London, UK
(Unknown / London Stereoscopic Company
/ Getty)
The Victorian era placed huge aesthetic value on a Western woman’s hair, as an indicator of both inherent femininity and of social standing. For girls, the transition to womanhood was at least partly marked by wearing one’s hair up. Hair could be worn up in a range of styles, from simple coils to elaborate accessorised coiffures, but the hair remained uncut.
‘Letting one’s hair down’ was seen not only as childish but also as immodest, and counter to the tradition of the church. Pictures such as this one, therefore, held an element of displaying what was otherwise forbidden.
‘Now as to the question of cutting. Women still have the privilege of wearing their hair its natural length, and what is more beautiful in woman than long hair? But the hair is apt to split at its ends, and requires, for health’s sake, occasional cutting, and in certain instances much improves its growth. I know I am opposed in this view by many, but I am convinced all the same it is beneficial. The operation in women is really one of trimming.’
A lecture delivered by James Startin to the Hairdresser’s Guild in St James’s Hall, London, March 1885
