Big Hair: Beehives, Bouffants, Ratting and Teasing

BEEHIVES
Location: Act I, Scene 7, pg. 57

Reference: AMBER: "How could you kiss that beehived buffalo right on the... air?!"

RATTING

Location: Act I, Scene 1, pg. 14

Reference: EDNA: "All ratted up like a teenage Jezebel!"

This lovely lady in her 1969 school photo sports a great example of a 1960s bouffant. Bouffant hairstyles are created by curling the hair, ratting and teasing it into a high pile, then brushing the top layer smooth and freezing it in place with heavy coats of hairspray and mousse. Often beehives and bouffants were decorated with bows or barrettes, as this young lady chose to do by securing a bow to her hair with a bobby pin. Bouffants could also be created by piling huge curls on top of the head as this sassy majorette from 1969 demonstrates.

Beehives are a type of extra high bouffant with wrapped hair closely resembling an actual beehive. This photo of The Ronettes, a girl group of the sixties with the hit "Be My Baby", displays three fabulous beehives.

Ratting can refer either to teasing and backcombing hair...

or to using foam pieces, fabric pieces, or pieces made of one's own hair like those described here to fill out a big hairstyle.

SOURCES:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ozfan22
http://www.hairarchives.com/private/archivesnew.htm