Veronica Lake Had the Most Copied Hairstyle in History — Then Vanished Into Poverty

In 1943, the United States government, in the middle of fighting a two-front world war, made an unusual request of a single Hollywood actress. Women working in munitions and aircraft factories across the country were getting their long hair caught in industrial machinery, in at least one documented case fatally, because so many of them had copied the exact hairstyle made famous by a twenty-year-old Paramount star named Veronica Lake, hair cascading down over one eye in a soft, cascading wave that women across America had spent two years trying to recreate in front of their own bathroom mirrors. Lake agreed, cut the hair, filmed a public safety newsreel showing off a more practical victory roll, and watched her signature look, quite possibly the single most widely imitated hairstyle in the history of American popular culture, effectively retired at the request of the federal government because it had become a literal, physical danger to the women who adored her. That is how famous Veronica Lake was at her absolute peak.