What does bouffant mean?
Bouffant is a noun describing a hairstyle in which the hair is teased, backcombed, or arranged over padding so that it stands out in a full, rounded mass above the head. The word derives from the French adjective bouffant, meaning 'puffed out' or 'swelling', which itself traces back to the Italian buffare, 'to puff'. While the hairstyle sense dominates modern usage, bouffant also appears as an adjective describing garments cut with abundant volume — a bouffant skirt, for instance, billows away from the body rather than clinging to it. The term is inseparable from mid-20th-century fashion: the great bouffants of the late 1950s and 1960s, worn by figures such as Jacqueline Kennedy, became icons of glamour and formality. Because of that era-defining association, the word today tends to evoke nostalgia, retro elegance, or deliberate period styling, making it a vivid shorthand for a distinctive moment in fashion history.
nounA woman's hairstyle in which the hair is piled high on the head and puffed out, often over a pad or roll. The word can also describe clothing or fabric that is puffed out or billowing.
- A woman's hairstyle in which the hair is puffed out and piled high over the head, often built over padding.
- (Of clothing or fabric) puffed out or gathered into full, billowing folds — as in a bouffant skirt or sleeve.
"She swept her hair into an elegant bouffant for the gala."
"Her silver-streaked bouffant towered above the other guests at the reunion."
"The bride wore a vintage gown with a bouffant skirt that swished as she walked."
The plural follows regular English formation. It is most natural when referring collectively to several such hairstyles, e.g. across different people or eras.
"The exhibition traced the evolution of bouffants from the courtly wigs of the eighteenth century to the teased styles of the 1960s."
The word 'bouffant' comes from the same Latin root as 'buffoon' — so every towering sixties hairstyle carries a hidden joke in its name.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bouffant
Bouffant entered English in the 18th century as a borrowing of the French adjective bouffant, the present participle of bouffer, 'to swell or puff out', ultimately derived from the Italian buffare, 'to puff'. The same Italian verb gave rise to buffet and buffoon, making them distant cousins of bouffant. The word was applied first to puffed-out fabric and later, most famously, to the voluminous hairstyles that peaked in popularity during the 1960s.
Related word forms
How bouffant is actually used
Bouffant functions primarily as a noun for the hairstyle but is frequently used attributively ('a bouffant dress', 'bouffant sleeves') to describe puffed-out garments. The style is strongly associated with mid-20th-century fashion, particularly the 1960s, so it often carries a retro or camp connotation. The noun has an anglicized plural 'bouffants'.
Easily confused with bouffant
A buffet is either a piece of furniture for serving food or a meal laid out on such furniture, whereas a bouffant is a puffed-up hairstyle; the two share a French etymological root but nothing else.
A beehive is a specific tall, conical updo popular in the early 1960s, while bouffant refers more broadly to any hairstyle with hair puffed high and full around the head, and also describes puffed-out clothing.