Be a summertime vintage streaker!

✯ Day 133 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

…Of your hair that is!

Fear not, this isn't a post about skinning dipping or getting your thirty seconds of fame by sprinting across a sports field in your birthday suit, instead it's devoted to an entirely darling vintage magazine page that showed fashionable ladies of 1954 how to streak their hair at home.

While these days it's considerably more common to include several high and/or lowlights in your hair when you streak it, during the mid-50s one bold, prominently noticeable streak was what daring gals adorned their locks with.

I honestly love this look. It's equal parts brash and beautiful, lively and completely lovely. Long before Stacy London's trademark grey streak appeared on TV screens the world over, ladies of the fifties were daring to dye (or bleach) a strip of their hair a dramatically different shade than the rest of their head.

If we jump ahead six decades it's not entirely uncommon to see this same style of streaking - do in part to the looks sported by some rockabilly and psychobilly loving women. However, it's a look that I think more vintage loving lasses could easily and very successfully pull off.

Streaks (which are all about the dramatic contrast of high and dark hair colours) can work on hair of almost any length and compliment many different styles splendidly. Indeed, if you're a fan of rolls (Victory and otherwise), a strategically placed streak can truly look amazing when put to work in a pin-up worthy roll or two!

{Delightful vintage magazine page via Charm and Poise on Flickr. Click here for a larger version.}

 

The instructions on this page from the July '54 issue of Better Living magazine - complete with sweetly elegant photos - are incredibly straightforward and simple sounding. Which is great, should you wish to save yourself a salon trip bill by adding adding a zippy streak to your own hair at home this spring or summer.

And why not? As the caption below the "finished result" photo says (a streak is) "just good fun". It can be added to your hair in less than hour (when done with a home colouring kit), takes much less effort than a full dye job, is easy to colour over if you tire of it (or it doesn't turn out as desired), and is an instant accessory built into your hairdo all season long.

With those points in mind, I see no reason why we can’t all be streakers this summer!