coton"

 n.— «The shop has imported a young man named Yvan from the Carita salon in Paris to do what he calls a “balayage au cotton.” Starting at the nape, Yvan lifted out fine strands and applied a lightening paste with a thin brush. Instead of the usual foil wrapping, he tucked pieces of cotton wadding to support the strands in process and keep them from the rest of the hair. When he was three-quarters through, he had used 1,000 feet of cotton stripping and Miss Weston looked as though she were wearing an enormous white wig. The idea of the balayage (the word means sweeping) is to lighten fine strands of hair, rather than add color.»
“Color Your Hair Simply, or Turn It Blue—Salons Can Do It All” by Angela Taylor New York Times Apr. 1, 1974.

Balayage is the most exciting highlighting color technique to appear in a long time.  Colorists and clients alike fall in love with the fabulous results. Color placement looks natural and organic, similar to the effortlessly random color you'd receive after a summer at the beach.

 THE HISTORY OF BALAYAGE

Balayage (ba-lie-azhe), sometimes spelled ‘balliage’ or ‘baliage,’ is the art of hair painting. The term is based on the French word for ‘sweep away,’ or ‘balayer.’   Balayage, a.k.a “sweep away” originated at the exclusive gorgeous “Carita” Salon in Paris in the early 70’s making a huge name for itself with it’s beautiful and effortless sun kissed look.  There’s a link to the 1974 New York Times article above.  

Balayage is offered in many salons today—but not all results are consistent (it’s not as easy as it looks!). The colorist must be well-trained and have a keen sense of the hair’s texture and movement.  It’s just the colorist and the balayage brush. The most natural-looking results are usually those that look the most random, which calls for a very specific placement strategy.

In the 70’s, this technique was originally called “Balayage a Coton” for it’s use of cotton strips to separate the colored hair from the untouched portion. It was introduced during the time when our industry norm was frosting caps and solid colors, making the Balayage technique truly revolutionary for its time!  In the 80’s the industry introduced many varieties of foil highlighting techniques and it wasn’t actually until the early 90’s that Balayage first entered the US by storm grabbing the attention of top celebrities and became one of the hottest color trends to date!

It seems most clients that highlight their hair on a regular are almost afraid of stepping in to the world of balayage as it is something “new” to them and may seem like a big change.

There are many great reasons why Balayage is the top choice for highlights over the Foil technique!   When the hair is sectioned and “weaved or sliced” in to a foil, the whole section is saturated in color giving it a dense, uniform effect which gives it an unnatural appearance. Within weeks you start to see the regrowth or a “line of demarcation” and you are due for a retouch.

The Balayage technique is softly hand painted on the surface of the hair, leaving you with natural-looking swipes of color going from thick to thin and play off of the hairs natural movement.  Unlike traditional foil highlights, balayage lightens more slowly, which means there's less of a chance for breakage.   By choosing Balayage, you can go months without retouching and it gives that free flowing, untouched look.  It can be done with any variety of colors making it flexible for your wants and needs and makes it more manageable for your wallets!  A little something to think about before booking your next color service.  
      
NOT JUST FOR BLONDES
It’s important to note that balayage is definitely not just for blondes. Brunettes, redheads, even those with black hair can all take advantage of hair painting.  The results will be subtle, but they’ll add the dimension that everyone craves, giving a dark brunette swirls of cinnamon or caramel, for example.

FOILS VS. BALAYAGE
Foils often end up looking contrived - a neat row of uniform highlights.  When a section of hair is colored using a foil, the entire section is saturated with color resulting in dense, unnatural stripes of color.
 
Balayage color is painted in soft brush strokes across the surface of the hair, leaving you with natural-looking swipes of color that flow from thick to thin and play off the hair's natural movement.  Even better, balayage won't leave you with any signs of demarcation, creating a softer and more manageable grow-out.

FOILYAGE - the newest trend
This process marries the technique of Balayage with the vibrant color payoff of foil highlights. The traditional balayage technique involves painting onto the surface of the hair, completely freehand, but the process can be messy and may not lighten the hair enough.   Foilyage is a technique colorists use when they want to get more lift and can't achieve that with balayage so they go in and balayage inside the foil.  Foilyage uses this same hand-painting technique, but adds foil for added lightening.  In the end, you get nice natural-looking highlights.


