The Short & Sassy Hairstyle of the 70s

There was even a shampoo named after it.

"the gal on the go"

OP is older than Diane Feinstein

Many great celebrities cultivated this sporty new look including Bonnie Franklin.

This haistyle has so much body. I don't understand why women don't reclaim this hairstyle.

Many a child I grew up with had this haircut well into in the 80s and early 90s, when it seemed to finally die out.

Bring it back!

Just not with my hair—far too frizzy and high volume to make it look like it was purposeful.

Actress, Lee Grant gave the look elegance.

I'm over the long hair parted down the middle with Botichelli loose curl look. It's gone on too long.

So did New York socialite, Beezie Wylie.

Have you ever worn your hair in that type of short hair style? It's definitely not no- maintenance or low - maintenance.

With a short and sassy hairstyle you never needed a comb. Every hair would fall into place with just a shake of the head.

The Dorothy Hamill, like the pixie, only looked good on petite women with big heads under the age of 19. Even Diana didn't keep wearing it after she married Charles.

My cunt 75 year old stepmother still has that same tired hairstyle

R9, depends on your hair. People with fine hair straight hair don’t have enough body to make this look good. If you’ve got some wave or curl, or thick hair, you don’t have to do much.

Young women will surely rush out in droves to get outdated haircuts now that a DL Eldergay hath spoken!

Lynda Goodfriend.

OP Excuse me, that bitch Dorothy copied MY style.

In today’s America, hair like that means “she’s given up” or, even WORSE, “dyke”.

My sister has a face made for short hair. Very pretty, with full cheeks, and she’s petite. She wears it long, almost to her waist, and it’s thin and wispy now. But “men like long hair”, so that’s how she wears it. She’ll be 50 next year.

I love short hair on a woman, especially older women. Hair extensions are out of control and ugly.

A very popular style worn by many stewardesses and cruise directors.

Dorothy Hamill explains the look well in this TV ad.

R13 It works if you're using the right shampoo.

The early 70s was easier, long and parted in the middle.

My friend Mike showed up to fifth grade with his hair looking like this and made his mom go get it cut again when everyone kept calling him "Dorothy Hamill".

Dorothy Hamill laments that she will be NOT known as Olympic Champion, but a haircut!

I’m scratching my cunt!

Ir was everywhere.

Horribly aging, like short hair on any woman over 11 years old. Just grandmother hair. Ugh....

Dorothy Hamill is now hawking Aetna’s Medicare health insurance plans. Old age comes for us all.

Couldn't get a more asexual hairdo.

My hair was so bad they replaced me with dykey Jo.

R29 - these days a bun is more asexual.

Besides FINALLY getting some ass after the pandemic, one of my biggest fantasies is that some foreign power will send drones in to whizz down in every man-bun in LA and chop it off.

Almost all women with the combination of no jowls and strong bone structure should wear short hair, it is very feminising and highlights their beauty.: Rihanna, Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, Demi Moore, Victoria Beckham, Keira Knightley, Twiggy, Mia Farrow, Cameron Diaz, Ruby Rose, Juliette Binoche, Winona Ryder. No coincidence that Audrey Hepburn's most iconic looks were a short cut and an updo.

Look at Halle Berry. A staggering beauty with short hair. Kind of boringly pretty with long hair.

The ones who look bad with short hair are women like Jennifer Lawrence, who doesn't have great bone structure.

R32 - what about oval faces with classic feminie features? The can do anything.

My pubes are short n sassy.

"all women with the combination of no jowls and strong bone structure should wear short hair, it is very feminising and highlights their beauty"

That's what all male hairdressers say. It makes them look like boys, is why.

I had to look up Dorothy Hamill, I had no idea who she was.

She's Mark Hamill's sister, I believe

It was wash 'n' wear hair.

It was a proto “ I Want To Speak To The Manager” Look. Faux Toni Tenillle/Early Frau.

She's no relation to Mark Hamill.

It was a really dykey hairstyle.

[quote] I'm over the long hair parted down the middle with Botichelli loose curl look. It's gone on too long.

ALL fashions go on too long these days.

It looks like what a Karen would wear.

What's a good haircut for the jowly gal?

My preschool-grade school years were in the 80s, but I grew up in Kansas so it was like the 70s. I had a lot of teachers with that haircut. I always called it a "mushroom haircut" because it was cut severely at the nape and flared out at the ear level, narrowing to a dull point at the top of the head. The heavier teachers could not pull it off-- with large hips and shelves of fat at their lower backs, their streamlined heads only served to make them look like a country geese, which was also a popular kitchen theme at the time. All they needed was a country blue or country mauve ribbon around their necks, I thought.

