In the 1960s, Brownsville High School and Villa Maria girls - as have women over the millennia - were trying new ways to stand out and attract the opposite sex, and hit upon the newest hairdo rage spreading throughout the country.
A girl group, the Ronettes, helped popularize the “Beehive,” a hair style that referred to the shape of a traditional beehive.
The motto seems to have been the higher the better and in the spring of the early 60s that the new style was seen on the school campuses around the city.
Also known as bumblebee, it was then in the height of elegance then which made the girl sporting one the center of attraction at formal dances. It was not limited to one style—it had numerous variations. Some girls embellished the look with buns, swirls, or simply piling the hair up in curls.
The back of the hairdo was similar to the ever-popular French roll and if the girl had large ears - not a problem - they were covered with back-swept waves. Many of the girls who craved this novel idea crossed the river to Matamoros where hair stylists there always seemed to be in tune with the latest styles in other parts of the United States before their counterparts in Brownsville.
How long would the hair stay in place? That would depend on how much lacquer was used. And of course, the traditional windy South Texas conditions had a lot to do with it as well.
Betty Delgado, shown in the photo, was a Brownsville High School student who summed the general attitude back then: “This new style makes short hair look long and long hair look longer. It adds a touch of elegance to any girl’s appearance."
It would only be a few years in the late 1960s when - with the country embroiled in a war in Southeast China and torn by civil rights struggles - the young generation would rebel against the system and adopt hair and clothing styles that made the beehive a passing fad.
But that was in the future then, and for a brief time, whimsical styles like the beehive were a hit with young people here.
The motto seems to have been the higher the better and in the spring of the early 60s that the new style was seen on the school campuses around the city.
Also known as bumblebee, it was then in the height of elegance then which made the girl sporting one the center of attraction at formal dances. It was not limited to one style—it had numerous variations. Some girls embellished the look with buns, swirls, or simply piling the hair up in curls.
The back of the hairdo was similar to the ever-popular French roll and if the girl had large ears - not a problem - they were covered with back-swept waves. Many of the girls who craved this novel idea crossed the river to Matamoros where hair stylists there always seemed to be in tune with the latest styles in other parts of the United States before their counterparts in Brownsville.
How long would the hair stay in place? That would depend on how much lacquer was used. And of course, the traditional windy South Texas conditions had a lot to do with it as well.
Betty Delgado, shown in the photo, was a Brownsville High School student who summed the general attitude back then: “This new style makes short hair look long and long hair look longer. It adds a touch of elegance to any girl’s appearance."
It would only be a few years in the late 1960s when - with the country embroiled in a war in Southeast China and torn by civil rights struggles - the young generation would rebel against the system and adopt hair and clothing styles that made the beehive a passing fad.
But that was in the future then, and for a brief time, whimsical styles like the beehive were a hit with young people here.
12 comments:
Yes, the beehive was popular and I used it often
Betty? Oh she like to make bets ok.
Juan, this good that you bring back these kind of stories
How can a beehive hairdo be more popular than our city Elections? How can a swastika on a spoiled rich brat not be more important than how a young woman does her hair to draw attention for a male. Well back then women attracted men not women. Now you don't know what you are attracting.
@9:42 A.M.
- shut the fuck up, you dirty-ass Mexican. The Beehive is Americana, asshole!
Don’t know what you are attracting is right
Girls used lacquer while the boys used vacelina “El Perico.”
Juan lol my sister and her friends used to do these hairdos, wow.
How do you know 9:42 is a mexican postor? maybe you at 10:49 are a stupid republican racist gringo, idiota
Weren't the gettos using those type of hairdos? I don't recall gringas using those type of styles.
I think it was in Spanish Harlem where it bloomed
I think IT bloomed in cockroach europe
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