1880s Hair

The 1880s were the years of the the western, and the cold-hearted blackguard. The men all had moustaches and dreamed of going west to find their fortune or heading to the hills to live and die on the latest gold rush.

The women were elegant, pampered rich and servanted or tough-as-nails pioneers with a mind of their own and a chip on their shoulder that warned men to "better watch out and don't mess with me". It was a decade of excess, with bustles in full fashion to emphasize the shape of the female, and as if to counteract the lower curviness, fashionable hairstyles became man-like. It was shorn and pulled back at the sides, then worn with a cluster of ringlets, or jumbled on top of the head. Bangs added femininity, where length could be lost, and ears were revealed. Long hair was still in demand in some circles, but required little work and was unfashionably reminiscent of the western aborigenes and therefore not as civilized. When worked upon, it was wound into buns and away from the face, because you were busy with responsibilities, the whole importance and slightly manly appearance hinting at the Suffragist movement that was just a few decades away. Women with financial means had subscriptions to magazines that broadened their horizons as well as providing a window into the latest styles, if only to be aware of them. For those without the leisure time and the subscriptions of what was fashionable across the ocean, creations could be moulded from memory, oftentimes the memory of an unlikely and out-of-place painting. The desire for elegance and attractiveness was present, but often the demand for survival got in the way and femininity became reduced or hidden beneath this increasingly tough exterior.

We forget that the middle class had daughters who were not as well-educated as the men, as they were denied schooling, and refused the right to step out into the world unaccompanied. Suitors had to come visiting. The woman did not work, unless she was a servant. She simply stayed at home, honing her needlework skills, occasionally going out, under guard of her family, and her only hope was that she would be glimpsed by a potential suitor. That meant her hair and clothes had to be perfect at all times when she was out. She also had to be seen from a distance. The 1880s hair, was a hair of communication. It had to be seen from a distance until openly and luxuriously displayed at a dance or an audience in the parlor with a potential beau with a twinkle in his eye. Oftentimes, when the hair could not be glimpsed, it was the curviness that reminded the suitor that this was a potential wife and child-bearer that you were considering spending the rest of your life with. 15hqql.

1880 Comanches	1880	1880

1881 Ellen Terry	1881	1881

1881	1881 Jennie Cramer murder victim	1881 Lucretia Garfield first lady

1882	1882 Bulgarian teacher	1882

1882	1882 Lillie Langtry	1882

1883

1884	1884 Lotta Crabtree actress	1884	1884	1884	1884

1885	1885	1885	1885 Louisa May Alcott

1886	1886	1886

1887	1887	1887	1887	1887 Moorish Slave

1888	1888	1888	1888	1888

1889	1889	1889	1889	1889

        

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