In Praise of the Bouffant
As someone with the temperament of a black cat, I entered my freshman year at an all-women’s, Catholic college incredibly shy and slightly skiddish (I’m sure I’m not alone in that!). It took me a few weeks to warm up to people, and as a result it took my peers a while to learn my name. At the time, I was very into teasing my hair into a voluminous bouffant, leading my classmates to refer to me as “the girl with the pouf.” Later that semester, I started a Tumblr and chose to call it “The Pouf,” frequently posting and reblogging bouffant and beehive hairstyles of Catherine Deneuve, Brigitte Bardot, and various backstage beauty shots.
Fast-forward to four years later, I was a public relations intern at Oscar de la Renta in New York. For some odd reason, the day before the F/W show, I found myself at the Carolina Herrera show where I was wowed by the bouffant-headband situation (below) and decided I would recreate it for the Oscar show. When I arrived at work with hair that was anything but flat, I was scolded because the hairstylist (who shall not be named) keying the show was doing a similar look to the Herrera hair (which this person also created), and assumed I had peeked at the hair test. I was almost sent home because of this, and also because a headset would not fit on top of my giant bouffant. Rookie mistake.
All of that to say, I have a history with and a love for this hairstyle. I don’t do it very often anymore as I try to be as gentle as possible with my hair, but every once in a while I’ll whip out the hair spray and a comb and go to town. Below, find some of my favorite pouffy hair inspiration for bigger, louder hair in 2024.
