I love vintage photos of everyday women’s hairstyles. They are real, attainable and not movie star quality. I think it’s just so wonderful to see that not everything was perfect but still looked lovely.

For those of us who like to do vintage hairstyles, I think it’s easy to get caught up in thinking you have to have a perfect style, but these women are proof that perfection was not always attainable (and they still look great).

I have also decided to do this post because I have been noticing that lots of people are searching for ‘1950s women’s hairstyles’ and coming to my website. I don’t have loads of content on this specific era and this is because I absolutely love 1 940s hairstyles. So today’s post is a bevy of wonderful 1950s photos of women and their 1950s hairstyles.

Enjoy!

1950s vintage photo of a young woman posing in a photo booth with a 1950s hairstyle, red lips, 1950s accessories.

Disclosure: Some of the links on my blog from Etsy , eBay, are Affiliate Links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

1950s Photos of Everyday Women’s Hairstyles

“A smile and a squint”, May 1955. What a super example of curled hairstyle pulled back with a curl left in the front. Our young lady looks adorable.

1950s vintage photo of a young woman with a 1950s hairstyles and pearl necklace smiling at the camera. Super 1950s vintage hairstyle inspiration

Source: Etsy-therescuedphoto

1950s vintage photo of a beautiful young women named Dorothy Wallace. She is wearing a short 1950s hairstyle (very popular during the 50s).

1950s vintage photo of a beautiful young Black Women named Dorothy Wallace. She is wearing a cute short 1950s hairstyle. Fantastic vintage hair inspiration.

Source: Etsy-therescuedphoto

Cute short pageboy 50s hairstyle in this image of a young woman with the BEST glasses on! This feels like a yearbook photo to me.

Further Reading: Vintage Photos of Women who wear Eyeglasses

1950s vintage photo of a young woman with red lips, short 1950s hairstyle and 1950s eyeglasses on with pearls around her neck

Source: Etsy-therescuedphoto

Photo booth images are a super resource for vintage hairstyle inspiration. You can usually see the style really well, like on our serious faced young women (Rose Morrison) with the plaid vest and a bobbed curl hairstyle.

1950s vintage photo of a pretty young Black Women in a photobooth with a 1950s hairstyle and plaid vest

Source: Etsy-therescuedphoto

Two women in Japan in 1950s fashions and short 1950s hairstyles smile for the camera.

1950s vintage photo of two Japanese women in 1950s fashions and 1950s hairstyles in Japan

Girls night! Pick your fav hairstyle from this group of young ladies having a great time together.

1950s vintage photo of a group of girls in 1950s hairstyles and 1950s fashion posing for the camera at a girls night

Source: Etsy-DearMacyVintage

HAZARD! Ada has something she is thinking about in this photo booth image. Maybe it’s about her fantastic hair? HA!

1950s vintage photo of a Black woman with a 1950s hairstyle and plaid dress on posing in front of a sign that says hazard

Source: Etsy-therescuedphoto

A head full of curls and some doggy time on the porch swing.

1950s vintage photo of a young woman with a 1950s hairstyle holding a dog on her porch swing.

Source: Etsy-therescuedphoto

November 1955-This photo makes me happy, and it’s because of the big smile on our adorable woman in the big chair. Her hair is perfectly curled and she has a great 1950s outfit on.

Further Reading: Vintage Photos of Wallpaper Designs in Mid Century Homes

1950s vintage photo (November 1955) of an older woman in a 1950s dress sitting in chair in her living room with a 1950s hairstyle. Love the big smile on her face.

Source: Etsy-AlaskaVintage

“The Dixie Cups”. 4 women with short hairstyles posing together at a party.

1950s vintage photo of 4 Black Women drinking out of dixie cups posing together in 1950s fashions and 1950s hairstyles

Source: Etsy-JakeRoebucks

Teenage girls in a 1950s fashion show. Another group photo with lots of 50s hairstyle inspirations.

1950s vintage photo of Teenage girls at a fashion show. They are all wearing 1950s fashions and 1950s hairstyles.

Source: eBay

My last photo of this post, is of Ruth Shoemake who has let her natural curls just do their own thing (the cut is still very 50s though). Another great photo for inspiration.

1950s vintage photo of a young woman wearing a 1950s hairstyle and a parl necklace. No makeup.

Source: Etsy-therescuedphoto

I hope you enjoyed the photos I chose for this post, even if your not a vintage hairstyle fan. I will be doing a more detailed post later on down the line, so stay tuned for that.

Question time: Do you like 1950s hairstyles? What was your favourite photo from above?

Further Reading:

This weekend a dear friend of mine was out doing some vintage/antique shopping and stumbled upon a bunch of Hairdressing magazines from the 1940’s that he knew I would just adore and want to scoop up. The magazine was “American Hairdresser” and the 3 copies he got for me were from 1947 & 1948 (seen below).

