A HISTORY OF HAIR
In 1916, an article in this magazine read: ‘It is not much use having nice features unless they are framed by prettily growing hair.’ Nearly 100 years on, it is a sentiment that I, along with millions of other women, can still sympathise with. I bought my first set of hair straighteners when I was 14. It’s fair to say that they transformed my life, as well as my locks.
So when Patricia Malcolmson’s book, Me And My Hair: A Social History, landed on my desk, I was intrigued. ‘Hair is a vital aspect of a woman’s identity,’ writes Malcolmson. ‘It conveys so much about who she is or would like to be.’
This is not a new thing – it has always been thus. Ladies through the ages have grown, cut, bleached, permed, dyed, curled, and ironed their tresses in a seemingly never-ending quest for luscious locks. But how have the desired styles changed over the years? ‘Before the Great War – and indeed for centuries before that – women wore their hair long,’ says Malcolmson.
‘In the early decades of Victoria’s reign, hairstyles were fairly simple, often parted in the middle and drawn back into a simple bun or twist, a mode of hairdressing necessitated by the virtually universally worn poke bonnet that concealed most of a woman’s hair.
From left to right: 1990s Hair was long, but never worn down. The Edwardian love of large hats meant hairstyles had to be able to support them. 1910s 1910s A HISTORY OF HAIR A time of limbo between the soft, Edwardian era of the 1900s and the fl apper era of the 1920s. Hair remained long, but was worn in elaborate updos
‘Ample hair was a sign of health and vitality. To help achieve it, mothers advised their daughters to brush their hair for 100 strokes daily – and most mothers followed this advice themselves.’
With women’s emancipation, however, came a more practical perspective. ‘Cascades of hair fell to salon floors in the 1920s and early 1930s – in some places even earlier – as women adopted short, simple haircuts,’ she adds.
‘It was a dramatic change. It was a social and sartorial revolution. Short hairstyles first appeared on both sides of the Atlantic during the Great War and within a decade became the norm for fashionable young women.
‘Short hair was easier for active women to manage, whether working in a military hospital, behind the wheel of an ambulance, doing farm work, playing tennis, driving in open cars or dancing new, fast-paced dances.
From left to right: 1920s During one frenzied week in 1924, it was reported that 3,500 women had their hair bobbed in one New York salon. Stylists kept smelling salts close to hand to revive clients who grew faint as they saw their tresses fall to the floor. 1930s At the start of the decade, hair remained quite close to the head with deep-set fi nger waves. But styles began to soften a little bit, with some volume and length appearing
‘The bob was widely taken as a sign of independence that women had won through their vital work on the home front during the Great War.’
It was in the 1920s that the Marcel wave became stylish and the first permanent-wave machines – ‘cumbersome affairs with electrical cables suspended from the ceiling or from a circular ring above the client’s head’ – were introduced. But by the mid-1930s, hairstyles were becoming long again. The longer bobs and shoulder length hair (with curled ends as ladies’ 1920s perms grew out) lent themselves to more elaborate styles. And as the 1940s approached, truly long hair was once more being championed, dyed or bleached frequently.
From left to right: 1940s The most iconic style from this era was the Liberty Cut and the Victory Roll. 1950s A decade known for experimentation with new styles. Women generally emulated the hairstyles and hair colours of film stars
But the Second World War was soon to change this again. ‘The realities of wartime strongly favoured shorter and simpler hair styles,’ explains Malcolmson.
‘Hair had to be kept tidy and above the collar when worn with a uniform; it had to be off the face and above the shoulder for safety reasons in munitions and other war industries; and, for all women, shorter hair was easier to wash. ‘The new hairstyle of choice was the Liberty Cut. Another approach was the Victory Roll, which involved hair rolled up tightly around the head, sometimes with a large curl formed at the front. The headscarf was practical headgear designed for convenience, often concealing what a woman did not care to reveal (such as curlers or unwashed hair).’