This is essentially what all of my teachers in the 80s looked like....

It's called a wedge, OP!!!

R40, She was married to Dino Martin, Jr.

She invented the Hamill camel - one of the least difficult moves in skating history.

Its butch. Why you ladies want to look so butch?

I wore the Wedge in 1979. My hairdresser who was cutting-edge (and looked like a brunette Donna Mills) was always trying new styles on me. The cut was “in” and stylish, but I never felt pretty.

Joyce DeWitt had one in the first like 6 episodes of Three’s Company.

R18 she’s one actress I cannot picture at all without short hair. And she doesn’t even really have what you’re “supposed to have” (ie chiseled bone structure) to have short hair. I guess just being so identified with one role and look...

The Dorothy Hamill cut truly must have been all the rage in the '70s—even my mother, who was raised in little-big-town Billings, Montana, talked her parents into letting her get it when she was around 7 or 8 years old. She always told me that she cried for days afterward because it made her look like her brother.

French chanteuse, Mireille Mathieu, looked très jolie with her sassy 'do.

Even gay robots of the 70s had this cut.

This skating bitch stole my look from over 500 years ago.

A woman would have to have oval or heart shaped face and average to long neck to pull this ugly haircut off. No square, round, oblong, or diamond shaped face. Also preferably small to average frame. Anything more and you risk looking potato-like or just plain dykey. Today there are few who could pull it off, maybe Miley Cyrus.

It was such a dykey haircut, it made all of those 70s chicks look like a bunch of muff divers.

No straight woman would ever willingly wear this haircut.

Toni Tennille also wore a version of this hairstyle.

By the early to mid 80s it had become popular for little boys.

No live human person would ever wear this haircut r58. It is disgusting. It disgusts me with its hideousness.

Women are petrified of short bobs nowadays, unless they identify as non binary and get a buzz cut. It's either long boring mermaid hair or non binary buzzcut with nothing in between. The suburban mommy types won't even let their elementary school aged daughters have short hair anymore. Every female from 5 to 45 looks like a member of a mormon polygamist cult.

R53 She resembles a young Kris Jenner

The wedge!

Anything is better than Dangling tendrils!

I wore this haircut from age 11 to 15. And then I decided to get a perm. My hair has never been the same since.

R62 These mushroom hair cuts are “high fashion” , according to Tyra. go to 4:10 of video.

Who is that at R30? Child Molly Ringwald?

R68 Yep

R67, that’s a reminder of just how nuts Tyra could be. It’s like she hated some of the models so much she gave them a big disadvantage.

And the one that had the dental work that added a gap should’ve sued.

I love ‘Gal on the Go’. Thank you OP.

I wish kids would start talking like this: have a sense of retro humor and not be such Woke Language Police/ Scold all the time.

I know lots of girls are cutting their long hair, but I’ll never cut mine. ‘Cause there isn’t one single reason why I should, anymore.

Now excuse me while I go fuck your boyfriends.

Would this look good on a guy? Asking for a friend.

Do you think you have the face for it?

R74 He doesn't. I do. I mean my friend does.

In the late 70s/80s it was mostly a haircut for housewives, teachers and mousy-looking girls.

I agree that "short hair" can look really chic on the right woman. I always think of Linda Evangelista in her supermodel heyday. So basically, you have to have an amazing facial bone structure, large eyes, a long/graceful neck, be VERY lean (none over a size 5/6 need apply) and have very tiny/delicate limbs. Beautiful women can pull off most haircuts (perhaps even looking best with short hair in some cases), while overweight and unattractive women have to stick with styles that best hide their flaws. This style is not one of them and should never adopted by a woman who isn't already stunning.

So stimulating. So refreshing.

I'm so glad to see a genuine old skool GAY thread for a change.

R79 - we are missing only a battle as to which ABBA girl was the most stylish...

Demi Moore looked great with thi.

The Dorothy Hamill type is care-free, fun-loving. It goes great with Adorable brand panties now with the new, safer cotton crotch.

crotch... Crotch... CROOOAAAHHHTCH!!!

I love that

So do I R83. I can't see a reference to Dorothy Hamill without thinking of the panties breakdown.

Whenever you saw a group of women friends in 70s movies and TV shows the one who had the wedge cut was always the fun, sensible gal.

R59 She had more of a bob style haircut. Although it resembled the wedge it was cut differently and less managable. Also very phallic looking.

Sometimes the wedge would resemble the head of a man's penis. I've often wondered if this was done on purpose.

Was Mia Farrow's haircut in Rosemary's Baby the first short and sassy? (I couldn't save the link)

R85 We must have watched different shows. I thought this hairstyle was reserved for the nerdy, closeted lez of the group.

