Here come the bouffant queens

Move over Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Ursula Andress and Elizabeth Taylor! For you ladies no longer retain the title of ‘Bouffant Queens’.

That moniker can now be passed on to a far younger lot. Read: today’s lovelies, including Sharmila Tagore’s very own daughter Soha Ali Khan and even a famous male Hollywood star!

Yes, a crow’s nest and beehive are just some of the ways that the ultra-voluminous bouffant can be best described as being akin to. The hairstyle that involved tons of hairspray and excessive back-combing and that was once thought to be a relic of the swinging ‘60s, looks like it is all set to rock-n-roll once again in 2007!

We got glimpses of the hairstyle earlier this year in Hollywood with the bubbly Nikki Blonsky sporting one in the hit musical aptly titled Hairspray that she stars in as Tracy Turnblad alongside John Travolta, who also wore his hair in a bouffant (he plays the role of Tracy’s mother Edna Turnblad), heralding in the trend of big, big, bigger hair. Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse too has made the bouffant part of her trademark look along with her fishtail eyeliner another reminder of the ‘60s.

Closer home, one saw Lara Dutta wearing her hair the bouffant way in a recent jewellery commercial. And it also looks like Bollywood too has renewed its love affair with the mile-high hairdo. Deepika Padukone drew in the wah wahs with her Hema Maliniesque look in the first half of the newest superhit film on the block Om Shanti Om (OSO) as the lovely Shantipriya with the fancy locks.

Speaking of OSO its ‘co-releasee’ movie Saawariya had Rani Mukherjee playing Gulabi the hooker who tries to seduce hero Ranbir Kapoor with a naughty wink and a jaunty tilt of her bouffant-adorned head.
But hang on, Bollywood isn’t done yet with the bouffant look. The soon-to-be-released Khoya Khoya Chand will have Soha Ali Khan and Sonya Jehan paying obeisance to the hairstyle that Soha’s mother and her contemporaries helped popularise in a bygone era. Interestingly, even actress Neha Dhupia sported the bouffant look in a song sequence in another soon-to-be released flick, Rama Rama Kya Hai Drama.

Now, we all know the famous saying that "fashion is cyclical" and what was in yesterday and out today, might very well be back in favour with the ‘haute set’ tomorrow. So what next? 80’s horrors like poodle perms and baggy pants? Help!

SOurce: timesofindia.indiatimes.com