July, 1974
I was born bald. My brother called me Boop-de-Boy because he thought I was a boy, but of course, I wasn’t. By my first birthday I had some fuzz.
1st birthday, peach fuzz
My mother always styled my hair into a Dutch Boy cut. I always wanted it long. Here is my third birthday. Mother ruled.
3rd birthday
By the age of 5, I was allowed pigtails, but not for long.
5th birthday
6th birthday
By 8th grade, I finally declared my independence and began growing my hair.
12 years old
9th grade class photo.
14 years old, hair growing out.
My mother didn’t like the long hair and mocked me in front of a cousin, derisively saying I looked like Joan Baez (why that was bad, I’m not sure). My cousin responded, “Baez-schmaez. I think she looks great”. I took that to heart, in defiance of my mother.
11th grade class photo.
High School graduation, 1970.
Freshman year at Brandeis, home for Christmas break.
Ruddigore, 1971, now I can do hairstyles!
Guys and Dolls, “If I Were a Bell”, Junior year, Nov, 1972.
Dad’s 65th, Nov, 1972. Now I can wear a bun.
Brandeis graduation photo, 1974.
July, 1974, modeling portfolio.
Tired of being carded in liquor stores, I cut it all off in Sept, 1974, a few months after marriage.
While living in Chicago, in 1978 and 1979, Christie’s step-father added a body wave to my hair. We are at my parents before our annual visit to camp. Rick joined us;1978.
Uh-oh, my hair dresser talked me into cutting bangs, back in Boston. I hated them.
Grew the bangs out immediately, 1980.
1981, body perm.
1982, visiting my dad in Laguna Beach, CA. Curly perm.
1985, new mother with David at his bris.
Cut it off within a few months…much easier to care for with an infant!
Summer, 1986, I wore some version of this style for years.
Really short, after Jeffrey’s birth. 1990. Dan hated it, but it was EASY!
Patti and John visit in 1992. Dan called this style “helmet head”.
By autumn, 1993, I was growing it out. 20th Brandeis reunion.
1995, a “bob”. I wore it like this (a bit longer) for years.
Jeffrey’s bar mitzvah, 2002. This was my style until I began to grow my hair about 4 years ago.
Growing it again, 2017.
March, 2020, last photo before lockdown.
Selfie from virtual 50th high school reunion, 10/9/20
I claim I’m aging in reverse – going back to the style of my teens and early twenties. I’ve come full circle.
Betsy PfauRetired from software sales long ago, two grown children. Theater major in college. Singer still, arts lover, involved in art museums locally (Greater Boston area). Originally from Detroit area.
Betsy, you usually have great photos to illustrate your stories, but this time you’ve absolutely outdone yourself. Indeed, your story could almost as well be entitled “It’s All About the Photos.”
Your pictures (and captions) have perfectly captured your evolution in hair styles throughout every stage of your life. And, in doing so, you have also provided us with a delightful refresher course in women’s hair styles in their near-infinite variety. I do remember, for example, the bangs of our youth, the long, straight hair of our college days, the “curly perm” of the 80’s, and even the bob (Dorothy Hamill, no?).
And, speaking of the long, straight hair era, your featured image is a joyous celebration of it. I can almost hear the tuneful strains of “Hair” happily blaring in accompaniment.
Again, thanks so much for your “hair share.”
Thanks, John. This was fun for me too…looking back through all the old photos. Dorothy Hamill’s hairstyle was very popular in 1976 when she reigned supreme at the Olympics, but it was cut in a wedge shape with bangs (the back was layered into that wedge which flew up as she did her famous spins). My “bob” had no layers or bangs. I heard my stylist describe my cut as a “bob” to a different stylist, since I would get a cut during my mid-summer trip off the Vineyard, when my regular guy was also on vacation, so he handed me off to someone and discussed my hair with the substitute before I left. I wouldn’t have known to call it a “bob” otherwise.
I like your term “hair share”. Fun.
You’re absolutely right, Betsy. I googled Dorothy Hamill and confirmed that her hairstyle was from way back in the late 70’s and not exactly like your bob. And, of course, you didn’t have to do all those spins.
