Flipping Out: A 1960s Hair Style Tutorial

Last week I experimented with flipping my hair out '60s style for a REBEAT Staff Picks feature. The only problem is the editor and I were the only two contributors. Lucky you, Go Retro fans: you can now be blessed with seeing this stunning tutorial in all its DIY glory. 

Truth be told, the '60s flip is pretty easy to achieve and really doesn't require a tutorial. Basically, anything you want to use to flip the ends of your hair out (curlers, a flat iron, beer cans, etc.) should do the trick depending on how cooperative your hair is. But for the sake of content, here's what I did to coax my hair into this iconic style. My inspiration was Pattie Boyd (please refer to above photo and yes, I know it's hard to tell us apart...especially our noses.) After all, we both have/had straight blonde hair with bangs and a really cute Beatle husband. OK, she was the one with the cute Beatle husband, but who's counting? 

Besides, I'm crushing on J.K. Simmons these days and he doesn't even have hair. Are you rushing, or are you dragging?

Huh? Where was I? Oh yeah, hair! Here's the simple steps on what I did to achieve the flip:
Step 1: The only way I can get the ends of my hair to curve inward (or in this case, outward) is when it's being dried or just after it's dried--so I washed my hair with John Frieda Sheer Blonde Highlight Enhancing shampoo and conditioner--the Sheer Blonde hair product line has been my favorite ever since I began coloring my hair in my 20s.

Step 2: After towel drying and detangling it with a wide-tooth comb, I ran a golfball sized glop of Fat Hair amplifying mousse through it. For this style, because I was also hoping to get some '60s body, I spritzed my roots with John Frieda Luxurious Volume Fine to Full blow-out spray. (FYI to my fellow fine-haired sisters: I love this product and I've tried many through the years that claimed to add body to hair...but this one, which is heat-activated and contains sea salt, actually does.) Above is a photo of the styling products and tools that I used to achieve the flip look.

Step 3: Using my medium-sized round metal brush, I dried my bangs first and then my hair in sections, starting with one side and the sections underneath first. Some women use clips, but I just flip the hair on top of my head to access the bottom first. I roll the ends of each section of hair around the brush (so that it will flip out of course) and lift it away from my head, aiming the dryer at my roots first and then down the length of my hair. I have angled layers up the front of my hair, and I dried them under and toward my face as usual, but you could flip these out as well if you like.

Step 4: Pattie was seen in a '60s teen magazine using little curlers in the bottom of her hair to give her flip extra curl--I have a small metal round brush that does the same job, so I used that before my hair was completely dry, using my dryer's "cold shot" button to cool the ends and lock the curl in place. The ends were definitely flipped, but the curl wasn't quite there for me, so once my hair was completely dry, I used my flat iron to really curl it out. If you like, you can then spritz with hairspray to hold the flip. Then run your fingers through the ends so that they're not sticky, but move and have bounce. Above was my final result, which I loved!

Step 5 (optional): Give the do a little bouffant by lightly teasing the hair on the top of your head, or pulling some of it back and securing it with a barrette, then pushing the barrette up a bit to make it look like your hair has a bump, or channel your inner Megan Draper by tying a colorful '60s scarf around your head like a headband as I did here. (This also hid the fact that my roots badly needed to be colored.)

The only difficulty I had with this style was trying to get the back flipped up enough--doing it with a flat iron made me a little nervous about burning myself or my hair. I think a large-barreled curling iron would do the job better. I may also experiment next time with rolling the ends up in medium-sized velcro rollers. 

Surprisingly, the next day the flip shape was still intact and my hair had a lot of bounce. What I like about this style is that it's just different enough that people will notice you did something new with your hair, but nothing drastic. I also let my hair grow longer all winter so that it's now past my shoulders, and flipping it out make it look shorter. 

Have fun with your own look and maybe for the next retro hairstyle post, I'll try Farrah Fawcett's wings!