Was Farrah Fawcett's Hair Really Natural? A Hairdresser Sorts the Claims

Search for Farrah Fawcett’s hair and you’ll be told she simply had naturally wavy, thick hair. Pinterest boards, step by step guides and blowout tutorials all treat the Farrah as something she simply woke up with. The question people actually ask, whether she ever wore a wig, mostly goes unanswered.

So we went back to the record. We read the interviews with the stylists, the 1977 newspaper coverage and the story of the poster itself. Here is every popular claim about the Farrah, sorted into what’s documented, what’s disputed and what simply isn’t on record.

The short answer

The Farrah was her own hair. But it wasn’t just her natural hair. It was thick hair with some natural curl, cut into layers by a professional, and blow dried and set into shape. On the set of Charlie’s Angels, a studio hairdresser did that work. We found no record of a wig.

Documented: she did her own hair for the poster

In 1976, photographer Bruce McBroom shot Farrah Fawcett for the Pro Arts poster company. The red swimsuit was her own, and she did her own styling for the shoot.

The poster sold more than twelve million copies and is considered the best-selling poster to date. In 2011 the red swimsuit was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

So the most famous image of the Farrah really was styled by Farrah. That part of the legend is true.

Documented: the cut came from a hairdresser

Doing your own hair for one photo shoot is not the same as creating the cut. That came earlier, and it came from a salon.

Los Angeles hairdresser Allen Edwards says Farrah first came to him in 1974, brought in by Jane Brolin. Her hair was one length. He started layering it, and the look, in his words, “just evolved from that.”

In a 2009 interview, Edwards described what made it work. The layers around the face were shorter, the cut was flatter on top than most people think, and the “Farrah” part was the edges, which went flipping back.

Then there was the styling. Edwards says he used what he called the blow curl: blow drying the hair mostly with a brush, curling the ends with a smaller brush, clipping it while it dried, then taking the clips out and flipping the head upside down. That’s not a wash and go. That’s a technique.

Documented: on Charlie’s Angels, a studio hairdresser styled it

This is the part most of the internet leaves out.

In March 1977, at the height of Farrah mania, The Orlando Sentinel described her routine on set. She arrived with her hair damp. Naomi Cavin, a hairdresser at ABC’s studios, blew it dry, set it on electric rollers and combed it out. Cavin also regularly trimmed Farrah’s layered bangs.

Her publicist, Bob Palmer, told the paper the look was “very much her own,” and it was certainly her own hair. But it was a professional who put it into shape for the cameras.

Documented: her hair suited the cut

Was any of it natural? Some of it, yes. Palmer said Farrah washed her “naturally curly” hair every morning. One stylist quoted in 1977 guessed she had nearly twice as much hair as most people, medium to coarse in texture.

That matters, because the stylists of the day were clear that the cut worked best on thick hair with some natural curl or body. Farrah’s hair gave the cut something to work with. The cut and the styling did the rest.

Disputed: who created the Farrah

Ask who invented the Farrah and you’ll get more than one name.

Edwards says he is the true creator, and that he has newspaper pictures to prove it. WWD described the cut as having “several fathers”. It named Edwards and fellow Los Angeles hairdresser Hugh York as the originators, and said José Eber played a role in maintaining the look. According to Edwards, Farrah wanted Eber to have the credit because of their friendship.

Farrah herself complicated things. In a 1979 television interview she said the hairdo was her own creation, and that she didn’t use a hairdresser. Edwards didn’t let that stand. He pulled out his clips and photos from 1974 to prove the cut started in his chair.

Not everyone even agrees it started in Los Angeles. One stylist quoted by WWD traced the look to Paris, and 1977 coverage called it a copy of a New York salon’s flip. The best documented claims point to Edwards and the Los Angeles hairdressers around her, and all of them were very skilled at what they did.

Not on record: a wig

We found no interview, studio account or newspaper report saying Farrah Fawcett wore a wig for her signature look, on the poster or on Charlie’s Angels. The only wig in the 1977 coverage is a wig company that tried to get her to put her name, and her hairstyle, on a wig.

That doesn’t prove she never wore a hairpiece in any scene, so we won’t say never. But every documented account points to her own hair, cut and styled.

Not on record: “the most copied hairstyle of all time”

You’ll often read that the Farrah was the most copied hairstyle in history. We couldn’t find a source that measured it. What is documented is that it was one of the most imitated looks of the 1970s, and that it caused real problems in salons.

In 1977 The Palm Beach Post spoke to hairdressers who tried to talk clients out of it. The look seemed effortless but took a lot of work. As one stylist put it, “The hairdresser must take the time to teach the girl how to maintain and control her style.” Another was more blunt: “We’re honest and try to discourage it.”

Any hairdresser who has had a client walk in with a photo of a celebrity will know that conversation.

What this means if you want the Farrah

The 1970s stylists were right, and it still holds today. The Farrah is a cut and a blow dry, not just a cut. It starts with longer hair cut into layers, shorter around the face, with the ends cut to flip back. It suits thicker hair with some natural movement. And it needs styling every time: a brush and a blow dryer, or rollers, to get the flick.

Take a photo to your hairdresser, and ask them to show you how to style it at home. That advice is almost fifty years old, and it came from the salons that lived through the Farrah the first time.

The full story of the Farrah, and the hairdressers behind four other world famous cuts, is in our video The Hairstyles That Changed The World, coming soon to the Tressed Out YouTube channel.