The 1970s was a wild era for hair fashion, with styles that pushed boundaries and defied gravity. From voluminous feathered locks to dramatic shapes, these hairstyles defined a generation’s look.
While iconic in their time, these once-trendy cuts would likely raise eyebrows or trigger giggles if spotted on today’s streets.
1. Il flip di Farrah Fawcett
Feathered, flipped, and fabulous – this Charlie’s Angels-inspired mane required hours of blow-drying and brushing. Women everywhere craved those signature wings that framed the face.
Maintaining this style meant nightly pin curls and morning touch-ups with hot rollers.
2. The Shag Mullet
Business in front, party in the back! This gender-neutral disaster featured choppy layers on top with lengthy strands cascading down the neck.
Rock stars embraced it, parents feared it, and hairdressers struggled to perfect its peculiar proportions.
3. The Wedge Cut
Olympic skater Dorothy Hamill sparked this geometric phenomenon. Short in back, angled toward the face, and perfectly bowl-shaped when viewed from behind.
Women abandoned their long locks in droves for this sporty, wash-and-wear option.
4. The Afro Perm
Texture-challenged folks yearned for curly volume, leading to the chemical catastrophe known as the perm. The result? Frizzy, unnatural poufs that resembled neglected houseplants.
Sleeping required special pillows to preserve this fragile creation.
5. Il taglio a scodella
Imagine placing an actual bowl on someone’s head and cutting around it. That’s exactly what parents did to unfortunate children across America.
Straight bangs, perfect circles, and zero style made this the ultimate awkward yearbook memory.
6. The Pageboy Flip
Shoulder-length hair curved under dramatically at the ends created this helmet-like style. Popular with both men and women, it required sleeping in uncomfortable rollers.
Even minor humidity would destroy hours of careful styling work.
7. The Feathered Center Part
Made famous by teen heartthrobs like Leif Garrett, this style featured a precise middle part with feathered sides. Boys spent more time blow-drying than their sisters.
The goal? Achieving that perfect wing-like swoosh on each side.
8. The Beehive Holdover
Though born in the ’60s, this towering monument to hairspray stubbornly persisted through the ’70s. Women teased hair to impossible heights, creating nests that could house small wildlife.
An entire can of hairspray maintained this gravity-defying structure.
9. The Dippity-Do Wet Look
Men slathered their hair with gelatinous goop to achieve a perpetually wet appearance. The result? Slick, shiny strands that never dried and attracted dust like magnets.
Pillowcases were permanently stained with this sticky styling product.
10. The Mod Space-Age Bob
Geometric precision defined this futuristic cut. Perfectly straight, severely angled, and often paired with blunt bangs, it looked like something from a sci-fi movie.
Weekly salon visits maintained the exact angles required for this high-maintenance style.
11. The Side-Parted Bouffant
Big volume on top with sides swept dramatically away from the face created this top-heavy look. Older women clung to this style well into the disco era.
Daily teasing and backcombing left hair damaged beyond repair.
12. The Overgrown Sideburns
Men’s sideburns reached epic proportions, often extending well below the earlobe. These facial hair statements required constant trimming to maintain their perfect rectangular shape.
The wider the sideburn, the more fashionable the man considered himself.