Time for a haircut, ladies?
What's It Wednesdays
Time for a haircut, ladies?
Here's the 19th century solution. Adorn it instead!!
ACHC #1961.182.1
ACHC #1979.065.1
These lovely hair combs are just a couple of the ones in our collection. And no, they weren’t for actually combing one’s hair, just holding hair in very fanciful arrangements.
In the Victorian era, when women’s fashion changed from the classic Empire and Regency look to larger flouncy skirts and big sleeves, hair styles changed too. The demure look of pulled back hair in a bun and side curls just didn’t do justice to the fashions.
Hair was styled to complement the fashions and to give balance to the body.
Long luxurious hair was considered to be a women’s most beautiful asset. However, long hair was not displayed in public. Most respectable women wore their hair in intricately braided or twisted up styles. Hair combs added a fashionable embellishment.
At first, combs were made of silver and tortoise shell, something of a misnomer. The tortoises were Hawksbill sea turtles. The shell was prized for its translucent, mottled coloring. It was boiled in salt water to soften. Then it could be pressed into a mold, hardened, and carved.
However, tortoise shell was expensive, so horn was also used. It could be similarly softened and shaped into comb shapes and then painted to mimic tortoise shell. In the 1840’s, gutta percha, the sap the Palaquium tree found in Malaysia, was also used. By the 1880’s, the use of celluloid, the first of thermoplastics, became popular for hair combs. It was just as easily molded, less expensive and readily available.
Although hair combs remained popular into the 1900’s. The Roaring 20’s ushered in a whole different style in fashion and hair.
How's your hair? Have you been able to get a cut yet?