Article Sources:
A Way with Words
Beauty, Head First
Maxine Salon - Chicago
Char Le Blanc - Salon & Spa
InStyle
GoodHousekeeping

2,500 BCE
The exact date and group of people that begot locks is hard to pinpoint, but Slater notes that they may have lived as far back as 2,500 BCE and practiced various religions.

As Dr. Bert Ashe, professor of English and American studies at the University of Richmond, points out in his forthcoming book Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles, the first written evidence is in what is now India's Vedic scriptures, which show the deity Shiva wearing the style. "The word used in the Vedic scriptures is 'jaTaa,' which means 'twisted lock of hair,'" he writes. The style was also found in ancient Egypt: Anthropologists have discovered mummies with their hair still intact with locks. And, in the Old Testament, some interpretations say that Samson is mentioned as having dreadlocks and, when Delilah cuts them, loses his unsurpassed strength.

"People from different faiths look at their hair to be holy and as a form of strength and power," says Slater. "To not comb your hair, to some, is a disregard of vanity and things of the world." But, it's more than just a dismissal of the physical world; it's a Rastafarian belief that knotted hair prevents energy from escaping through the top of the head and hair, allowing it to remain in the body and aid in the strength of mind, body, and spirit.

1970s
Even though dreadlocks have been around for thousands of years, when many people think of the style, their mind goes to one person: Bob Marley. When the late singer came on the scene in the '70s, many began to associate locs with all things Marley, which included reggae music, Jamaica, and the Rastafarian culture.

Which isn't wrong — the dreadlocks phenomenon emerged from Jamaica before spreading to the U.S. And, for the Rastas there, the style was more a way of life than for vanity purposes. "For a Rastafarian, you grow your hair in dreadlocks as an homage to Samson...they're seen as a sign of virility, strength, and inner power," says hairstylist and loc wearer Johnnie Sapong. "Traditionally, they're something that you cultivate, nurture, and grow." He adds that, in the Rasta culture, whenever a parent passes away, it's custom to shave your locs to begin a new cycle as a sign of respect.

The decision of Rastafarians to wear dreadlocks also stemmed from the desire to provoke society, by going against the norm and sending a message of difference. As with any act of rebellion, this has been met with uncertainty. "At first, the hair choices of the Rasta brethren were seen as frightening to children, destabilizing to society, and possibly even sacrilegious," writes Ashe in his book. "It was a kind of finger-pointing hairstyle that really allowed for an unconventional persona on the part of the wearer.”

1980s
While loc-wearing artists like Marley and Jean-Michel Basquiat served as sources of inspiration for many, it wasn't until actress Whoopi Goldberg came on the scene in the '80s that they truly reached peak in the mainstream. With the explosion of cable television as a catalyst, America was introduced not only to the new actress, but to her 'do.

"It was Whoopi, beginning in 1985, who gradually gave Black Americans what might be called cultural permission to wear dreadlocks... And, she did it by establishing a context around the hairstyle that had nothing to do with Jamaica, reggae, or the Rastafari," writes Ashe. "Gradually, her enormous fame gave dreadlocks a certain odd, quirky normalcy that allowed for — or, at least, coincided with — the flourishing of the hairstyle."

And, flourish it did. The '80s and '90s were something of a golden era of dreadlocks, with all races and genders donning the style — Lauryn Hill, Ani DiFranco, Boy George, and Lenny Kravitz being just a few of them.

2000s-Today
Nowadays, celebs like Zendaya, Brandy, Ciara, and even Kylie Jenner (to much backlash) have taken on locs as more of an "on-trend style" than for spiritual pride or to make a political statement. "I think the natural hair movement has basically taken [dreadlocks] up a notch and inspired people to look at other [natural] hairstyles, and it’s returned us back to something that’s been around," says hairstylist Kim Kimble. "I was doing faux locs back in '95, so it's resurfacing now as a fashion statement."

But, locs are still commonly associated with all things Jamaica. "You would think that as [the style] becomes more common, it would become more Americanized and that doesn’t seem to be the case," notes Ashe. "It’s almost as if the cultural DNA of the hairstyle is Rasta, Jamaica, reggae music, and the farthest it gets from that source, it still retains some critical strands of that cultural DNA and it simply cannot be unwoven in a way that is interesting. And, I don’t know if it will remain that way, but it sure seems like it. It’s 2015, Bob Marley died in 1981, and the connection still seems to be there."

Which just goes to show why it's so important to know the true history behind any given hairstyle. Hopefully, by educating ourselves and talking about locs more openly, we can help erase the stigma for those who choose to wear them.
 
This article first appeared on Refinery29