1950s Hairstyle Illustrations by Warren Meek

Illustrator Warren Meek was a renowned artist in the beauty and fashion world during the mid-20th century. His art is credited with being the main reason that so many of the books his hairstyle art appeared in had sold so well.

Meek’s work appeared in numerous hairstyling books and magazines from the 1940s through the 1960s, including Modern Beauty Shop Magazines and Milady’s Cosmetology Books.

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These images are all from a book of lithographs titled Adventures in Hairstyling. It was created in conjunction with famed hairstylist James Victor. Meek was Victor’s favorite illustrator he chose often to draw his hairstyle designs in the 1950s and 1960s.

Adventures in Hairstyling is a very rare book, I think, for obvious reasons. Salons would cut up books like this to display the hairstyles in their beauty shops.

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This book, in its original form is 11×17 inches, which is a great standard size to frame and hang on a beauty shop wall.

The drawings are the height of glamorous hairstyles of the 1950s.

Each hairstyle is named for the feminine ideals of the time and the ideals of beauty.

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If you made it this far in the blog post, please comment to answer this question. Is this next hairstyle called “Tonic” or “Panic”. 🙂

Books illustrated by Warren Meek do pop up for sale from time to time. I saw a copy of this book on Ebay recently going for $150. I promise you it is worth that if you ever see one available.

I hope you enjoyed this little walk through hairstyle art history. Happy Hairstyling!