I styled my hair like I was in the '50s for a week and I was surprised by how many looks I liked

Like my ill-fated pin curls, the bouffant look was unsuccessful. It seems that '50s hairstyles requiring lots of hold and dexterity were out of my skill set.

I preferred the poodle hairstyle to the bouffant, anyway. It's distinctively vintage with sky-high volume, but it didn't require too much know-how. I also enjoyed putting old-fashioned twists on familiar looks like ponytails and headbands.

I'm not usually one to experiment with my hair — I wear it down almost every day and leave it at that. I appreciated the chance to try some new styles and see what I might have looked like if I'd been born a few decades earlier.

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Teasing involves backcombing hair towards the root in order to provide a lift. My bouffant ended up looking like a rat's nest.

I pulled my hair forward in order to create volume, then folded it back over my head so that the ends would look turned under. The whole thing immediately collapsed.

According to "Encyclopedia of Hair," the bouffant is a voluminous hairstyle with a high top, wide sides, and the ends turned under or over. It looked pretty technically challenging to create — most women in the 1950s went to salons and left bouffants to the professionals.

One person said it looked like a "lady mullet," but the consensus was that my hair looked pretty fabulous.

This style was easier than I anticipated. I rolled the front section of my hair towards my forehead until it sat in a voluminous pile on my head, and then pinned it in place. I've done toned-down versions of this style for special events, so it felt like it was in my wheelhouse.

Lucille Ball often wore the poodle hairstyle on "I Love Lucy," which ran from 1951 to 1957.

I managed to keep the first few curls secure, but every time I started working on another section of hair, the curls would tumble out. Maybe I should have used more hairspray.

The first curl went fairly well. I dampened my hair to help it keep its shape, and was able to secure the curl with just one pin.

Pin curls are created by rolling strands of hair towards the scalp and pinning them in place. Actress Betty Grable wore pin curls in the 1953 film "The Farmer Takes a Wife."

I like wearing headbands, and this style was very easy to construct. I simply tucked my hair into the back of the headband to create a fake bob, pulled some hair out on the sides to create large waves, and secured everything with bobby pins.

While I probably wouldn't wear this tucked-in style in my everyday life, it didn't feel too far off from my usual hairdos.

Like ponytails, I'm also a fan of headbands in my everyday life. They tame flyaways and make fun accessories.

I usually wear ponytails if I'm doing something active or just need to get my hair out of my face. Taking the time to style the ponytail elevated the look for me. I'd probably wear something like this again if I were feeling whimsical.

It was a little tricky to loop the scarf around my ponytail, but I got it on the second or third try.

According to "Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History" by Victoria Sherrow, "a signature look of the 1950s was a high ponytail, often tied with a scarf." Teenagers in particular were fond of the style, which was featured on the original 1959 Barbie doll.

With naturally curly hair, I had a head start on '50s styles — no perm required.