From left to right: 1960s With frequent trips to the hairdressers becoming the norm, beehives and backcombing were commonplace. Brigitte Bardot’s loose locks were a popular look. 1970s Natural-looking hair was celebrated. And Farrah Fawcett’s was probably one of the most emulated styles of the decade
After the war, however, long hair, elaborately upswept, came back into fashion. ‘The 1950s and early 1960s were glory years for hairdressers,’ adds Malcolmson, ‘with women often visiting salons for a set as frequently as once a week.’ And as further emancipation of women came about (the contraceptive pill in 1961, available to single women from 1974; the Women’s Liberation movement of the mid 1960s), younger women once again expressed themselves through their hair.
‘For the young, the hair culture of the early 1960s was still dominated by the backcombed edifices of the beehive or the bouffant,’ she explains.
‘Long hair, brushed but, not “done up”, became a dominant style in the late 1960s and early 1970s. To be natural, in hair as in so much else, was seen in the years around 1970 as a very good thing.’
The 1980s was a time of social and political turmoil – and nowhere is this more evident than in the fashions and hairstyles of that decade. Punk spikes, mohawks, mullets, bangs, vivid colours, crimps, perms and Jheri curls, were just some of the looks. Arguably, as unemployment rose, so too did self-expression through style.
1980s Big hair, puffed up and permed, typified the look of the decade during which Madonna shot to fame – and her hairstyle was copied by millions
Then the arrival of the 1990s (and the accompanying economic growth) brought with it a more conservative, less-dramatic look. Straight hair became de rigueur.
Today it is harder to pigeonhole our hair. With such a wealth of styles over the last century we seem more inclined to pick and choose a look and, indeed, an era that suits. Personally, I flirt with fringes and dabble in dyes, ever rejoicing in the sheer scope of styles we can choose for displaying our tresses.
Me And My Hair: A Social History, is published by Chaplin Books, priced £9.99.
Hair and make-up: Bella Noell www.bellasvintageshoots.com. Production: Bella’s Vintage Shoots, www.bellanoell.com Photography and retouch: JuKaNo Photography: www.jukano.com Production assistant: Helen Bovey
So when Patricia Malcolmson’s book, Me And My Hair: A Social History, landed on my desk, I was intrigued. ‘Hair is a vital aspect of a woman’s identity,’ writes Malcolmson. ‘It conveys so much about who she is or would like to be.’
This is not a new thing – it has always been thus. Ladies through the ages have grown, cut, bleached, permed, dyed, curled, and ironed their tresses in a seemingly never-ending quest for luscious locks. But how have the desired styles changed over the years? ‘Before the Great War – and indeed for centuries before that – women wore their hair long,’ says Malcolmson.
‘In the early decades of Victoria’s reign, hairstyles were fairly simple, often parted in the middle and drawn back into a simple bun or twist, a mode of hairdressing necessitated by the virtually universally worn poke bonnet that concealed most of a woman’s hair.
From left to right: 1990s Hair was long, but never worn down. The Edwardian love of large hats meant hairstyles had to be able to support them. 1910s 1910s A HISTORY OF HAIR A time of limbo between the soft, Edwardian era of the 1900s and the fl apper era of the 1920s. Hair remained long, but was worn in elaborate updos‘Ample hair was a sign of health and vitality. To help achieve it, mothers advised their daughters to brush their hair for 100 strokes daily – and most mothers followed this advice themselves.’
With women’s emancipation, however, came a more practical perspective. ‘Cascades of hair fell to salon floors in the 1920s and early 1930s – in some places even earlier – as women adopted short, simple haircuts,’ she adds.
‘It was a dramatic change. It was a social and sartorial revolution. Short hairstyles first appeared on both sides of the Atlantic during the Great War and within a decade became the norm for fashionable young women.
‘Short hair was easier for active women to manage, whether working in a military hospital, behind the wheel of an ambulance, doing farm work, playing tennis, driving in open cars or dancing new, fast-paced dances.
From left to right: 1920s During one frenzied week in 1924, it was reported that 3,500 women had their hair bobbed in one New York salon. Stylists kept smelling salts close to hand to revive clients who grew faint as they saw their tresses fall to the floor. 1930s At the start of the decade, hair remained quite close to the head with deep-set fi nger waves. But styles began to soften a little bit, with some volume and length appearing‘The bob was widely taken as a sign of independence that women had won through their vital work on the home front during the Great War.’
