After the endless teasing, curling, and spraying of the bouffant hair styles of the early 60s, girls had just about had it. The sexual revolution went to their head as girls threw out their hairspray and plugged in their irons.

 

Straight, flat hair was a direct response to the big styles of the previous decade. The easiest way to achieve the style was to literally use an iron. Friends would get together and one girl would lay her head on an ironing board, while another would iron sections of her hair. In a perfect world, the heat and weight of the iron smoothed out the hair into a flat state, but oftentimes a distracted or careless buddy would leave the iron on a bit too long, resulting in scorched hair with a burnt iron imprint. It may have been the anti-fashion, but it still required time and effort, and the risk of burnt hair and skin.

 

The demand for straight, smooth hair resulted in the development of the hair iron, the same idea as the traditional clothes iron, but specifically made for the hair. The hair iron consisted of two flats plates that heated up. You put strands of hair between the plats, slide the iron down, and out came shiny, flat hair. No more leaning on an ironing board and no more nasty burns. As with so many other trends, the anti-fashion was now mainstream.