Short Hairstyles of the 1950s

50s icon, Doris Day

During the 1940s, short hair went out of vogue, probably as a reaction to the boyish look of the 20s and 30s that had been so popular during those decades. However the 50s ushered in a new wave of hairstyles and short hair was back on the agenda.

The 50s look was crisp and pert, with full skirts, cotton shirts, knitted tops, short jackets and chunky jewellery - short hair meant exposed ears could highlight big earrings and scarves and accented collars (winged and rolled) could be shown off to full effect.

50s hair wasn't tumbled and free but rather stylised and immaculate, with plenty of pins, sticky setting lotion and spray employed to keep those strategic kiss curls in place. As most women were stay at home housewives there was plenty of time to concentrate on cute coiffure, thus although there were a variety of short styles, they all had one thing in common - they were neat. The 60s era, where hair broke loose, was just around the corner but it hadn't happened yet.

It was fashionable to wear hair shorter on the sides and fuller at the top, with either a roll-like fringe/bangs or off the forehead but with a couple of carefully placed kiss curls framing the face. Most women had perms and/or used curlers to provide wave, oomph and body and it was common to hear the phrase "I can't tonight. ..I'm washing my hair", meaning they'd be home doing a shampoo and set.

Mitzi Gaynor

In the main, short styles of the 1950s were very flattering to the face in an uplifting kind of way and tended to make the neck looked elongated and thus more elegant. They also complimented all kinds of jewellery, from strings of pears to hoop earrings and bulky gemstone pieces. It was an era of glamour and sophistication but also a little funkier than the previous decade. Even though it was the decade of the Stay-at-Home Housewife, the short hair gave off a a perky, assertive aura rather than a  classically ultra-feminine one. 

Jean Simmons

1940s Hairstyles

Long Hairstyles of the 1950s

 Hot Hairstyles of the 1960s

The Platinum Blonde

Glooks

A well groomed Glook. From the Glook Museum

Hairy Glooks were just one of many weird toys that were  foisted on the newly-consuming baby boomer generation  and as it happens, they were hugely popular when they hit the market in the 1960s -especially in Australia where they sold in numbers that sent a toy manufacturer's heartbeat thumping with excitement. Although they originated in the UK, there was something about Glooks that resonated with the Australian psyche , though I shudder to think what that mysterious connection could have been.

Was Cousin It a beatnik?

In their day, they were a great novelty..something new and hairy and..er, Glooky. Possibly inspired by the hirsute Cousin It of Addams Family fame, Glooks were a mass of non-toxic (I think) synthetic fibres. It seems kids, mainly girls, just loved fiddling with their hair; brushing, twisting, plaiting  and gathering it in up into top notches and ponytails. Let's face it, hair was something Glooks had plenty of. In fact, that's virtually all they had -well, apart from token tiny feet, a couple of eyes and a round nob of a nose.

Of course unlike their upmarket and expensive descendants, the Furbies, Glooks possessed very little by way of whizz bang features. They couldn't walk, talk and didn't even have any sort of mechanical device or computer chip inside - how primitive!

Eventually, as the 70s and 80s dawned, Glooks faded from view. They were, I suppose, a fad and like most fads, they passed through a period of frenzied popularity and then receded into obscurity. Just as well this once loved toy has been carefully preserved for posterity by the Australian Glook Museum.

Chick Henderson

Chick Henderson

British singer Chick Henderson had a warm, rich, emotional, yet manly voice, that could stir the heartstrings and get the body swaying.

Henderson was just 31 when he died in 1944 as the result of torpedo wounds sustained during WW2 but in his short career had managed to garner a significant fanbase in the UK and recorded some highly acclaimed tracks, including his greatest hit Begin the Beguine, recorded with Joe Loss and his band.

Rumour has it Chick was unassuming, witty, charming and entirely lovable. Born Henderson Rowntree in the North of England in 1912, Henerson had enjoyed singing throughout his boyhood and as a young man, he auditioned for and was signed up by bandleader Harry Leader. Chick's first recording appeared in 1985 on the Eclipse label -Zing went the Strings of my Heart and he joined the Joe Loss Band in the same year, after being heard and admired on radio.