No spinning done on my part; maybe a dance move or two. As I think more about the “bob”, I think about the Roaring ’20s and Louise Brooks, who did have bangs, but that smooth, uniform cut. I think that’s when the style first came into vogue. Before then, women always had some form of long hair (except maybe Joan of Arc). I also remember a Fitzgerald short story; “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”, which was her shocking way of declaring her independence. So perhaps that’s where the description of the hairstyle comes from.
Who could have guessed that you’d go from bald to such a beautiful head of hair?! You do justice to each and every style, helmet head included!
Thank you, Barb. If I only could have convinced my husband of that one!
I love your pictorial history of hairstyles, Betsy. I remember so many of these styles. Despite a bald beginning, you have beautiful hair.
Thanks, Laurie. I had fun with this trip down “hair” memory lane. The long hair takes a lot of upkeep (not cutting – I don’t do that very often, it takes me a long time to blow dry), but in some ways, it is easier to deal with for exercise, as I can just pull it back, so it isn’t in my face, and that works out well.
Wow–what a photo record! And a history of both you and the times. Love it!
Thank you, Michael.
Your hair is gorgeous, Betsy, and I do love it long. Thanks for the great memories of all those hairstyles. I had some but you take the prize for the most!
Thanks, Marian. Fun to trot out the old photos and memories. I’m enjoying the long hair too. Thanks for seconding my decision.
Loved this ‘do review, Betsy. I did a book like this for my sister one year for her birthday: through all the stages of her stick-straight hair, to perms, to white-walls, highlights, etc. She loved it. This was a fun look back at all the styles we all seemed to have gone through! Lucky for us you had all those pix handy!
Thanks, Risa. I had to do some digging, but it is always fun for me to go through my albums, as I find other treasures along the way. Glad you enjoyed my ‘do review. I like your terminology!
As others have already said, this is a wonderful pictorial history of hairstyles over the years. You look great in all of them! And I love the idea of aging in reverse. Thanks for your memories!
My pleasure, Suzy. I experienced the sudden loss of a friend my age this week, so I find the idea of aging in reverse all the more appealing!
Betsy: p.s. I did a similar thing about my eyebrows! Oh, the pictures I have…
What did you do with your eyebrows Risa? Besides plucking them back? Shave them entirely? Color them? Do tell…
OK, since you asked…http://www.risanye.com/category/eyebrows/
LOVE it! I’ve been plucking the unibrow stuff since I was about 12, but always left the fullness. Now, well…it’s dye or pencil as the gray creeps in.
Wow Betsy, you look great short or long!
It’s funny that Dan called you “helmet head”, I remember I had a college friend who – after I had my hair cut short – called me “cabbage head” for years!
Now with my brunette hair growing in white – without the old remedy at the hairdresser – I find myself answering to “Covid head”!
Thanks, Dana. I know lots of women who have let their hair grow gray during the pandemic. No shame in going natural.
This sure brought back a lot of memories. My hair is also long now, was long when I was younger, and everything in between. Great pix.
Thanks, Khati. We’ve all had our different styles through the years.
Amazing that you could put your fingers (either in albums or digitally) on all those representative photos! it was fun to see the progression, and as you wrote, the return to earlier styles as you got older. Looks like (from featured image) that you felt really triumphant about something–or life in general–in July 1974. I hope you’ve had that feeling many times since, regardless of who was cutting your hair or how they were shaping it.
Thank you, Dale. I’ve kept my photos in chronological albums for a long time now (until I finally went digital and stopped printing them), and inherited my mother’s photos when she passed, more than 10 years ago (hers aren’t as neatly arranged as mine but there are fewer of them).
The Featured photo, as well as the one labeled “modeling portfolio” were taken by my brother-in-law as I was job hunting and answered an ad for a model. He took lots of different shots of me that afternoon in a few different outfits with my hair down and also pulled into a bun for different effects. Then a few final shots just for fun including that one and another taken from above, just of my torso lying on the ground, my hair scattered everywhere. I almost used that shot but thought this one was more fun.
So many wonderful comments precede. Great photos! Well done!
Thank you, Tom. I appreciate the affirmation.