ROMAN'S CROWNING GLORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21640, 4 November 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

ROMAN'S CROWNING GLORY

IHE VAGARIES OF FASHION

OLD HAIRDRESSING STYLES ' BY JOHN JACKSON "And a woman's drowning glory is her hair ' " Centuries have passed since these words \vere written, and we have travelled far since then, nous autres! A cartoon published in the Herald „ a short time ago portrayed two moderns, one seated before her dressing table vigorously brushing her scanty locks, while the other, presumably a visitor, regarded her actions with amazement. " Darling," queried the astonished friend, " whatever are you doing? " » ix Well, old thing." was the answer, " a girl is going to be positively out of it this season if she hasn't a spot of crowning glory! " 0 tempora, 0 mores! Although the modern girl, with her shingle, bingle, or Eton crop, thinks she is displaying the very latest in hair-dressing, it has all/,been done before, and fashion, like history, is merely repeating itself. During the Commonwealth from 16491660, people of both sexas had their hair cut off close to the head. "Roundheads " denoted not merely the male supporters of Crpmwell, but the women did their part ioo, and gallantly shed their tresses for a cause, even as their descendants to-day, votaries of fashion, sacrifice their luxurious locks to the barber's shears.

Compared with the hair-dressing of medieval times, that of the present day is sensible, modest and becoming. Picture what was called a " headdress in other words, the hair dressed with ornaments of one kind or another and built up to the height of a yard and a quarter! Decked out in one of these a diminutive woman appeared a Colossus—a big woman must have seemed overpowering. An old historian says of such styles: " These old-fashioned ' fontanges ' rose an ell above the head; they were pointed like steeples and had long, loose pieces of crape fastened to the top of them, which were curiously fringed and hung down their backs like streamers." This was in the 14th century, and about the end of the 17th renttiry there was another " rising." Dryden says: With curls on curls they build their heads before, And mount it with a formidable tow'r: A giantess ahe seems: but look behind. And then she dwindles to the pigmy kind. Again, Addison, writing in the " Spectator," the first number of ■which was published in 1711, says: "There is not so variable a thing in nature as a lady's head-dress; within my own' memory I have known it rise and fall about 30 degrees." Later on, in the same paper, he says: " One may observe that women in all ages have taken more pains than men to adorn the outside of their heads!" Is this " heavy sarcasm " or simplicity of style? The inference is apparently that men meanwhile were embellishing the interior of their heads! It is to be hoped to some purpose. Apparently the ladies of those times did suffer from nerves or " migraine," for such erections as those described must have been both warm and weighty. The deportment, also, must have been excellent! For had a lady stooped or swayed in her walk, what would have happened »to her precious *' fontange "? Naturally, all kinds of fun was made of this ugly and un-natural fashion. A famous monk. Thomas Connecte, preached so vigorously against the felly and vanity of women, and particularly against the silly head-dress then in vogue, that women who appeared in it were stoned by the rabble. The fashion most beloved of poets, novelists and artists is doubtless the flowing curls of the Victorian era. Everyone will recollect Dickens' charming Dolly Varden in " Barnaby Kudge," and also Dora, in " David Copperfield," both delightful creations. This fashion was eminently suited to young girls, but like many other styles was not so becoming when worn by those in the " sere and yellow leaf." Robert Browning says in " Too Late 3 liked that way you had with your curls. Wound to a ball in a. net behind; and again in his delightful " Toccata of Gahippi's " he mentions the beautiful long golden hair worn by the Dear,-/ dead women, with such hair too—what's become of all the gold TTsrtl to hang and bruph their .bosoms ? The shingle, and more especially perhaps, the Eton crop, have not the " allure " of the curls and masses of hair beloved of the romanticist. Meanwhile,'every day the hair is to be seen growing out from under these quaint little caps and berets, perched so coquettishly on almost a " corner " of the fair wearer's head! Every day, too, ifche hair is a little longer! Cheer up, ye novelists, poets and artists. Curls are coming back!