All true sixties chicks or any mod who thinks himself qualified enough to utter Jimmy’s famous line "I am one of the faces" will step into the happening hang-outs with back-combed hair, but it is quite hard to get the hang of. If you’re still trying to tease your hair into a bouffant by back-brushing, or you just don’t understand half of the words in this sentence, then read on to discover the secrets of big hair!
Perfect hair for back-combing into sixties styles is thin and straight. If you have curly hair you’re going to have to straighten it with a hairdryer, set it on rollers or use those heavenly new-fangled "straightening irons" (in the sixties you just placed your hair under brown paper and ironed it with a normal clothes iron). If you’ve got thick shiny hair you’re going to have to take layers of your hair and spray them lightly with hairspray, which when dry will make things a whole lot easier. Forget "back-brushing" because if you insist on using a brush your hair will have no real height and sink before you even get out of the door. It may be easier to get out at the end of the night, but that’s only because most of it has fallen out within ten minutes. The perfect comb to use is a "tail-comb" which has closely positioned teeth at one end, and a long thin pointed handle which can be used to section and tease the hair.
Comb your hair into the style you want and then start back-combing at the front of the area you need height. Hair should be taken in small, straight sections (only a couple of millimetres from back to front) using the tail of the comb. Grabbing at large chunks of hair and back-combing them will just cause you to create heavy sections of hair which will sink like a brick rather than stand up. Start at the root pushing the hair right down towards the scalp and slowly work up towards the tips of the hair. The more height you want, the further up you need to do, but about 6cm or 2 inches of back combing on each section is quite far enough. Take another section behind this and continue as far back as you think you need. Good back combing will at least go as far back as the point where your head starts to curve down at the back. This way it is more likely to stay in all day and all of the night.
When you’ve finished all of the sections, lift them back into place, separate the back-combing by pulling it apart a little with your fingers, and begin "teasing" the hair into place by doing the following: Comb out the top layer ever so slightly and gently to make the top look nice and neat, but don’t press on too hard or comb out too deeply or you’ll loose the back combing. If you’re scared of combing all your work out, just lightly brush the top layer with a soft bristle brush. To add extra height, or to fix any areas you’ve squashed , push the tail of the comb into/underneath the back-combing and carefully push/lift the hair up. Style the rest of the hair however you want and then spray with a film of hairspray or lacquer and you’ve finished.
Back-combing is the sixties hairdresser’s answer to everything. When you don’t have any volume in your hair then back comb some in. Those who have trouble with their fringe separating in the middle or their hair falling into a parting instead of going straight back just back-comb the hairs together to make them stay. If your hair goes limp and greasy too soon then back-comb freshly washed hair into a position and keep it in until you next wash your hair.
Once back-combing has been done properly it can be pretty hard to get out. The best thing to do is to leave the back-combing in as long as possible (preferably overnight) and then brush or comb out gently starting at the ends of the hair and working up. This way it should fall out quite easily. Hair that is regularly back-combed needs to be conditioned after washing, and styled using styling sprays to protect the hair from any damage. So long as you treat your hair gently and don’t tear at it there’s no need to worry about damaging it.
The rest is up to you. Once you’ve mastered the art of back-combing it’s quite easy to copy any styles from sixties books and magazines.