It was in the 1920s that the Marcel wave became stylish and the first permanent-wave machines – ‘cumbersome affairs with electrical cables suspended from the ceiling or from a circular ring above the client’s head’ – were introduced. But by the mid-1930s, hairstyles were becoming long again. The longer bobs and shoulder length hair (with curled ends as ladies’ 1920s perms grew out) lent themselves to more elaborate styles. And as the 1940s approached, truly long hair was once more being championed, dyed or bleached frequently.
From left to right: 1940s The most iconic style from this era was the Liberty Cut and the Victory Roll. 1950s A decade known for experimentation with new styles. Women generally emulated the hairstyles and hair colours of film starsBut the Second World War was soon to change this again. ‘The realities of wartime strongly favoured shorter and simpler hair styles,’ explains Malcolmson.
‘Hair had to be kept tidy and above the collar when worn with a uniform; it had to be off the face and above the shoulder for safety reasons in munitions and other war industries; and, for all women, shorter hair was easier to wash. ‘The new hairstyle of choice was the Liberty Cut. Another approach was the Victory Roll, which involved hair rolled up tightly around the head, sometimes with a large curl formed at the front. The headscarf was practical headgear designed for convenience, often concealing what a woman did not care to reveal (such as curlers or unwashed hair).’
From left to right: 1960s With frequent trips to the hairdressers becoming the norm, beehives and backcombing were commonplace. Brigitte Bardot’s loose locks were a popular look. 1970s Natural-looking hair was celebrated. And Farrah Fawcett’s was probably one of the most emulated styles of the decadeAfter the war, however, long hair, elaborately upswept, came back into fashion. ‘The 1950s and early 1960s were glory years for hairdressers,’ adds Malcolmson, ‘with women often visiting salons for a set as frequently as once a week.’ And as further emancipation of women came about (the contraceptive pill in 1961, available to single women from 1974; the Women’s Liberation movement of the mid 1960s), younger women once again expressed themselves through their hair.
‘For the young, the hair culture of the early 1960s was still dominated by the backcombed edifices of the beehive or the bouffant,’ she explains.
‘Long hair, brushed but, not “done up”, became a dominant style in the late 1960s and early 1970s. To be natural, in hair as in so much else, was seen in the years around 1970 as a very good thing.’
The 1980s was a time of social and political turmoil – and nowhere is this more evident than in the fashions and hairstyles of that decade. Punk spikes, mohawks, mullets, bangs, vivid colours, crimps, perms and Jheri curls, were just some of the looks. Arguably, as unemployment rose, so too did self-expression through style.
1980s Big hair, puffed up and permed, typified the look of the decade during which Madonna shot to fame – and her hairstyle was copied by millionsThen the arrival of the 1990s (and the accompanying economic growth) brought with it a more conservative, less-dramatic look. Straight hair became de rigueur.
Today it is harder to pigeonhole our hair. With such a wealth of styles over the last century we seem more inclined to pick and choose a look and, indeed, an era that suits. Personally, I flirt with fringes and dabble in dyes, ever rejoicing in the sheer scope of styles we can choose for displaying our tresses.
Me And My Hair: A Social History, is published by Chaplin Books, priced £9.99.
Hair and make-up: Bella Noell www.bellasvintageshoots.com. Production: Bella’s Vintage Shoots, www.bellanoell.com Photography and retouch: JuKaNo Photography: www.jukano.com Production assistant: Helen Bovey
HAIR FACTS
- Purchase taxes (introduced in 1940) meant hairnets, hairpins and curlers attracted a 33 per cent tax – in contrast to 16 per cent for most garments and footwear.
- The post-war years were a time of strict 'rules' about deportment, demeanour and appropriate behaviour. There was a 'rule' that women over 50 should not wear their hair below the chin line.
- Children were sometimes used in 1920s advertising to reassure clients about the safety of perming machines.