The 1890s are the innocent years, during the reign of Queen Victoria
before the technological bloodbaths of the First World War, in which the
new inventions of the day dominated the land and the sky. World travel
was difficult, and life for the modern woman, during industrialized
nations was both as a child-rearer and for the single woman, a worker.
The long elegant tresses of childhood could be maintained by the
well-to-do lady of leisure, while the working woman had to settle for
battling unkempt tresses or preparing for the long voyage of emigration
to a new life overseas. Things always looked better overseas in the
colonies of the British Empire or the United States of America. The
pressures to shorten the hair, had not become commonplace, as they
usually only appeared in the theatre by women playing the roles of boys.
The ringlets still represented the attractiveness of youth, while the
no-nonsense strong woman who had become head of the household due to the
loss of a working husband or a warrior husband, settled on the stern
look of the piled up bun. Fun-loving women wore huge hats with even
larger feathers, announcing their presence from the greatest of
distances. These were not the days of the intimacy of television and
photo journalism. To be seen, you had to be seen from afar, even if all
they could see was the feather atop your hat, whether in church, or the
theater, or during a day at the races.
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