'80s Punk Hairstyles for Girls
Hair was big in the 1980s. Punk girls styled their hair to make a big, bold fashion and cultural statement. They were against the natural order, mainstream and status quo and they wanted the world to know this just by looking at them. They teased, ratted, dyed, shaved and spiked their hair as a form of self-expression. Does this Spark an idea?
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Black and Shaggy
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Rocker Joan Jett helped popularize the black and shaggy look. Hair was cut into several thin, shaggy layers, with the shortest layers sitting atop the head so they could be spiked straight up. The longest layers reached to the end of the neck or the tips of the shoulders. Bangs were cut above the eyebrows, combed straight and sprayed into place. Streaks of dark purple or red were often blended into the back of the hair.
Platinum Blonde
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Deborah Harry of the band Blondie is probably best associated with the platinum-blonde look, but many punk rockers copied the look including Nancy Spungen, the infamous girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Hair was dyed using a mixture of household cleaning bleach and water. Platinum-blonde hair could be worn in a variety of ways. Some girls cut hair at the ears and teased hair with a comb to create the "big hair" look. Spungen wore straight bangs and big hair, curled from a poodle perm. Glam and new-wave punks wore long, feathered blonde hair with a streak or two of black or color in it.
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Multicolored
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Rainbow-colored hair was a staple for punks in the '80s. Cyndi Lauper may have been a pop singer, but she helped fashion the look. Like Lauper, many girls dyed big bangs one bright color and the rest of their hair another. The key was to look as unnatural as possible. Popular colors included red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink. Hair was often crimped with a crimping iron or given a tight wave perm. Long hair was flipped over on one side of the head. Short hair was spiked out in all directions.
Mohawk
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Although more popular with the guys, girls who identified themselves as street or crust punk often wore a Mohawk. Hair was grown long; then the sides of the head were shaved, leaving only a strip of hair down the middle of the head from the forehead to the base of the neck. This strip of hair was worn straight up in the air, often in many triangular spikes. To achieve the Mohawk, girls would use a combination of combing, blow-drying and adhesive products such as pomade, egg whites and super glue.
Accessorized
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Girls expressed themselves not only in how they cut their hair, but also in how they accessorized it. Many girls would spray-paint symbols such as the anarchy symbol into their hair. A punk girl would take mainstream fashion accessories such as ribbons or bows and make the style "punk" by using these products to excess, covering her head with mismatched clips. Instead of wearing one pony tail, punks would divide their hair into five sections and wear five ponytails.
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