Jayne Mansfield's Hairstyle

Q: I have looked everywhere on the internet, and I cannot find out how to create Jayne Mansfield's hairstyle. It looks like a finger wave to me but it has some volume to it. What else do you think they did to her hair, pin curls at the ends? Set it with rollers?

My hair is medium length and platinum blonde and I really enjoy things out of the fifties, especially the music. It bugs me that I can't create this hairstyle for myself. Any advice you can give will be great.

A: Well, since Jayne Mansfield's heyday was over forty years ago, the methods used to create her hairstyles would have been restricted to the techniques most commonly available at the time.

Of course, your question would be much simpler to answer if I specifically knew which hairstyle you wished to recreate. During her roughly 15 years long career in film, Ms. Mansfield has had a number of differing looks, from short, layered curly styles, to long flowing waves in a blunt cut. She's seen sporting the classic styles like the pageboy and the bubble.

There do seem to be common traits in Jane Mansfield's hairstyles over her career. Her shorter hairstyles were always layered and curly, while she would grow her hair out to establish more blunt styles.

The best option for you to recreate the looks Ms. Mansfield wore would be through the use of rollers and wet setting techniques. Shampoo and condition the hair, towel dry it and apply a liberal amount of your favorite styling product (use styling gel for firmer longer-lasting curls, and styling mousse for softer finishes). Wrap the hair on rollers according to the length of your hair.

To achieve a good "curl", the hair should wind around the roller 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 times. The longer the hair is the larger you want the rollers to be. Remember that spiral curls and kinky waves were not really a common or desired look back in Mansfield's era. Be sure to select curl sizes to make sure you avoid such.

Once rolled, the hair can be dried under a bonnet dryer or simply covered in a scarf and allowed to dry naturally. After the hair has dried, the rollers are removed and the style is brushed out. The hair may be lightly back-combed or ruffed with a brush to add height and fullness in a specific area, but the overall surface silhouette is a smoother, shape.

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See also:

Fifties hairstyles

How to create finger waves and pin curls