The history of Victory Rolls and why you should have them!

More about the history of victory rolls, and why YOU need them!

These were made popular during WWII, approximately 1940 to 1946, and can be seen in many old Hollywood films of the time.

Betty Grable was one of the most enthusiastic standard bearers of this hairstyle, in her vivid technicolor musicals during WWII.  Carmen Miranda was another famous entertainer who made this hairstyle popular.

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Why they are called victory rolls

There are a few theories here:

One theory suggests that they symbolize allied aerial plane maneuvers : the airplane would do a horizontal spin to celebrate a victory.  It is speculated that these hairstyles mimicked the roll of the airplane.

Another theory, and the one I subscribe to, is that women supporting the war effort by working in the factories and war production plants during WWII adopted this hairstyle to keep their hair safe from machinery.

There was a famous campaign in which popular starlet of the time Veronica Lake urged women to adopt the victory rolls and updos, with a photo of her famous peek-a-boo hairstyle getting caught in a drill press!

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Any theory you want to believe is fine, and these hairstyles are synonymous with the war effort and women’s participation and support.

How did they do victory rolls

Women used rats, which was hair collected from combs and brushes and matted into a shape, and then wrapped their hair around them to create the rolls.

Quite often the hair was backcombed as well.  I personally love to backcomb hair when I create victory rolls for people.

No matter how fine the hair is, it responds well to a good backcombing, and I haven’t met a head of hair yet that I couldn’t roll into this style.

Stay tuned for my upcoming videos where I demonstrate how to do a victory roll.

And, as always, feel free to comment and suggest any subject you would like to see covered in a future blog post.