Chick went on to make over 250 recordings, many of them great songs, such as That Lovely Weekend, Starlight Serenade and Bewteen a Kiss and a Sigh - and in fact Chick Henderson was the only recording artist in the 1930s to have a hit record (Begin the Beguine) that sold over a million copies.

For more comprehensive info on Chick, visit the Chick Henderson Appreciation Society

With Plenty of Money and You...

Skipper Doll

 Barbie's Little Sister

In 1964, the world's most famous fashion doll acquired a little sister - Skipper, who  wore a sailor inspired red and white bathing suit and a brass headband. The 'tween' doll was 9 /4 inches tall and Mattel created a special wardrobe for her, some of which co-ordinated with Barbie's and it was made with the same meticulous attention to detail. Barbie's creator, Ruth Handler,  was adamant that the the dolls' clothes and accessories would  be well-made, chic and totally up-to-date. Skipper had bright blue eyes and long, very combable, straight hair and she was available in blonde, titian or brunette.

Mattel's Skipper doll proved to be not just an adjunct to her big sister, as many children owned a Skipper but not a Barbie.  The latter's mature, voluptuous dimensions,  meant that as a character she was sometimes hard for a child to identify with. By contrast Skipper was 'one of them', a pre-pubescent child they could superimpose their imaginative roleplay on. In addition, some claim Skipper was introduced to counteract criticisms about Barbie's overly "sexy" appearance.

Skipper also acquired two new friends of her own...Scooter and Ricky and in 1966 was joined by two younger twin siblings, called Tutti and Todd. They were a cute 6 and 1/2 inches tall and had fully posable rubber bodies.

Over the years Skipper's appearance morphed into an almost entirely diffrent doll - (taller, more mature) but then so did Barbie's. Part of the success of the Barbie concept was that the dolls changed in accordance with cultural shifts in the wider society, though many Barbie purists claim the modern Skippers do not match the original for style and quality. In 1994 a vintage reproduction Skipper made of porcelain was introduced to collectors, to mark the doll's 30th anniversay and in 2007 a second vintage Skipper came out, this time in vinyl and sold in a gift set with a reproduction vintage Swirl Ponytail Barbie.



History of Barbie

Deckchairs

Deckchairs for hire. Image from the Geograph Project

Stripes from deckchairstripes.com

They conjure images of ocean liners, travel and Somerset Maugham.... Brighton beach and people in blazers and boaters sipping tea in English gardens.Yes, I'm talking about those old-fashioned wooden deckchairs that look lovely but are perhaps not 100% comfortable...or is that just me?

Stripes from deckchairstripes.com

The classic wooden-framed foldable deckchairs were originally designed for ships, so passengers could relax on deck and of course, when not in use, they could be conveniently folded up and stacked flat for storage.

These old-style deckchairs had a colourful, canvas cover, either in a gay stripe or a single,  bright block of colour. When unfolded, the chairs had only one position but developments in deckchair technology led to the  addition of notches in the wood so that the sitter could vary the reclining position.

Over the decades, the deckchairs gradually got supplanted by the plastic variety of garden furniture and of course, these days there's a plethora of outdoor chair styles to choose from. While they're still around ('specially in England), they're not as common as they used to be - thus brand new deck chairs in the old-fashioned style can sometimes be surprisingly hard to find. UK company,  SouthSea Deckchairs has a grand selection. Another option is to buy the old wooden chair frames (try ebay) and vamp them up with new cloth.


Deckchairstripes.com has a terrific range of stripes..and they didn't pay me to say that! You can also find nice stripey canvas at Amazon.

Fun in the sun in the 1940s

Very fancy Edwardian deckchair from Southsea deckchairs

1940s Hairstyles

Natural 40s beauty

1940s hairstyles concentrated on glamour and height. It was a highly stylised 'oomph' period and to achieve the perfect look required considerable time and effort. Barely anyone wore dead straight hair so if you lacked bounce in the curl department, you would have needed a perm and/or a set with rollers. Often the hair was worn wavy and loose,  to chin or shoulder length, either with the top pulled back very loosely from the forehead to provide bouncy height and secured with pins or with an elaborate rolled fringe (bangs) to give a smoother, sleeker stylistic effect.

Betty Grable with ionic pincurls

Stylistic influence?

