MEMORIES:

When it came to serious hair control in decades past, there were jobs that mere hairspray couldn’t accomplish. Sure, you could turn to something like Brylecream to give you the required holding power, but the tradeoff was a head full of greasy hair that few preferred. But a breakthrough in hair management occurred in the 60s that would forever change hair sculpture. The introduction of hair gel offered the stiffness of grease or the soft hold of hairspray all in one convenient little vat of colored goo.

 

The haircare specialists at Schwarzkopf and Henkel introduced the first hair gel under the names “Dep” and “Dippity-do” in the 60s which offered endless hair-raising possibilities. One could comb it through their locks to give them a soft, yet full-bodied look, or simply let it harden into an impervious shell that a category 5 hurricane couldn’t muss up. Either way, the public had found the perfect solution to their styling challenges and dipped their hands into gallons of the stuff.

 

And with this revolutionary sculpting gel came a plethora of wild new looks, never before possible with mere hairspray. By the 80s, fashionable teens were sculpting mohawks, liberty spikes, and mimicking the eye-catching styles that groups like Flock of Seagulls were proudly displaying, waterfall bangs and all. It was the end of flat lifeless hair, thanks to a simple jar of goo called Dippity-do.