Lucie Minty
Specialist Practice
Hair Politics
The Historical, Social and Cultural Significance of Hair:
During (1185 Bc) Ancient Egyptians removed their hair from their bodies for cleanliness and they wore wigs to protect their head from the heat.
The first image is made from human hair in a linen cap. Used two types of hair: Blond curled hair and black afro hair underneath showing cultural difference.
Miscegemtated- means a blended of cultures.
Greek Macedonians- Clio patria came to the throne.
Reubens 1609-1610
-This is where the understanding of long hair meaning strength came from.
English Civil War 1642-1651
Round head and Cavalier
(Sir Thomas Feared-Cavalier)
King Charles 2nd- Hand long curled hair and dog (King Charles Cavalier)- Cavalier
Mary Antoninette- The bigger and better your hair the more rich you were. The rich could pay for hair dressers and wigs.
Emily Pankerst 1903- The Suffragets . Vote for women.
Women had no equal rights till the 1920’s
First world war had a change in attitude towards women which influenced the change in hair trends for women.
1920’s flapper, Louise Brookes. Until this point had never cut their hair. Women were out working and it was made common for women to have short hair. When women first started to cut their hair it was shocking for the older generation as it threw off the moral restrictions. Short hair was seen as immorality like women drinking smoking or going out in a short skirt. Women in offices were fired for having this hair cut.
Coco channel was known for this hair cut which highly influenced a fashion trend.
This is when the term flapper came into use (It came from the bird name).
Fashion moved on to the silent films. Before people would copy royals hair and fashion but silent movies changed this and it moved the population onto copying film starts.
Silent films also highly influenced men to have more facial hair.
All military men had moustaches and this stayed in place till 1913.
If you tried to go into a getalman’s club with out a moustache it was seen as almost offensive.
The moustache was seen as manly and desirable.
Moustache accessories were being made and sold. (Moustache accessory which kept your moustache dry when drinking tea.)
Military rules in the 21st century.
Industrial Revolution Which Influenced Fashion Trends:
The world war had a massive impact on society.
Teddy boys grew out of the 1950s in American and uk copied.
Everyone copied america as everything was bigger and better and England had all the rubble from the war.
Brill cream used a lot- Beckham did a advert for the hair product.
1960- cultural revolution .
Hair styles needed to rebel about the adult
-Festival of love
-San från Sisco song.
-The flower children- hippy era. Flower power
Hair- The Musical (1968) was on broad way. It caused a lot of common and controversy for that time.
Later a film adaptation was made in 1979.
Marsha Hunt 1968. Queen magazine. Posed nude, very controversial.
She was best known as the muse for the song brown sugar and Mcgaggers baby momma.
1970s mens facial hair came back into fashion. Long hair carried on from the 60s-70s.
Farrah Fawcett Majors- from chilies angles. people copied her hair style.
The "Rachel" hair cut in the 1990’s - From friends - This was a massive hair trend for women in the 90's.
Skin heads and swede heads were the trend in the 1990’s.
Pat Evens- 70s super model was one of the first models to rebel. She had long straight hair and having to follow the white trend in beauty. So shaved her head and got turned down by a black agency but got signed onto a white agency twiggy was also signed to.
To get work she wore wigs and it fell of during something so went on getting work bold.
80s- Malkom Mlicarren and Vivvien Westwood- couple. Punk became mainstream. People followed this fashion and it rebelled against the norm as we also had the curly perm and romantic hair styles.
Lowery, A. (2013). Historical wig styling: Ancient Egypt to the 1830s: (the focal press costume topics series). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis Group.