thumb|American actress [[Natalie Wood with a beehive in a 1962 promotional photo for the movie Gypsy]]
The beehive is a hairstyle in which long hair is piled up in a conical shape on the top of the head and slightly backward pointing, giving some resemblance to the shape of a traditional beehive. It is also known as the B-52 due to a resemblance to the distinctive nose of the Boeing B-52 Strategic Bomber. The 1980s band The B-52's took their name from the hairstyle, which was worn by members Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson. She originally modeled it on a fez-like hat that she owned. In recognition of her achievement, Cosmetologists Chicago, a trade association with 60,000 members, created a scholarship in Heldt's name for creativity in hairdressing.
Heldt died on 10 June 2016, at a senior living community near Chicago.
Technique
The beehive is constructed by backcombing or teasing the hair with a comb, creating a tangled pile which is lightly combed over to make a smooth outer surface. The longer the hair, the higher the beehive. Beehive styles of the early 1960s sometimes overlapped with bouffant styles, which also employed teasing to create hair volume; but generally speaking, the beehive effect was a rounded cone piled upwards from the top of the head, while the simple bouffant was a wider, puffier shape covering the ears at the sides. Both of these can be distinguished from the pompadour style, the basic type of which is swept upwards from the forehead.
Notable examples
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- Celebrities such as Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot, among others, helped popularize the hairstyle. Audrey Hepburn was one of the first to embrace it, famously wearing the style in her role as Holly Golightly in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
- The popular girl group The Ronettes also helped popularize the hairdo. "We came from Spanish Harlem", recalls the group's veteran lead singer, Veronica "Ronnie" Spector, in a Village Voice interview. We had high hair anyway.' So the Ronettes made their hair still higher—'We used a lot of Aqua Net.
- The B-52's, a new wave rock band took their name from the hairstyle which was worn by members Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson.
- Coronation Street character Bet Lynch wore a platinum blonde beehive since the 1970s. The Manchester Evening News dubbed this the "worst haircut in soap history" even while acknowledging that it made her one of the series' most memorable characters.
- Marge Simpson from The Simpsons is a well known fictional character with the hairdo.
- The character Flo, a waitress in the 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, as well as the subsequent TV series wore her hair in a beehive.
- Sheila Broflovski from South Park wears her hair in a beehive.
- Mari Wilson, British singer probably best known for her hit "Just What I Always Wanted" in the 1980s, was well known for her beehive hairstyle throughout that decade.
- Amy Winehouse's beehive was inspired by Ronnie Spector's from the 1960s group the Ronettes. "Ronnie Spector—who, it could be argued, all but invented Winehouse's style in the first place when she took the stage at the Brooklyn Fox Theater with her fellow Ronettes more than 40 years ago—was so taken aback at a picture of Winehouse in the New York Post that she exclaimed, "I don't know her, I never met her, and when I saw that pic, I thought, 'That's me!' But then I found out, no, it's Amy! I didn't have on my glasses."
- Former Arizona governor Rose Mofford was known for her signature beehive hairdo.
- In regard to the beehive of Janice Rand from Star Trek: The Original Series, Tor.com stated, "When you think of the '60s and science fiction hairstyles, the first image is probably Rand’s beehive hair".
- Patsy Stone from Absolutely Fabulous always wore her blonde hair in a beehive with a fringe; a signature trait of the character.
See also
- Bouffant
- List of hairstyles