1910 Upsweep

Wigs can be traced back to ancient Egypt and were popular throughout the Roman Empire. In medieval times however, wigs were rarely made because women's hair was kept hidden and there was no call for ornate arrangements.

Men had been wearing wigs as a fashion accessory since the mid 17th century when curtains of coiled curls cascaded down the sides of wearer's heads. Their legacy is clearly visible today on the pates of English judges and barristers. In the mid 18th century women took to donning unseemly piles of fake hair for evening and formal day wear. The wigs were often dusted with powder, which was available in several colours but the overwhelming preference was for white. It was believed that white powder gave the illusion of ageless beauty.

French Hairstyles 1777

The overtly obvious wig was abandoned in the late 18th century, due to two main factors. French aristocratic heads upon which to wear the wigs were becoming less plentiful during the French Revolution. At the same time, the sympathy of the English aristocracy lay with the endangered French aristocrats. In order to raise funds to fight the French Revolutionaries a powder tax was levied. The powder, which consisted of scented wheat starch, was applied to pomade smeared hair. Naturally it quickly fell from favour as new taxes were as unpopular then as they are today.

Wigs didn't really return to favour until the 1960s and 1970s when difficult-to-keep styles, such as the Farah Fawcett hair flip were in vogue. Without an army of hair stylists on hand it was easier to don a modacrylic fun fashion wig for a night on the town.

Image © Hair Do, April 1964

Image © Snippets, Fall 1982

Coloured hair...

is certainly not a new concept. Henna was first used in Ancient Egypt to give an intense, unnatural red colour. Other colours have come and gone too, often very quickly. During the early 1960s there was a brief courtship with pastel coloured 'fun' wigs to match party dresses. This was not a new flirtation as a hundred years earlier coloured hair was toyed with as well.

A brief attempt to bring back coloured powders was doomed to failure as the American Fashion Journal 'Godey's' recorded in 1863 - 'The revival of hair powder has not been a success, though to some faces the white powder is decidedly becoming. But rest content there, dear ladies, and do not venture on the violet, blue or green powders you see in coiffeur's windows. This, however, may be a useless precaution, for we think few of our belles would willingly appear with purple or blue heads.'

1980s Punks with their red and purple Mohawks may have thought they were blazing a trail but really were not trying anything new!

Hair Pieces...

...were used to increase the volume of curls and puffs for casual styles during the 18th century. When the fashion for overtly huge, powdered wigs fell from favour, hairpieces remained fashionable for naturalistic curls.

Throughout most of the 19th century, all a clever hair stylist needed was a head of long healthy hair to coil, pin, curl and tuck up into buns, loops, ringlets and knots. Curling tongs and fixatives were available that aided the creation of fashionable hairstyles. Full wigs were rare, except for those who were folliclely challenged due to age or illness.

For most of the past two centuries false hairpieces have been on hand to speed up a lady's 'toilette'. In the 19th century, women who had been cheated by nature of abundant tresses also turned to hairpieces. Women rarely had their hair cut. When they did, they often used the cut hair for making hairpieces for themselves. They could also sell their hair if they were in need of a bit of quick cash. If you have ever read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women you will recall Jo returning home to her horrified family.

Jo took off her bonnet, and a general outcry arose, for all her abundant hair was cut short … `I hadn't the least idea of selling my hair at first, but as I went along I kept thinking what I could do, and feeling as if I'd like to dive into some of the rich stores and help myself. In a barber's window I saw tails of hair with the prices marked; and one black tail, not so thick as mine, was forty dollars. It came over me all of a sudden that I had one thing to make money out of, and without stopping to think, I walked in, asked if they bought hair, and what they would give for mine.'

The first rage for false hair was the bonnet fringe, popular in the 1810's. These could be cunningly tucked under a bonnet's brim to give the illusion of a completely coiffured hairstyle. In the 1820s the Apollo knot became fashionable. It was hair entwined in a wired loop that was placed on the top of the head. The knot was replaced in the late 1830s by masses of side ringlets; then by loops in the 1840s and a slightly puffed wave in the 1850s.

Image © Hair Style Ideas, June 1962

BIG Hair...

...returned to fashion in the late 1860s with the abandonment of close fitting bonnets. Revivals of 18th century-style draped and puffed skirts were mimicked with suitably puffed and draped hairstyles. The piled up 'do's' of the late 1860s and early 1870s rarely have been rivaled. However, the beehive of the 1960s came close. Recent versions could rely on hair spray to help bolster and set the height whereas the 1870s versions were usually achieved more artfully with a mass of false hair called "transformations" in their day.

Hair height was merely a passing fancy and reacted against during the rest of the century with styles that lay close to the head. These had only a "frisson" fringe of curls on the brow, easily achieved with hot tongs or false fringe. Not until the image of the Gibson Girl in the late 1890s and the early 1900s, did a preference for big hair return once again. This time it was achieved with pads, called rats, placed under the combed-over hair. By 1915 full puffed hair slipped down the head into rolls at the nape of the neck and over the ears. Dubbed Kooty garages in their day (a kooty being a louse) this fashion was made necessary by the change in hat style, which covered most of the head.

