Extreme space age hairdos of yesteryear

Presumably this old Pathe reel showing women getting huge armatures with planetoids on them inserted into their hair by men wielding combs with sparklers on them and strange electric shock devices is some sort of elaborate piss-take. Though maybe I'm wrong and there was a time when the women of Wokingham, Berkshire, really did wear their hair that way.

Space Age Hair Fashions (via The Mary Sue)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: fashion • hair • Old school • Space • uk • videos • Weird • youtube

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

That was cringeworthy.

I don’t “grok” fashion enough to know whether this is a hyped-up twee report on a minor local fad, or total fabrication.
http://germanwotd.com Amelia_G

The hair is a bit margaret thatcher. The shoes, not.
Gekko_Gecko

What the….I dont even….

Why do they….what the f*ck?
nox

Joke. I love the hair brush/sparkler combo.
Boundegar

The crescent-moon uniforms are wonderful. How I wish they were still in style.
ldobe

It looks to me like it could be a tie-in to the 1962 world’s fair (hosted by Seattle, Washington (Extra-proud resident)) A lot of this kind of drek was produced during the leadup, not just in Washington, but Chicago and other cities in the U.S. got into the “Spacefaring” spirit as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if English towns also thought it was a big deal too. It was the World’s Fair after all.

Edit:
Unless anyone didn’t know (I’m sure everyone knows, and doesn’t care since it was 50 years ago), the Spaceneedle was built for the world’s fair, along with the grounds of the Pacific Science Center, and the arches therein.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  I’m pretty sure that most people in the UK have no idea what the worlds fair is, unless they heard about it in a movie. Space needle or no space needle.
  
  I think the whole spacey future thing was quite culturally broad at that time.
- Jake0748
  
  One of my favorite facts about the Seattle World’s Fair: The Midway was called the “Gayway”. For realz. :)
nixiebunny

This was long enough before actual space travel that it could live comfortably in the realm of science fiction. You can be sure that if a spaceship were included in this film ,it would have been cigar shaped.
- trondmm
  
  What do you mean by “actual space travel”? The mention Gagarin in the video, so it’s obviously made after he orbited the earth in 1961.
Antinous / Moderator

Weak. Here’s a real space-do.
- http://twitter.com/HubrisSonic HubrisSonic
  
  feh, coupla cheesebellies, as we used to say…
SoItBegins

That’s gotta be, as you describe it, “an elaborate piss-take.” Still, it was pretty funny!
http://www.earwicker.com Daniel Earwicker

I bought a salad from M&S in that highstreet a few weeks ago and it now has a spaceport.

They wouldn’t let me take my droids into WH Smiths though.
Petzl

The space-do of SHADO’s moonbase women. Accept no substitute.
Wreckrob8

Not very practical for driving those futuristic cars.
Fred Cairns

I’ve been to Wokingham. Recently. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the women there did once, or still do wear their hair like that.
http://www.luketemplewalsh.com/ Luke Temple Walsh

Looks like from this, and the next three main page articles, Cory got the late Saturday early Sunday shift. The arc from tongue-in-cheek retro puff piece to concerns over 1984 style corporate/government control/disdain for the rights of the individual by 4 a.m. is very telling.
- Boundegar
  
  Maybe he’s just the one who doesn’t get invited to parties?
- surreality
  
  I don’t know if these times take into account where Cory’s located – I don’t think they do – and he’s in England, right? I think the times displayed for me are for my time zone, but I’m not sure. Either way, if they don’t account for it, it looks like he got up very early Sunday his time and went on a post spree. Nice for me to wake up to on my Sunday. :)
GuyInMilwaukee

Sparklers and hairspray… not a good mix.
http://www.geekforce.com Hugh Johnson

Dammit, I want to wear a cape and smoke cigars at my job now.
http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

Ah, good ol’ Alec Pountney. He was also into spray-painting poodles. Obviously a man before his time!
Andrew McKay

Is that David Bowie with the blond hair?
http://slinberg.com/ Steve Linberg

Why aren’t we all dressing like that now? It’s the future, right? It would be so much easier, and so much more awesome. But everybody would have to do it at once, I’m not going first.
buddy66

Who knew Henry Kissinger was once a hair salon greeter? Another spritz to add to my party-stopping imitations of him.
ImmutableMichael

I’d have so much more faith in the TV news if it were read in the Pathe style.