WOMEN’S HAIR

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1927, Page 8

WOMEN’S HAIR

SERIES OF EXTRAVAGANCES. Among all races, both savage and civilised, the hair has always been the object of special attention. False hair, dyes and pomatums have been used in all ages; Roman ladies powdered their hair with gold dust; and Mary Queen of Scots ordered false hair while she was in prison. Within recent times, ladies’ hair has been dope in a way that was popular in ancient Greece; and the men of old Rome wore their hair short. Religion sometimes has some influence upon hairdressing, for Mahomedans and Hindus always have a long tuft of hair, by which, so they believe, they may be drawn up to heaven. Hairdressers once practised as surgeons, and they were persons of considerable importance in the eighteenth century, when the ladies’ coiffures were extraordinarily elaborate. Hair varies considerably among various nationalities, and in different climates. In Great Britain many shades of hair are to be seen, because various nationalities have become mingled, and the people have inherited their combined characteristics. But, generally speaking, the inhabitants of northern Europe have hair that is as fine and fail - as that, of the Oriental races and Red Indians is coarse, lank and black. The Australian aborigines have dark, crinkly hair; negroes, Hottentots and Papuans, black, woolly mops.

The hair among savage races is usually a source of intense pride. Certain tribes living in the New Hebrides wear it long and twist, each strand on a separate thread —a style of hairdressing that takes five years to complete! After a journey, his hair is the Fijian’s first, thought, before he has even refreshed himself with food and drink. The natives of Fiji have thick, fuzzy, black hair, which stands out over their heads and is shaped as we shape ornamental yew-trees, each district adopting its own design. Sometimes they bleach it with lime and dye it yellow, orange or magenta. Natives in parts of New Guinea screw theirs into numerous cords till it resembles a floor-mop!

Among some of the South Sea islanders the barber who dresses the chief’s hair must not touch anything else, because his work, is held to be sacred. Somebody has even to put food into his mouth.

The fuzzy hair of the negro lends itself admirably to elaborate dressing, as witness the two Ibo girls of West Africa. Those about 14, part their hair in four places, tying up the short tresses until they get a row of knots midway between each parting. When they are a little older they will dress their hair more like the girl of 17. She also has a row of little knots along her crown, but the rest of the hair has been allowed to grow long. Then each tress is twisted and fastened to the wooly underhair to form strange patterns. The Chinese employ the curious method of partly shaving the head; the men used also to have long pigtails, but, these have become unpopular. Mancha ladies wear huge bows of hair sticking out on either side of the head.

In Kyoto, Japan, there is a wonderful temple, and the material for building it was hauled from the mountains by ropes made of human hair, which many devout women gave. This must have been a tremendous sacrifice, for her hair is a Japanese woman’s most treasured adornment.

The Anglo-Saxon girls were not allowed even to plait their hair until they had reached a certain age; but after marriage they had to cut it short in token of servitude to they- husbands. The girls must have rebelled against this rule, for eventually they were permitted to fold it round their heads instead —to “put it up,” as we say.

During Henry Hl.’s reign, women gathered their hair into cauls of gold network on each side of the face. Elizabeth brought the curl back into favour, and ladies’ coiffures were worn very high on the head and were decorated with jewels. It was in the eighteenth century that hairdressing reached the heights of ridiculous extravagance—literally to heights, for ladies’ hair was formed into mounds three feet high, piled over tow, plastered with pomade and powder, and embellished with artificial feathers. A woman of rank could not get into a closed conveyance without stooping or kneeling! France went to still greater extremes. A lady’s hair would be built upon a frame and made to represent a background for miniature scenes in which were moving windmills, temples, hills, ships, grottoes, flowers, shrubs, birds and tiny figures. For an important function, a lady would have her hair dressed two or three days in advance, and, just as the South Sea Island chief makes himself uncomfortable at night for the sake of his coiffure, so would an eighteenth century lady sit up in a chair instead of going to bed, for fear of spoiling the hairdresser’s achievement.

In every country of the world the vagaries of fashion have taxed the ingenuity and imagination of the hairdressing profession; but it would seem that hairdressers have never failed to rise to the occasion. In Britain they used always to be men; now women, too, follow the calling.