Hair ornaments held styles in place. Specially designed hair jewelry decorated locks in the 1840s and 1850s. Snoods were all the rage in the 1860s, while heavy looking chain jewelry intertwined with braids in the 1870s. Photographers usually hand colored them gold. Combs were common in the 1850s and in the 1880s. In the 1890s women’s hair worn in tight buns at the crown of the head also included a long pick‐like decorative ornament. Men and women both used hair care products, sometimes to their detriment . Caustic chemicals b u r n e d h a i r a n d s k i n w h i l e e x p l o d i n g b o t t l e s o f t h e s e substances left too near a stove actually killed. It became necessary for products to advertise their ingredients. Mrs. S. A. Allen’s hair restorer and Zylobalsamum were promoted as safe, better than home‐ made concoctions of lard. While the former reportedly cured baldness and banished gray, the latter created s o f t c u r l y g l o s s y l o c k s . (Advertisement in Rev. E. Carpenter, editor. The American National Preacher, New York: E. Carpenter, 1856) Sound familiar? These products supposedly repaired hair burned from over‐use of stove‐ heated curling irons. In the 1870s, another French hairdresser created a new hairstyle with a crimping iron —it was known as the Marcel Wave. It’s easy to see in pictures. Watch for waves on the sides of the head just like the one’s seen here in this woman’s style. Trends in hairstyles and facial hair often stay around for decades such as chin beards or disappear or reappear like bangs. Recognizing hairstyle signiSicance is in paying attention to the details in the photo then adding those impressions to what you already know about a photo. It’s all about telling the story of the picture and the person depicted.
~ 32 ~