1970s Punk
Early women in punk were mostly confined to a few roles: groupie, girlfriend or lead singer. There were a few all-girl bands, like the Runaways, but most 1970s bands were all-guy or one-girl.
Women who broke the mold included Anya Phillips, a fashion designer and impresario, and Vivienne Westwood, fashion designer and cofounder of the legendary London shop Sex. Westwood often dyed her hair then-unusual colors, like near-white blonde, and bright copper.
1980s Punk
For other punk girls and women, black hair was the name of the game. Joan Jett, Siouxsie Sioux, Exene Cervenka and Lydia Lunch all had jet-black hair with bangs and layers framing the face. Jett wore hers in a mullet.
In the mid-80s, Kat Bjelland and Courtney Love, who were then about 20 years old, took after Nancy Spungen, by dying their hair platinum blonde and putting it into ringlets. They also started wearing plastic bows and clips in their hair, to accentuate their kinderwhore aesthetic.
1980s punk hairstyles were fairly high maintenance. Big hair, spiky hair, and long hair was in. With the possible exception of skinheads, girl punks paid a lot of attention to their hair.