Fringes were never left flat and straight and in some cases the bouffy bangs emulated the decorative features of an ancient Greek column - note Betty Grables ionic-style forehead curls.

As by far the vast majority of women wore hats in the 1940s, the crown part of the head, behind the 'pompadour' front was left smoothish. As an alternative to a hat, sometimes all the loose hair was gathered into a snood.

Although short hair had been the hot fashion choice of the preceding decade (the 30s), in the 1940s women's hair got distinctly longer, partly because there was a move back to voluptuous femininity and away from the boyish figures and styles that had so dominated the 20s and 30s.

Stylistic influence?

An alternative style was to pile everything on top of the head in a mass of heavy curls - the hair was stretched up at the back and sides and secured with clasps and pins in a top-notch toward the front of the head. It was an uplifting, glitzy style but gave the wearer a bit of a top-heavy look.

1940s Poster Girls

Lucille Ball Stylised Hollywood beauty

Retro Fridges

Beach Cruiser series. 

Bill Chill Refrigerators

Oh yeah, beautiful retro fridges, powder coated in 50s baby blue, red, vintage green, 70s orange or custom colours...how could you not love these vintage refrigerators from Big Chill? I know I do. Vintage form and high tech function is a winning combination for those with a retro aesthetic. Advertising themselves as "vintage inspired retro appliances" Big Chill's do take you swirling back in time and offer a cool alternative to the standard-line white goods manufacturers.

These refrigerators have all the mod cons (no defrosting necessary) and in the right kitchen would be a real feature piece. Oh so funky on the outside, functional on the inside:

Drawback: Big Chill fridges are pricey, ranging from around $1700 for the under counter to $2700  for full size and then there's shipping. The company also makes retro stoves and dishwashers and you can check them out here...Big Chill

Smeg 

Smeg fridges have the rounded lines, smooth finish and modern functionality so desirable in a retro fridge but again at they are pricey. As with Big Chill, the customer pays for that vintage look and feel but the Smeg is is even more expensive. I've seen them from between 2 and 1/2 to 3 and a 1/2 thousand, depending on the model.

Smeg is a family owned company that has been round since the 1940's, now run by Roberto Bertazonni, who hired some of Italy's best architects to work for the firm. Bertazonni's vision was to see appliances as something more than mere utilitarian objects - when it comes to form and function, the company believes one should not overpower the other.

The iconic retro Smeg fridge comes in a variety of colours and is style-wise is hard to flaw - even the handle is a stylistic achievement. Smeg as a brand has a hip aura and the fridges have popped up in various films and TV shows - they're distinctiveness gives them an edge.

Specs

The classic Smeg has a capacity of 9.22 Cu. Ft. (271 Litres) Dimensions are (HxWxD) 57½ x 23⅝ x 27½ inches and features include:

A peek inside a Smeg

• Antibacterial interior
• Interior light
• Defrost
• Thermostat: Adjustable
• 3 adjustable glass shelves
• 1 bottle storage shelf
• 1 fixed glass shelf
• 4 adjustable bins
• 1 fruit and vegetable container
• 1 Ice cube tray
• 1 diary box
• 2 adjustable covered bins
• 2 bottle storage bin
• Rating: Tropical
• 2 egg bins

Cool Smeg Fridges

Reproduction Coke Fridges:

Wobbly versions of refrigerated Coca-cola vending machines first appeared as early as 1928. The customer slid a nickel into the slot and a bottle of coke would roll precariously down the shute.. So ubiquitous was the coke machine they eventually became part of the scenery at almost every gas station and are now everywhere, form university campuses to real estate offices.

Original coke-vending machine.

 Coke machines were such a feature of many people's childhoods that there's a strong nostalgic feeling toward them, resulting in a booming market in retro designed fridges and vending machine-style coolers for the home.

Coke nostalgia is popular in general- anything from bottles, badges, posters, tumblers, yo-yos etc.

Of course the original machines are highly sought after and thus very expensive but you still get that nostalgia feel with one of the many retro reproductions on the market. The one on the right is from Party Outfitters

 

As far as the coke brand name goes, Amazon has a selection of reproduction and novelty coke fridges that tick the right boxes for retro styling..sort of.

Technical Glitch: I have to apologise to the reader for the links not working in this article. They used to and I've tried everything. It's a mystery (still working on it)