HAIR FASHION HISTORY: THE SIMPLE AND THE OUTRAGEOUS
HAIR FASHION HISTORY: THE SIMPLE AND THE OUTRAGEOUS
I guess humans have been taking care of their hair as soon as Adam and Eve were put on earth. Hair is basic to humanity and hair care, styling and fashion all are only very simple by products of the ever increasing human sophistication. Now in the 21st century, in a world that feels close to Armageddon, hair styling has reached its zenith and in some places of the world, even gone overboard.
Here is a history of how it all began notice how minute details and sophistication enter the hair fashion world as time progresses and brings us closer to where we are today in 2010.
Hair Styling In Ancient Civilizations Simplicity, Nobility and Customs
We start with America where the Incas wore short bobbed hair and covered them with black headbands. The Aztecs braided their hair and color strips of cloth. in other parts of the word, for instance Ancient Egypt, women used clips in normal life (that is as long ago as 30000 BC) but wore curled wigs for religious ceremonies. Roman and Greek women presented long straight hair, decorated with gold powder and colored with henna. Even in America itself, the Mayan nobles wore high head-dresses decorated with complex Mayan symbols and priceless ornaments.
The Chinese and Japanese kept their hair long and tied them into ponytails. Their hairstyles were also dictated by their marital status. Unmarried girls wore their hair open and flowing while married women had to bob them from the nape and tie them in a knot there. Arabia and other Muslim countries have no real hair fashion history because they covered their hair completely with cloth.
By the 15th, 16th and 17th Centuries Excess, Excess, Excess!!!
For some reason, the Renaissance was a time of excess in hair fashion. Women all over Europe got instilled with a craze to show off a higher forehead, wear elaborate long head-dresses and to become Ms. Snow White (starting with the fashion idol of the time - Queen Elizabeth). Well, painfully plucking out the entire facial frontline to display a bigger forehead, wearing a lead based rouge layer on cheeks to add glow and going through hours setting to wear elaborately jeweled hear gear were the in things. I would thank God for not putting me in those times!
By the mid of the 17th century, BIG hair were the newest fashion. Women got their hair made around cages and other figures to give a tall look. But they got so obsessed that in a bid to fashion their hair, the women of the 17th century used horse hair and heavy starch power to get the hair into place and stay there. This mixture caused parasitic vermin to cultivate themselves in the hair and eventually caused total hair loss for a lot of women. Some totally crazy women even got a birdcage made with her hair with real birds nesting and carried it all around all the time.
From the Victorians to the 1920s Sense coming back to hair styling
Well, finally in the early 18th century, man started realizing that he had gone into decadence. The Victorians were the first ones to take on the puritanical line more emphasis on natural beauty and face cut, less emphasis on accessories, jewels and ornaments. For the Victorian woman, hair fashion was about sleekness, shine and elegance. Later on, neatness became the order of the day and Victorian mothers ensured their daughters would not have a single unattended hair, or else they may not get a good proposal.
By 1920 however, society left all puritanical ways because women started getting their long awaited freedom. Hair simply became short, bobbed or waved and with theatre and cinema in the picture, hair styles started becoming dictated by superstars, whether they looked good or bad was never a consideration.
The World Wars Fashion just didn't stop!
Though a war was being waged on many fronts all over the world. The time starting from 1921 to 1950 has seen the best of hair styling compared to the past hundreds of years. Feminity and romanticism were finally brought into consideration. Women wore their hair naturally and only used accentuating colors. The sense of fashion heightened in the human civilizations and people started concentrating on more minute details. But then the wars started waging with more ferocity and practicality was the order of the day women started using head scarves or wore them in a bob at the nape tied into a knot. But in the 50s when the wars were over, glamour wasted no time to arrive to the scene. Severely colored lips, sculpted, sprayed and perfectly rolled hair got into the scene again.
The Hippy Movement and Onwards All about freedom and control
The hippy movement in my opinion was the setting stage for all the changes that were to come to the world. Music, arts, drugs, money, status, cars and above all freedom of speech set the tone of the coming times. The 60s and 70s were a time when man's self obsession was reaching its height. No one wanted to follow any particular style. Hair was supposed to represent your character, your habits, your mentality and your style. Every man and women have their own particular barbers and stylists now. Headbands, head wraps and ponytails were all that was required to fashion ones hair. In some extreme cases you will even see all the hair removed from the head and a knee length frock made out to cover the privates.
CONCLUSION
Reading and writing this article has been quite a revelation for me. I hope it has been for you also. As a conclusion, I would say that we cannot say if the hair styles of today are better or worse than before. A walk around the city will surely bring forth the most outrageous heads in the world. Its really a question of our own mind that leads to our choice of hair styles and fashion hair accessories that we use.
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