“California Dreaming” by The Mamas & The Papas plays from the DJ booth as Noelle Boyd enters the spotlight.
Vintage sunglasses protect her eyes from the blinding stage lights as she sashays down the stage in a grey pinafore dress and patent leather Mary Janes. She stops at the edge to perch her sunglasses on top of her bright red hair, carefully teased into a bouffant, and strikes a pose.
For the 20-year-old cosmetology major, this is the moment weeks spent studying 1960s fashion and creating a look that paid homage to actress Sharon Tate has been building up to.
From retro flips to foot-high liberty spikes, the El Camino College cosmetology department took over the Campus Theatre stage on Wednesday night for a retrospective of vintage styles as part of its 5th annual hair show.
“It’s a performance, but it’s also documenting everything they learned in cosmetology about styling hair, putting together a look and following that rule of the look,” Charlene Brewer-Smith, professor of cosmetology, said.
Over 60 students, split into five groups, worked together to put on a parade celebrating fashion from the 1950s to the 2000s.
“We display visuals and physical examples of things that we’ve learned,” cosmetology major Lucy Dallavo, 22, said. “It’s inspired by things like decades, themes and movies and we use our skills to replicate visuals from those times.”
The hair show began at 7 p.m. with an opening act by the freshman cosmetology students.
They staged a circus performance set to “The Greatest Show,” complete with ringmasters, clowns and a lion tamer who wielded her floor-length braid like a whip.
Over 100 people attended the hair show, many of whom are family and friends of the stylists.
“We came last year,” Chelsea Marquez, stepmother to student Cecelia Marquez, said. “We’ve been coming every year she’s been in the program. She co-choreographed it, so we’re really excited.”
“Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” heralded the entrance of the 1950s, where greasers rocked out to Elvis and a model in a demure pink dress passed out lollipops to “Lollipop.”
The 1960s celebrated fashion icons Twiggy, Brigitte Bardot and Sharon Tate before the models disappeared offstage then reappeared again as the Beatles, complete with matching suits and shag wigs, to perform “Come Together.”
The 1970s, resplendent in glittering jumpsuits as Disco Diva Dolls, made their entrance known by storming the aisles and wielding “Flower Power” picket signs to a medley of Donna Summer.
At 29 participants, many of whom are part of the cosmetology department’s night classes, the 80s showed that “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” with a night out in neon jumpsuits and bold graphic prints.
“I used to be a dancer, so it brought back everything to me and I loved it,” cosmetology major Cecelia Marquez, 22, said. “I used to watch a lot of 80’s movies and I loved the half up, half done hairstyle.”
When it came to the 90s, pop culture reigned supreme with models paying homage to “Friends” with a Phoebe look-a-like and the infamous crank call scene from “Scream.”
With a proclamation that “the princess is here” from Ciara and Missy Elliot’s 2004 hit “1, 2 Step,” models showed off 2000’s materialism in pink velour tracksuits and hairstyles invoking stars like Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce.
While the night was a celebration of the stylists’ skills, the night was also a bittersweet reminder that this was the grand finale for some.
Graduating students were applauded for their hard work and rewarded with bouquets of flowers. Brewer-Smith noted that, at the beginning of her tenure at El Camino, many students didn’t graduate.
“We’re showing them how to do it and we’re pushing it,” she said. “You were in a good place and at a good time.”
For those students leaving, Dec. 4 marks their last hurrah before moving on to the next chapter in their lives.
“I’m hoping to get out of this one last goodbye for my class because this is my last semester and it’s the last activity we’ll get to do together before I leave,” Boyd said.
