"Soft, Glossy Tresses": Shampoo Advertisements, White Women's Hair, and the Late- and Post- World War II Domestic Ideal

Abstract

This dissertation explores how shampoo advertisements inserted white women’s hair in a late- and post-World War II conceptualization of ideal American domesticity. Rather than merely advertising mid-century hygiene products, I argue that shampoo ads characterized a racialized standard of beauty that naturalized whiteness in the representation of ideal late- and post-war domesticity. Using three prevalent brands as case studies, I situate this analysis between the years 1944 and 1952, a time period I refer to as the Shampoo Revolution. Concurrent with this period during which America transitioned from a wartime to postwar economy was the rapid expansion of the shampoo industry which had profound consequences on popular discourse, elevating a narrow representation of hair as a requisite component of American domesticity. The chapters of this dissertation provide an analysis of the emerging hair culture that was by the mid-1940s, a prominent aspect of popular media and beauty industry interests. Additionally, chapters provide a critical analysis of three leading shampoo brands – Drene, Breck, and Lustre-Crème, their respective advertisements, and ads’ placement in two popular magazines. Ultimately, this study contributes to an understanding of the growing national consciousness, and emphasis on the American home front, as the nation transitioned from war to peacetime.