What the Dickens..........?

Great expectations

Victorian Hairstyles

The young Queen Victoria

People often use the expression "a woman's crowning glory", this dates back to the victorian period.  It is quite ironic, as although this was a time of beauty and feminine mystery, women's hair was usually extremely damaged from the excessive use of hot irons.  Hair was burnt from the irons and gave off a rather peculiar smell that would be hidden with strong perfumes.  Hair would very often be reduced to a sheep like texture.  Hair styles were worn in a smooth, centre parted style right through the victorian era to the 1870's.  It was at this point that Parisian hairdresser M.Marcel Grateau created a new, natural looking wave by turning a curling iron the opposite way round. 

By 1872 the Marcel wave had been introduced, using a heated iron that imitated the natural curl of the hair.  The art of hairdressing was revolutionised all over the world.  The Marcel wave remained popular for over half a century, curly and waved hairpieces were also made and constructed in with the natural hair.

Marcel curling iron

Victorian Hair pieces

Curly hair was the sign of a softer nature, while women wearing straighter hairstyles were perceived as reserved, possibly even unrefined.  A ladies hair was thoroughly important in the effect she was going to have on society.  Reaching the age where the hair was long enough to be put up was a blossoming stage for a young woman.  Sometimes a plait would be fastened with a piece of ribbon added in, this would signify the coming of age event.

A woman's hair throughout the Victorian era was often perceived as a symbol of warm sexuality, beauty and security.  Lovers and family would often take a lock of their loved one's hair and when they passed away, it would be made into hair ornaments.  These ornaments would be in the form of jewellery most commonly know as the mourning broach.

However as there were often mixed sentiments towards the feelings of womanhood, some views were that hair was a dark and evil thing.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

It was seen to be this way on several ways......

• A source of power for a sorceress, or a source to lose power in womanhood
• Snake-like and poisonous
• A web to entangle
• An instrument with which to strangle       

In most forms of Victorian fiction, poetry and art, these motifs are repeated several times.  In many poems and arts a woman's hair is described as snake-like and doing her evil bidding.  Many evil connotations such as Waterhouse's La Belle Dame Sans Merci show women using their hair in a noose like way to strangle their unsuspecting victims.

There is also the story from Rossetti, that Lizzie Siddal's grave was dug up to retrieve poems, only to find that her hair had grown to completely fill the coffin.  This shows how widely diverse the opinion of men towards women was of their hair and their bodies.

La Belle Dame Cowper