Now the brand is back, riding the long, curly waves of cool-again ’70s hair. The Breck Girl was born in oil-painted 1936 advertisements, but her Brooke Shields, Cheryl Tiegs, Cybill Shepherd, Jaclyn Smith and Christie Brinkley incarnations in the ’60s and ’70s ushered in the best-selling shampoo’s heyday. Though the Breck Girl will be missing from the brand’s upcoming TV ad campaign, the resuscitated Breck itself is a replica of its disco form, with the gold label and billowy calligraphic “B.” Its Gold Formula, however, needed updating. The original shampoo was too runny and abrasive for today’s standards. Luckily, its scent is just like you remember. “Our mission was to go back to the heritage of the brand,” says Jeffrey Himmel of the Himmel Group, which also revived such retro brands as Ovaltine and Topol Smoker’s Tooth Polish. But who ever wanted to be the Topol Smoker’s Tooth Polish man?