R85 We must have watched different shows. I thought this hairstyle was reserved for the nerdy, closeted lez of the group.

Goddamn r86 that is one UGLY hairstyle!

The Dorothy Hamill haircut really did become ubiquitous. You have to remember that the Olympics were a huge deal back then and a gold medal in female figure-skating guaranteed celebrity status. This was in a day when Peggy Fleming (whom no one remembers today) was a household name.

Sabrina Duncan's wedge hairstyle segued into the bob.

I wonder if it was just a coincidence that the Coneheads on SNL were popular at roughly the same time.

Back in the 70s my mom had a friend who had a pixie cut. She was thin and petite and very stylish. She was divorced and from NYC and landed in the brackish burbs of CT. She smoked Merits and drank scotch and I later found out that she’d go to bars and pick up married men to fuck. She’s nearly 80 now, and still fiercely stylish. Still has short hair, too. Kind of a Barbara Corcoran type. Never lacked for male company.

Merits were very popular with the ladies back in the day.

R95 - she sounds like a fascinating person, with many interesting tales to tell.

[quote] A very popular style worn by many stewardesses and cruise directors

and fembots...

That hairstyle was so ugly, crazy how popular it was.

Here's a nice collage of 70s hairstyles. Cher had the best hair.

Even Cher couldn't escape the Curse of the Wedge!

Vidal Sassoon

R88, Jean Seberg's short and sassy in "Breathless" preceded Mia's by some 8 years.

Dorothy Hamill today. She looks like every cunt Karen who lives in your neighborhood.

I got tired of "Short & Sassy" years ago.

Joan of Arc's short and sassy preceded Jean's by 4 centuries.

I came up with my own hair style. It's a wedge with a peek-a-boo bang. I call it a Veronica Hamill.

Ingrid Bergman as Joan of Wedge.

When the Short and Sassy hair gals were giving blowjobs, did their hair move?

No, because of all of the wedge wood in their mouths.

The gorgeous Bonnie Franklin. Enuf said.

I don't know which was worse - Dorothy Hamill's short and sassy or Toni Tennille's mushroom bowl cut?

I wore it better

Kayleigh McEnany might consider the wedge cut over her Trump tresses as we dawn upon a new horizon.

Some of you may be too young to remember, but there was a short-lived TV sitcom which centered around the "short & sassy" craze of the late 70s.

Joan had long hair

it looks like the haircut a home for special needs kids would give the patients so they wouldn't have to worry about getting lice.

I hate it so much I want to travel back in time and slap it off people's heads and then berate them for their lack of aesthetic sense.

R107 - that's very creative, and would perhaps add something that would save the catastrophe that is this hair.

R22 is Ted Bundy.

I grew up in the 70s when this haircut took the country by storm as thousands of little girls wanted to look like Dorothy. The reality was it was just not that flattering on most girls. It quickly cycled out in my city.

R43 and R93 It morphed into this.

Still has the wedge, but longer in the front now ^^. (And has become "the Karen")

No thanks. It looks like a dick head.

R87 = nostalgic about the only time in his life he felt like licking a woman's head.

R100 - Cher didn't have the best hair at all. I knew a shop bottom back when MAC just started to be cool who'd relocated to LA and we used to fuck around when he got off his shift (I was still working at Starbucks and he was one of my firsts that just drove me crazy with his blow jobs). Anyway he'd worked with Kevin Aucoin who'd told him Cher's hair was a huge Middle Eastern fro and in the 70's she used lacquer and a hot comb like crazy. He even wrote about it in his book. It came up cuz there were so many Armenian people in Glendale going to his friends in salons to use Aveda to tame their fro.

Short hair was pretty popular in the early '90s too. Sharon Stone, Halle Berry, Linda Evangelista, among others all rocked it and looked great.

Armenia isn't in the Middle East, but that's a nice story anyway.

The "Karen" hairstyle is not sensible and not easily managable. Plus the women who wear them are cunts, unlike the happy, fun gals who wear the short & sassy "do."

R114 It's amazing how much smarter and more sophisticated Kaleigh looks with that hairstyle.

[quote]Joan of Wedge.

OK, that struck me as fucking funny.

That hairstyle made their heads look like a mushroom or the head of a penis, take your pick. God, it was so ugly and frumpy.

Most straight men don’t like short hair on women. That’s why you don’t see a lot of this. They prefer their partners to have long or shoulder length hair.

R52, so true. My mom had beautiful straight long thick hair parted down the middle until this trash came out. So many bad hair photos after this time period!!

I look at someone like Kelly Loeffler and think that a short hairstyle would better suit her. She's too old to be wearing her hair so ridiculously long.

