Actress Beauty Tip #39: Carroll Baker Beer Hair Rinse

This is the 39th installment of the classic actress beauty tips that I have read about and tested.

Carroll Baker in 1962

Actress Carroll Baker entered Hollywood in the 1950s as a new face, with roles ranging from Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor’s daughter in “Giant” (1956), a virginal southern girl in “Baby Doll” (1956), or a young woman dealing with the mental effects of rape in “Something Wild” (1961).

While her roles varied, Baker was considered glamorous. In an Aug. 1, 1962, article with Lydia Lane, she said when she first started out, she was less concerned with glamour and was more interested in being a good actress.

But according to Lydia Lane’s beauty column, this changed by 1962.

“With success there are obligations and I felt that when I appeared in public, people expected me to look like a movie star,” she’s quoted in Lane’s column.

To achieve her glamorous look, one beauty secret Carroll Baker performed was rinsing her blond hair with beer.

“My hair is oily, and I like to wash it every other day…,” she is quoted in Lane’s column. “I like to set my hair in flat beer and use large rollers. I have tried other wave sets, but nothing gives body to my hair like beer.”

Baker would then sit under her personal hair dryer while her hair set. She would leave the beer bottle open until the beverage lost carbonation and was flat, according to Lane’s column.

After reading this, I decided to give this a try. After all, I‘ve rinsed my hair with champagne for classic films, why not try another alcoholic beverage?

Like Carroll Baker, I have oily hair. Mine is slick, flat and oily so I have to wash it every day. I also generally don’t use any styling products and only wash and dry my hair.

My Ingles grocery store sells beer separately by the bottle, so I was able to buy just two bottles (rather than a whole pack). I decided to use Sierra Nevada beer.

I rinsed my hair on two separate days and styled differently and here’s how it worked out.

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