Texas is known for its big hair, but what’s the origin behind those big bouncy locks?

You know the saying: “The higher the hair, the closer to God.”

Dolly Parton may not be from Texas, but her signature hair is right at home in the Lone Star State. People also say everything is bigger in Texas, a reference to its sprawling geography and signature bravado, but they especially mean the hair. Hair is taken so seriously in Texas, there’s even a salon and spa museum outside Fort Worth.

When I say Texas hair, you know what I’m talking about. Think Beyoncé and the cascading locks she wore under her cowboy hat when she performed at the Texans versus Ravens game on Christmas 2024 in Houston, as well as the sculptural blowout she’s sported for the Cowboy Carter tour ever since. Thanks to Queen Bey, Texas hair is having a moment as big as its tresses.

The History of Big Texas Hair

The year is 1964, and Texas Track Club runners Janis Rinehart, 19, and her teammates Paula Walter, 18, and Jeanne Ellison, 16, are the first American women track and field athletes featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated Magazine. The photo is of the three of them crouched down on the track, Rinehart in the foreground with the other two women fanned out behind her. They wear matching red shorts and bright white running tank tops that simply say “Texas.” But the most distinctive elements of their ensembles? Their hair!

Each of them sports a voluminous look that reaches inches off their heads—an achievement to balance while standing, let alone running. Two sport huge blonde bouffants, while the runner in the middle rocks a dark brown beehive almost a foot high. A lot of Aqua Net hairspray was used to hold that hair tight, and don’t think the girls did their hair especially for the Sports Illustrated camera either. Their coach, “Flamin’ Mamie,” actually brought them to a beauty salon before every track meet. The thinking was: the bigger the hair, the bigger the crowds. Their hair even made it into the headline for the Sports Illustrated story: “Flamin’ Mamie’s Bouffant Belles.”

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The coach’s daughter, Jeanne Ellison, has the best quote in the whole piece: “Bouffant is easier to run in because the wind doesn’t blow your hair in your face.” Aerodynamic! On Reddit, commenters compare photos from the Sports Illustrated shoot to Wes Anderson films and Cindy Sherman photos. But looking good was just one layer for the girls. They were serious athletes, too. Later that year, Rinehart went on to compete in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

“I think it’s a power play,” my friend Will tells me, a Texan from Clarendon who grew up there in the ’80s and ’90s. “My grandmother would go to the salon and have her hair set, then wouldn’t wash it until she went back the next week. She slept in bonnets on her back and would have pieces put in to make it look big and full. I think it’s a power play, maybe subconsciously. The idea is that being big is powerful.”

Brett Jordan [CC BY 2.0] FlickrBring on the Bouffants, Baby

In 1992, Texas Monthly ran a story called “Hooray for Big Hair!” Some of its findings? Not only did “sixty percent of women age 25 or older in Dallas wear some variation of Big Hair,” but women in Dallas also “linked hair loss with a loss of power or opportunity in the workplace.”

My favorite tidbit reported in this piece has to do with the legendary hairdresser Vidal Sassoon, who skyrocketed to fame with the success of his “five-point cut,” which was an easy-to-manage, blunt-cut bob. He wasn’t afraid of simplicity or asymmetry, and as a London-based stylist, he cut the hair of royals like Princess Margaret and fashion royals like Grace Coddington. Soon, he had opened salons in New York, London, and Munich and became a global icon in the hair space. But what happened when the iconic Sassoon came to Dallas in the mid-1970s? One would think his success would be inevitable in a land where money flows into beauty salons as easily as oil, but instead, Sassoon had to close up shop soon after opening. As it turns out, nobody in Texas wanted those contemporary, close cuts. Bring on the bouffants, baby.

The origins of Big Texas Hair are debated in that same Texas Monthly story. Some people claimed it was women getting their very own Cadillacs that caused their hair to soar to new heights, inspired by the roominess of their new vehicles. But for Texas hair stylist Gail Huitt, the popularity of big hair was all about creating the illusion of a slimmer and more shapely figure.

“Big Hair was created for one major reason: a woman learned that when her head was smaller than her butt, she looked deformed, like a marshmallow with an olive on top. Big Hair gives a gal proportion,” Huitt told Texas Monthly. Huitt’s words aren’t the kindest, but creating flattering shapes is the goal of most fashion and beauty trends. Women are always finding new ways to exaggerate their features in hopes of creating more balanced and beautiful looks. Want to snatch your waist this summer? Just tease your hair wider.