1940's hairdressing magazine - American Hairdresser featuring a 1948 hairstyle

1940's hairdressing magazine - American Hairdresser featuring a 1948 hairstyles for kids

1940's hairdressing magazine - American Hairdresser featuring a 1947 hairstyle for women

Now I’m no expert in the vintage hairstyle world, I have mastered like 2 styles and that is pretty much where I’m at right now. I can honestly only ever dream of being able to have hairstyles like my fav vintage ladies online. I do adore though, looking at beautiful vintage hairstyles and giving props to the ladies (and their stylists) who took the time to make those styles look so fantastic. So this magazine is really great for doing just that…looking at cool and super technical vintage hairstyles. The magazines even show you how to do some of the sets to achieve the looks shown but it’s seriously way to complicated for my “2 styles only” skills lol!

For my hairdressing friends the magazines also have great ads on tools you could have purchased for your business, tips on working in salons etc. So if you ever see them, I would totally advise to grab some for your collection.

For today’s blog I really wanted to share some of the fantastic images that were in the magazines, the hairstyles and some of the fun ads.

(note: due to the magazines being somewhat fragile I had to take pictures of the images instead of scanning to protect it from bending and such. I apologize if some of the images are not super super clear).

So here we go….

American Hairdresser Magazine-1947 and 1948

The Vintage Advertising

Get that perfect perm with…”Supertest for Supercurl with RAYette deb-u-curl supertest, the speed waves that features the JUMBO ROD”.

A 1940's Hairdressing Magazine Ad for deb-u-curl perm curlers featuring an image of women with curly hair and perm roller.

I know the below seats from ‘Dixie Chrome Products’ are for your hair salon but I would not mind a couple just for my apartment, they are so cool.

A 1940s vintage advertisement for Dixie Chrome Products featuring chairs for the hair salon as seen in a 1940s vintage hairstyling magazine.

“For short hair! The new original Grip-Tuth “Shorty””

Grip-Tuth is still around today and in fact I use my combs on a regular basis.

1940s Grip-Tuth ad- 1940s Vintage Hairstyle tool for 1940s Hairstyles as seen in a 1940s vintage hairstyling magazine.

Create the perfect waves, with a “Fleetwave”. This ad made me giggle on how “HAPPY” she is to own this item..almost stunned I would say.

1940s vintage hairdressing ad for Fleetwave by Nestle. Create the perfect 1940s waves for your 1940s hairstyle as seen in a 1940s vintage hairstyling magazine.

Ahhh what we do for beauty. 1940s Heating Cap to get those curl dried quick!

1940s vintage ad for a heating cap that will get your curls dried quick as seen ina 1940s vintage hairstyling magazine.

The Late 1940s Women’s Hairstyles

First lets just take in the beauty that is “Jacqueline White” who was on the cover of the first 1948 magazine shown above and is modelling here. Stunning is probably the only word I can use right now, her hair is unbelievable gorgeous. I also am madly in love with her dresses in these images and I will take 2 or 3 of each in multiple colours.

The 1940s hair with all those shiny curls are just wonderful!

1940's vintage hairstyle from 1948 for women featuring actress Jacqueline White modeling the stylish hairstyle and wearing a pretty 1940s dress.

1940's vdress as seen in a 1948 American Hairdresser magazine. 1940's vintage hairstyle from 1948 for women featuring actress Jacqueline White modeling the stylish hairstyle.

This updo hairstyle is incredible and way out of my league but there is the set if someone is willing to give it a go.

1940's vintage hairstyle for women as seen in a 1948 vintage hairstyle magazine called "American hairdresser".

“Parisienne Mood”. The side swiped hair with the headband reminds me more of a Grecian look then Paris but either way another outstanding hairstyle.

1940s vintage hairstyle from a 1948 vintage hairdressing magazine, "American Hairdresser" -The side swiped hair with the headband reminds me more of a Grecian look then Paris but either way another outstanding hairstyle.

“Careerist”. For the Career Girl you can go with this style. Setting patterns are so helpful!

1940's vintage hairstyle called the Careerist as seen in a 1948 Hairdressing magazine called "American hairdresser". Cute short haired curls.

Looking for a style to wear with that Easter Parade hat? Here you go, fun stylish up do’s.

1940's vintage hairstyles for when your wearing a hat. Seen in a 1948 American hairdresser magazine.

“Colanite Curl Clips”. This is actually an information piece on how to set the curl clips professionally and correctly. I adore how her hair looks at the end.

1940's vintage hairstyle inspiration as seen in a vintage ad from a 1948 American Hairdresser magazine for "Colanite Curl Clips".

Beautiful! There was no description on how to achieve this look but I’m sure you needed at least 10 hands.

1940's vintage hairstyle inspiration for women as seen in a 1948 American Hairdresser magazine

There is a little peak into my hairdressing magazines, I hope you enjoyed browsing and maybe you will run off to try one of the sets. If you do, please please share you pictures!

On a funny side note, I opened up one of the magazines and in the middle, flat as a pancake were two dead flies..from the 1940s! Not what I was expecting to see that is for sure.

FURTHER READING:

Vintage Hairstyle Archive of Blog Posts from the Vintage Inn

Liz 🙂

Category: Vintage Hairstyle

1950s Photos of Everyday Women’s Hairstyles

American Hairdresser Magazine-1947 and 1948

The Vintage Advertising

The Late 1940s Women’s Hairstyles