Mary Lou Retton, the poor man's Dorothy Hamill

The wedge in action.

The lovely Mason Reese had one

Was the 'wedge' the hairstyle of the 70's - or was it the Farrah cut?

1980's era Ogilvie home perm kits. My mom did these all the time.

Remember the horrid spiral perm and ugly pinwheel bangs? Every white girl in America seemed to wear this style or some unfortunate variation.

r139 that was the ugliest hairstyle. And it was everywhere! Look at any high school yearbook.

And the African-American version of the short/sassy - the MUSHROOM!!! My English teacher wore one. Perfectly relaxed and it framed her head flawlessly. But she looked like Slappy White, complete with the wonky eye and no-neck. I felt bad for her.

R138 and R139 The absolute worst was the poodle perm.

[quote] spiral perm and ugly pinwheel bangs

Any photos? I tried to Google this combo but wasn't having much luck.

I don’t know WHAT you’re talking about...

Here you go. They weren't "pinwheel bangs", it wasn't 1940. Awful nonetheless. Everyone knew not to perm your bangs. Nicole's was natural.

I don't understand this thread....

R146 As bad as that hairstyle is those girls would still have been considered hot in their day. Girls sporting the short & sassy look rarely turned heads.

As close as I can come to finding those bangs; they weren't called pinwheel bangs per se, but you get my drift...

And sis was a serious coffee drinker and/or smoker!!!

R141 I wore that style in Jr High/HS, with a bit of a curl. Whenever I look at old photos, I cringe, yet have to admit the cut complemented my features.

Or she's been chewing on them yellow crayons.

r143 this is the spiral perm with bangs. It was the ubiquitous white girl hairstyle in the late 80s, and many girls held onto it until about the mid 90s. It is one of the most hideous hairstyles ever, but it was extremely popular.

r134 this has nothing to do with anything, but Mary Lou Retton has HUGE thighs. She's all muscle.

R153 The hairstyle was recently resurrected by Amy Adams for the movie Hillbilly Elegy.

r155 that's not the same hairstyle. That's some Millennial fuckwit stylist thinking that's what 80s hair looked like and getting it all wrong.

I'm surprised Glenn Close didn't suggest her Alex Forrest hairstyle from Fatal Attraction.

I remember my least devout stepsister blowing her bangs straight up in the air with a blow dryer and simultaneously spraying hairspray with the other hand. She did the same thing with the sides to make them go up and out.

That was tacky af even back then. The girls with the good hair did not do that. We made fun of them and called them Tidal wave bangs.

R158's step sister.

[quote] The girls with the good hair

I remember reading about modeling scouts from either Ford's or Casablancas' agencies back in the 80s and 90s complaining about girls showing up with big, bad spiral perms. IIRC it was one of the agencies that would hold modeling auditions in shopping malls. Wouldn't have been Ford...

Yes, the big spiral perms with pinwheel bangs were more of a middle class and blue collar hairstyle. "Upscale" girls and women tended not to have hair like that.

OMFG!

Dorothy Hamill's haircut was called "The Wedge."

Yes, I sported one once upon a time.

^^^He was prettier as Bruce.

I'm not familiar with any supposed "short hair" trend you're thinking of, OP.

I always liked the prevalent 70s long straight hair, parted in the middle.

R149/R153 lmao my hair does that naturally if I don't blow dry or straighten it. Even her color is the same golden-brown-with-ginger as mine. Our natural hair is basically Bon Jovi.

The last iconic big 'star' I can think of who had short hair as a gimmick is Molly Ringwald.

She had an entire repertoire of different haircuts and styles, many of which ended above the chin.

An earlier Molly special:

And whatever this nonsense was all about:

R166 that’s his original nose right? I feel like I’m falling on something major.

And it was a really nice nose for a guy - ridiculous.

Poodle curls were definitely the worst. Stevie Nicks has them. So did Linda Blair when she starred in "Stranger in Our House,"

I wore the Wedge in ‘79,

The wedge needs to make a comeback. I love it.

the Dorothy Hamill was a relief after the bouffants of the previous decade.

Another *the* cut...

*ahem*

Yeah, yeah...

What's the difference between Jell-O and a woman with a wedge haircut?

Jell-O moves when you eat it.

R101: by her own logic, that hairstyle makes her a man.

I think they tried it for Elvira's look in, "Scarface", but La Pfeiffer put her foot down by tucking most of it behind her ears:

[quote] Yes, the big spiral perms with pinwheel bangs were more of a middle class and blue collar hairstyle. "Upscale" girls and women tended not to have hair like that.

The higher the bangs, the lower the class is how I remember it.