Image © Hair Do, May 1965

Image © Hair Do, Jan 1972

Perms ...

...developed over time beginning with the Marcel wave, which gave body and style to limp or shapeless hair. Introduced in 1872 this technique (named for it's French inventor) crimped the hair in a tongue & grooved iron, which was heated over a spirit stove. The secret was crimping the hair at the right temperature, which was judged by the smell of the heated rod. To protect the hair it was wrapped in toilet tissue before the iron was applied. If the iron was too hot, the tissue would singe first. The invention was so successful that Marcel retired by the age of 45.

By 1906 Charles Nessler advertised a permanent waving machine that would reproduce the look of naturally curly hair. He used the same principle as that of 17th century wig makers. This involved boiling the hair but did it by using a chemical reagent and enclosing the hair on a curler. This enabled the hair to be steamed while still on the head. The early permanent wave machines were heavy chandelier constructions. They required large amounts of electricity that heated their tubes to over 200 degrees F., which could burn the hair and scalp. The process had a tendency of leaving the hair with a crusty, brittle surface. Several improvements were made during the next couple of decades when permanent waves became standard processes in most salons.

Many European women, who lived through the Second World War, will attest to their worst nightmare of hearing the air raid siren just when the reagent was applied to the head. Half an hour in a bomb shelter would over-perm any head into a frizzy mess. In more than one case the hair was removed along with the curlers when the all clear was sounded.

The first cold wave was introduced commercially in the US in 1941. Cold waving left a strong alkaline smell but lasted for about three months, or until the hair grew out. Improvements to the cold wave system resulted in the 'Toni' perm-the first successful home cold waving system made available to the market in the late 1940s. Cold waves required the application of two lotions, the first-a waving lotion and the second-a lotion that neutralised the first lotion. Timing and careful application were required so as not to over-perm the hair.

In England in the 1950s a highly successful advertising campaign persuaded women that 'Friday night is Amami night'. Described as an aid to achieving a style that was - neat in the kitchen, nice to come home to - it also had a phenomenal effect on male social activity. This blue lotion left legions of husbands and boyfriends staring wistfully into their pints in the local pub, having been forced out of the home by an overpowering odour of ammonia.

1910 Crimping Iron

1927 Finger Wave

1927 Finger Wave

Short cuts have only been around for less than a century, first popularized when Irene Castle promoted the "bob" in 1917 to aid the war effort. It kept tendrils out of munitions factory machinery. It also served to promote the image of a capable woman with important patriotic duties who had neither the time nor patience to fuss with her hair. The trend for shorter hair continued and the bob was popular throughout the 1920s. From the 1930s-1950s hair was generally kept longer than a bob, but much shorter than the Victorian waist lengths. Pin-curled and permed compact styles that worked with the hat styles of the day resulted in a range of short curled coifs. A return to Edwardian upsweeps found favour with some women during the early 1940s, most often chosen to offset romantic-styled halo hats.

The early 1960s saw Vidal Sassoon create a new era for hair. He made the cut more important than the hair's arrangement. Variations of layered bobs have remained in fashion ever since. Some styles have been made famous by the personalities who became identified with them, like Dorothy Hamill's bowl cut and Lady Diana's peek-a-boo. This has not necessary thrilled hairdressers who are regularly faced with mission impossible - a finger jabbing at a magazine picture and its owner's voice saying - I want to look like that!

Image © American Hairdresser, 1945

Image © American Hairdresser, 1945

Image © Hair Do, June 1966

Long and straight hair ...

...was 'discovered' in the early 1960s. Of course some weren't lucky enough to have long, straight hair. If this was your problem there was an ingenious solution on hand. By placing your head flat on the ironing board (with you hair in between two layers of brown wrapping paper) you could iron your hair into submission and burn your ear at the same time.

Image © Hair Do, June 1971

To encourage a generation of females to fuss with their hair, Tressy ('Her hair grows') was launched in 1964. Her appeal was a hole in her head through which one could yank a generous hank of hair. Little girls spent hours styling Tressy's hair (she came with her own book of hairstyles) and when they were through, they could wind it back using a special key. There were tears before bedtime in many homes when Tressy's hair was pulled a little too enthusiastically and it came clear out of the doll.

The hippy generation continued the long hair trend, although tended to let the hair do what it wanted, even if it meant abandoning a comb. This "au naturel" approach inspired most of the popular hairdo's of the last 20 years.

A can of hairspray to create a big, open style in the 1980s, a messy French roll, or a "I took the curlers out too early" look in the late 1990s have all had one thing in common - a trend to look carefully disarrayed.  And as we all know, that takes a lot of work!