70s Flip: The Feathered Hairstyle

The 1970s and 1980s were a time where big fashion statements were being made, and this even included hairstyles as women started wearing different types of “big hair.” The phrase “big hair” referred to hair with a lot of volume, and the common way to get hair to be big was to backcomb it (which is sometimes called teasing hair). One popular type of “big hair” that was seen in the 70s and 80s was called feathered hair, and it was named so because when styled it flipped out and looked like a bird’s feathers. This hairstyle became popular because of famous starlet Farrah Fawcett who is well known for the feathered look. Other “big hair” fashions that were seen in the 70s and 80s include the mullet, crimped hair, teased hair, curly hair, side ponytails, and the Afro.

Today, the feathered look is still around, but it has lost its “bigness," and there are so many things you can do with the modern feathered hair. Feathered hair went out of style in the 1990s, but in the mid 21st century it became popular once again (although it was never seen quite as big as it was in the 70s and 80s). To get the feathered look today, the hair is usually layered and razor cut and this gives it soft edges. Women with all types of hair can wear this style (straight, curly, long, and short), and usually the tips of the hair are not as flipped out as they once were in the past. The typical look for feathered hair in the past was that it was grown long and un-layered, but today the look is usually layered because layers give volume to hair. Today feathered hair can be flipped out, partly flipped, flipped inward, and straightened.

To get the feathered look you first need to go to a stylist and get your hair layered and razor cut, and you can get this cut with long, medium, and short hair. Then you are free to style it any way you want (curls, straight, flipped out, or flipped in). To get the traditional feathered look, you need to start by combing it through with a round styling brush while you blow dry hair, and then to keep it in you can use a large round curling iron or even curlers. It is best that when you use the round styling brush to start from the back of the head forward, and you should use this method with the curling iron as well.