early victorian hair

During victoria's reign, ( almost seven decades) hair trends changed a lot. As make up was very rare at this point, a woman's hair was extremely important and was considered to be the most important asset. Most women had extremely long hair, as haircuts were not popular at this point. Women would trim off split ends, but keep hair long as it was a sign of beauty and femininity. Rather than having their hair cut into a 'hairstyle', they would style their long hair in various ways, depending on what was fashionable at the time.  In this post, I am going to look at early victorian hairstyles.

Long hair styled into an updo was very common during the early 19th century, especially for upper class women. The hairstyle completed the outfit- the whole silhouette was taken in to account. If women couldn't achieve the silhouette they desired, they would often wear hair pieces, made from actual human hair.

Around 1830, it was very common for women to wear their hair in a middle parting with two plaits going underneath the ears and tucked into a neat bun. This is the style that we tried in helens class-

Working on my katy doll, I began by brushing the hair through and getting rid of any tangles. I then sectioned the hair, leaving quite a large section of hair at the front for the plaits, as they were often quite thick. I pinned the front section out of the way and then carried on with the plait bun, making sure that i scrape the hair back neatly into a ponytail ( as updos were always very neat and precise). Once the hair was in a ponytail, i split it into two sections and did two plaits, then twisted them together and created a bun. Once i was happy with the bun, I put the remaining hair into two plaits and placed them so that they were curved underneath the ears. This look was really simple to do but looked really effective.

Products/tools used:

• Brush
• Pintail comb
• hairbands
• grips