Remembered for Her ‘Big as Texas’ Hair

Gail Huitt had one client who made the Texans’ love for big hair official. Ann Richards is a big deal in Texas. She not only won the 1990 gubernatorial race in Texas, she did so as a Democrat in a state with a strong Republican presence. According to the Texas Observer, Richards was the first woman elected to statewide office in 50 years when she became governor. Just like those women on the track, Richards won her race while sporting some big ol’ Texas hair. Richards was known for her signature style: an icy blonde bouffant that added a few inches to her height. During her time as governor, she declared March 27th as Big Hair Day in Texas. An official holiday that remains today is celebrated by some with big hair balls and parties.

Richards is remembered for her vision of Texas as a place where all races and genders are afforded equal opportunity, but she’s also remembered for her signature hairdo. Her “big as Texas” hair is a matter of congressional record. When Members of the House of Representatives called for her to be honored for her “extraordinary contributions to Texas and American public life” in 2007, at least three separate representatives made mention of her incredibly coiffed hair. “She told you exactly what you needed to hear, using wit and candor to make her point. Her presence and her laughter could fill a room, even if all you could see was that big white hairdo peeking above the crowd,” Texas Representative Nick Lampson said. Richards may not have had the biggest hair in Texas, but she certainly had the biggest hair in American politics.

Speaking of politics, don’t forget about Roe v. Wade started in Texas. The case was first brought to court in 1970. The lawyer who argued in defense of Jane Roe, a pseudonym for a woman who sought an abortion in Dallas, was a 26-year-old lawyer named Sarah Weddington. Weddington was from Abilene, Texas, and her hair was voluminous in a way that made sense for a Texas woman. We are currently living in a precarious time when it comes to bodily autonomy, but at one point, our entire country had a constitutional right to abortion, and we had a Texan lawyer with Texan locks to thank for that.

Then, of course, there are other “big hair” icons like Farrah Fawcett. Fawcett became an instant icon when the TV show Charlie’s Angels premiered in 1976, but the poster of her in a red Norma Kamali bathing suit is equally as famous. The poster photo features her tanned legs and ample bosom, but it is her hair that really fills the frame. The hair is big and blonde, feathered into a fresh 70s shag, but layered with tons of volume. After all, Fawcett is from Corpus Christi, Texas; she even attended the University of Texas at Austin, but left early to pursue her acting career in Los Angeles.

Fawcett actually posed for this photo the same year she shot Charlie’s Angels, before the show debuted, back when she was still earning a living starring in shampoo commercials. Her big, Texas hair was bankable! The poster sold six million copies in its first year and went on to sell over 12 million copies, making it one of the bestselling posters in history. Needless to say, Farrah’s feathered waves became the reference for millions of women looking for new hairdos during the late 70s and early 80s.

Texas Styling at Home

Texas volume requires products. The style of your hair will depend on its type and texture, but whatever you do, you’ll need support to lift and hold it. Currently, two of the best-selling volumizing products at Sephora are both by the brand Color Wow. One is their Xtra Large Bombshell Volumizer, and the other is their Raise the Root Thicken and Lift spray. However, Color Wow has a brand-new product in its lineup, and it boasts a distinctly Texan flair. Meet the Color Wow Texas Hold ‘Em Hairspray. Safe for all hair textures, this hairspray is made with volume and hold in mind (it also has UV and heat protection up to 380°F).  Texas Hold ‘Em is designed to stay put even in the highest humidity, a necessity for Texas summers.

Don’t forget Beyoncé has a hair care line of her own, too. Beyonce’s mom, Tina Knowles, is from Galveston, Texas. Tina was her creative director at the start of Beyonce’s career, not only designing and making the Destiny’s Child costumes but also bringing the hair and beauty looks to life. After all, before she pivoted her focus to her daughter’s career, Tina founded the salon Headliners in Houston. Beyonce was the headliner at Headliners, singing and dancing for customers as she swept up hair. “We loved the big glamour. Their hair was too big because we came from Texas,” Tina told People Magazine earlier this year.

Big Texas Hair may not be as much of a thing for men, but it’s still something. Just last year, University of Texas student Grant Walther went viral when his big hair was featured on the broadcast of a Texas vs. Georgia football game. The Longhorns may have lost, but Big Hair Guy gained a lot of attention. “It just sticks straight up,” Walther says. His routine? Effortless.

Whether you use hot rollers or a curling iron, throw it up or wear it down, Big Texas Hair is an enduring trend that’s here to stay, and while it may be having “a moment” thanks to Beyoncé and other big-hair-loving celebs, for real Texans, that moment is eternal.