Style : LOOKS : ON THE FLIP SIDE : The ‘60s Hairstyle Bounces Back With a Vengeance. But How Long Can It Hold Up?

It was the way our mothers wore their hair before there was a musical by that name, and few of us post-feminists would have ever guessed we’d imitate it. Yet here we are in 1995, and stylists everywhere, from Christophe’s salon to the small-town beauty parlor, are silently flicking brushes in Zen-like unison in an attempt to give their clients the perfect ‘60s flip.

The flip, for those of you still trying to master your Topsy Tail ponytail gizmo, is that upturned coif once favored by Ann-Margret and now seemingly by everyone who owns a blow dryer. Over the years, there have been hairstyles for ladies who lunch (Ivana’s upswept pouf) and ladies who serve lunch (spiral perms), but rarely do you find one style straddling the railroad tracks. Not since Farrah’s frosted, feathered shag, in fact, has there been such a thoroughly democratic ‘do. A few seasons or so ago, only models (Helena Christensen, most notably) were flipping out. But the style quickly percolated through pop culture, and now even Hillary Clinton, after several muffed coifs, has been spotted in the same turned-out curls now worn at the mall.

Turn on your TV, and you can flip from flip to flip. Marilu Henner’s layered version in the morning. Nameless soap sirens in the afternoon. Ellen DeGeneres and Tori Spelling with their helmet-like mini flips in network prime time. Not to mention Jennifer Aniston on “Friends” or Mary Tyler Moore on “Nick at Nite.” Even the anonymous model in the GM MasterCard ads wears one.

The flip is not without its risks. DeGeneres, after all, admitted in a trashy magazine that she once went berserk with her curling iron, turning the ends of her hair into a neck-length sausage roll coiled serpent-tight and ready to explode. I’m not sure what depresses me more, that DeGeneres, a woman I admire, uses one of those ‘70s appliances that I assumed we all tacitly agreed to retire with yogurt-makers and rock polishers, or that she ‘fessed up to it.

What’s gotten into her? What’s gotten into us ? I have my theories. That the flip looks Grace Kelly-sleek yet kicky enough to surf from Malibu to the mosh pit. That it works dry, slicked back, completely poker-faced or with the kind of irony needed to appreciate “The Brady Bunch Movie” (wherein Carol Brady sports the ‘70s take). It’s also, as Elizabeth Hurley proved, the hair to wear when facing the public for the first time after your boyfriend’s been busted for soliciting a prostitute.

According to Roz Music of the Delux Beauty Parlor on North Fairfax Avenue, who says the latest incarnation is the shaggy flip, the appeal is simple: It’s goof-proof. “A lot of people who have hair anywhere from the neckline to the shoulder blade find that it flips naturally.” Those who do need help need look no farther than the newsstand: “While hair is damp, hold a vent brush at the nape of your neck, flip the hair up slightly and blow straight up into the brush,” advised Glamour in a recent issue.

Hairdressers, now chained to their vent brushes like so many sorcerer’s apprentices, are probably wishing they’d never thought of the flip. When I had my hair cut recently, a woman ahead of me was being flipped. The stylist suggested one for me, too. But she couldn’t quite muster the necessary professional enthusiasm and wound up giving me a chin-length bob instead. I applaud her bravery and individualism. You heard it here first: Six months from now, the flip will be a mere blip on the radar screen of style.

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Hair: Guy Laurent/Susan Price; makeup: Alberto Fava/Marek; model: Teresa Stewart