Why Does This Blog Exist?

You never know what you'll find here - anything with genealogical or historical value is fair game. This blog will be updated as I clean out my office, go through boxes and piles, or find pertinent items at antique shops. In the meantime, I hope you find something of interest here.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Styles in Hair-Dressing

 

From the May 1905 article of “The Twentieth Century Home”, written by Eleanor Burton

    THERE is style in wearing the hair almost as much as there is style in the wearing of hats and bonnets, and the woman who neglects to give a certain amount of attention to the dressing of her hair fails to take advantage of a very easy method to add materially to such natural personal charms as she may possess.

fig1

    Some very pretty new styles which are just now quite popular show a soft, loosely waved arrangement, half parted and half pompadoured, which seems quite to have taken the place of the tightly waved, stiff pompadour, and of the severely parted effect which so few women find becoming to them. One of the high dressings popular at the present time is made by lirst parting the hair straight across the top of the head and down back of the ears, then parting the front in three parts on the top and sides (Figure 1). To do this, take the middle piece and draw it back a little tighter than the sides, fasten it and then bring back the sides loosely. Then take up the back hair and tie on top of the head, rolling it in a large puff or coil. A jeweler's butterfly fastened at one side of the coil makes an artistic finish.

fig2 fig3 fig4 
    In Figure 2 (left) is shown the hair parted slightly on the left side, puffed a little over the ear. the other side being puffed in a loose side pompadour drawn back into a loose coil in the middle of the back of the head. This is a popular English style of wearing the hair. The English coronet dressing (Figure 3, center) is another typically English method of dressing the hair. Another dressing shows the hair puffed loosely back and front, loosely waved, and finished with a long twist or loose braid in the center of the head (Figure 4, right).  In trying any of these dressings, it will be found much easier to manage them if the hair is first tied at the back, leaving the front hair free to be puffed and rolled without interfering with the back.

fig5 fig6
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Figure 5 (left) shows a twist or loose braid dressing at the back, and Figure 6 (right) a style of wearing the hair very similar to the coronet dressing. This is the high braided effect, but instead of the hair being parted as in the coronet dressing, it is puffed around the front and also slightly at the back.

fig7  fig8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   A soft, low dressing which is very effective for evening wear is shown in the two illustrations at the lower left of the page (Figures 7 and 8). In this form the hair is twisted into a soft coil and worn very loose and low. The front liair can be parted either in the center or at the side, or puffed in a soft pompadour.  Flowers, rosettes of ribbon or tulle, or jeweled ornaments, caught in at the side or on the top of the coil, give a pretty finish.

 fig9
  

A simple dressing which can be worn with the hair combed either low or high is formed by parting the hair straight across the top of the head and down back of the ears, then parting in front at the ears and in the center (Figure 9).  To do this, take each side and comb it up into a puff, pinning it first so as to bring it under the opposite side. Then bring over the other side, turn in the end and pin down the center of the head.   This should form a kind of double-point effect.

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