Editing Hairstyle (section)

===Post-war years===

After the war, women started to wear their hair in softer, more natural styles. In the early 1950s women's hair was generally curled and worn in a variety of styles and lengths. In the later 1950s, high [[bouffant]] and [[Beehive (hairstyle)|beehive]] styles, sometimes nicknamed [[Beehive (hairstyle)|B-52s]] for their similarity to the bulbous noses of the [[Boeing B-52 Stratofortress|B-52 Stratofortress]] bomber, became popular.<ref>{{cite book |author=Patrick, Bethanne |author2=John Thompson |title=An Uncommon History of Common Things|year=2009|publisher=National Geographic|isbn=978-1-4262-0420-3|page=206|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcaXzXPP8ooC&pg=PA303}}</ref>  During this period many women washed and set their hair only once a week, and kept it in place by wearing [[Hair iron|curlers]] every night and reteasing and respraying it every morning.<ref>{{cite book|last=Craats|first=Rennay|title=History of the 1960s|year=2001|publisher=Weigl Publishers|isbn=978-1-930954-29-8|page=15}}</ref>  In the 1960s, many women began to wear their hair in short modern cuts such as the [[pixie cut]], while in the 1970s, hair tended to be longer and looser. In both the 1960s and 1970s many men and women wore their hair very long and straight.<ref name="Yarwood 1978 220">{{cite book|last=Yarwood|first=Doreen|author-link=Doreen Yarwood|title=The Encyclopedia of World Costume|year=1978|publisher=Scribner|location=New York|isbn=0-517-61943-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo0000yarw_i6a3/page/220 220]|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo0000yarw_i6a3/page/220}}</ref> Long, natural hair was also worn due to the emergence of [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] movements such as that of the [[hippie]]s who used such styles to symbolize their opposition to the norm. From the 1950s onward, various groups have pushed the norms for hairstyles as symbols of their unique ideology or identity. The [[Skinhead]]s, who opposed the hippies, shaved off much of their hair. The [[Punk subculture|punks]] of the later 1970s, meanwhile, wanted to cause outrage, styling their hair in unique ways (such as the [[Mohawk hairstyle|mohawk]]) and dyeing it in unnatural shades.<ref name=":0" /> Women straightened their hair through chemical straightening processes, by ironing their hair at home with a [[clothes iron]], or by rolling it up with large empty soda cans while wet.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sherrow|first=Victoria|title=For Appearance' Sake: The Historical Encyclopedia of Good Looks, Beauty, and Grooming|year=2001|publisher=Greenwood|isbn=978-1-57356-204-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/forappearancesak00sher/page/144 144]|url=https://archive.org/details/forappearancesak00sher/page/144}}</ref>

[[File:Bantu Knots 2 - hairstyle - model Gwyneth Ellis.jpg|thumb|upright|Bantu Knots]]
[[File:Wild hair.jpg|thumb|right|Woman wearing a loose [[Afro]]]]
Since the 1960s and 1970s, women have worn their hair in a wide variety of styles. Part of this came from the "Black is Beautiful" movement which promoted the natural beauty of the Black population as opposed to what some considered a Eurocentric model. Some critics argue that straightening or relaxing African hair is trying to conform to a white standard of beauty. However, there are those that disagree with this belief. Nevertheless, Malcolm X advised against Black people straightening their hair for such reasons.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Patton |first=Tracy Owens |date=Summer 2006 |title=Hey Girl, Am I More than My Hair?: African American Women and their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair |journal=National Women's Studies Association Journal |jstor=4317206 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=21–51}}</ref> Black hair then became not only an act of beauty but an act of revolution.<ref name=":2" /> The Afro, specifically, was both fashionable and political in the 1960s onward.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Walker |first=Susannah |title=Style and Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920–1975 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2007 |location=Lexington |page=179}}</ref> However, the Afro, or "the natural", as it was first called, was not originally a political choice, but a style favored by both artistic and intellectual Black communities in the 1940s and 1950s.<ref name=":3" />