Victorian Hair Pieces

In the Victorian era, one of the main components of a fashionable hairstyle was having large amounts of hair. This usually was not a problem for a Victorian women as they rarely cut their hair. However, with the rise of department stores in the 1850's more women began to incorporate hair pieces in to their looks to create a full and voluminous style.

These hair pieces could be individual strands of hair or nearly a whole look, as pictured below.

https://ladiesof2318.wordpress.com/page/6/

It was between 1860 and 1870 that hair pieces became really popular, these hair pieces were called chignons. False hair became so popular that sometimes a women's natural hair was covered completely. The false hair was almost all professionally made, with France being the main exporter of hair. It was French and Italian hair which was more preferred during this period. The price of the hair depended on both length and colour with black and white being the most expensive. The prices for these hair pieces ranged from between fifteen and two hundred dollars. Although many women became fascinated by the use of chignons, many men did not like the use of them. As written in Richard Corson Fashions in Hair The First Five Thousand Years 'With female hair rampant, as well as false, male comment in the press lost its note of tolerance and became rather more barbed.' A satiric piece published in 1867 took the form of a 'Suggested law for the abolition of chignons'! In the 1870's males' tolerance on false hair intensified with poets and writers of letters to the editor writing a poem about how much they disliked false hair entitling it, 'Is It Her Own?'. In the 1800's large amounts of hair were still very popular, but with its placement on the hair changing towards the back and top of the head. It was in the 1890's when the use of false hair was reduced, there was now more emphasis in using your own hair and using false hair 'except when really needed.'

Here below is an image taken of the poem Is It Her Own.

                                     


Sources:

Richard Corson Fashions In Hair The First Five Thousand Years

http://chertseymuseum.org/hair