The Best and Most Beautiful Thing a Lady Can Wear on Her Head Is Her Hair! — How Hair Fashions Have Evolved from 400 Years Ago to Today

How Hair Fashions Have Evolved from 400 Years Ago to Today

Woman spends all her ingenuity in the garden of hats, on varieties that range between laughable oddity and vulgarity. If she but knew that the finest crown for her head is the hair the Creator has bestowed on her — hair that takes whatever shape she pleases, in proportion to her taste, and harmonizes with the colors of her face and her eyes, for nature knows nothing but harmony, even in the wildflowers — if she but knew that, she would turn her care to choosing the style that suits her kind of beauty, and spare herself the trouble of hunting through the various sorts of hats.

For our kind readers, here is a review of some of the styles as they evolved in Europe over the last four hundred years; it will be noticed that they evolved from the ugly toward the ever more beautiful.

In picture number (1) the fashion appears as it was at the beginning of the Renaissance, around the year 1550; what shows in it is the stress on the strength and thickness of the hair more than any care for beauty.

In picture (2) appears the curling of the hair in 1680, which was the beginning of hair let down over the forehead.

In picture (3) appear the wires and ribbons with which, in 1690, woman helped set off the beauty of her hair; this continued for a quarter of a century.

By 1780 (4) it had reached its utmost: feathers, pearls, ribbons, and wires — and even little steamships — perched atop hair coated with pomade and powder.

In 1830 (5) the fashion did not change much, but it inclined toward relative simplicity.

In 1880 (6) women's education began to take firm root, and there was a temporary reaction in the attention paid to adornment.

In 1900 (7) hairpins began to be put to use to a great extent, and the hair was built on the architecture of the huge hat that was usually worn outside the house.

After the Great War (8) the fashion of bobbed hair returned, as it had been at the start of the women's renaissance; this fashion went together with very short skirts and high-heeled shoes.

In 1940 (9) taste began to settle on the styles we still love to this day; then it developed until it became as may be seen in pictures 10, 11, and 12.