Why Did Victorian Women Cut Their Hair Short?
- Posted on 18 December, 2022
- Trending
- By Anonymous
While we know of the seemingly sudden trend for the Bob of the 1920s, but what about the Craze of 1885? Turns out, short hair was popular long before the Flapper found it! It's a startling enough discovery that I just had to dive into the reactions and reasons for this sudden fashion. I will never cease to be amazed at how often the 19th century defies our stereotype of them. And just in case you're worried this was only a concern for women, men were also the focus of concern during this time! Oscar Wilde lost his locks and the media went wild. Short hair made its way around society in the 1880s, afflicting the young and old, wealthy and working, actors and activists, and so many more. But where did it come from? How long did it last? And why don't we ever hear about it??
More on the complexity of short hair outside of "fashion" from Kaz Rowe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPkNVa...
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00:00 Hair Stories
03:45 Long Hair Concerns
07:25 The Craze
12:56 Balding & Illness
17:31 Growing Out
Hello and welcome, I recently got my hair, trimmed just a little bit shorter and used some 1920s examples for inspiration. But it got me wondering: are there perhaps some earlier examples of fashionably short hair for women, perhaps in the 19th century or other times? We all know of the 1920s flapper short hair, the Bob, the shingle, but what else was there? Was there another time, for example, in France, in the 1790s, there were Trends based around the classical figures, such as a la titus or around the current events, such as a la guillotine for short hair, but this was very flash in the pan moment. So what else was there? Was there a time in history where American women were cutting their hair short? So I started looking into this simply just putting in women short hair. Ladies short, hair things like that into the search engine to see what would come up and let me tell you, I was more than pleasantly surprised at what I found. Of course, there are so many reasons why women in the 19th century the world over, might have short hair. One of the leading reasons is always going to be Health. Hair loss is definitely a thing that happens with so many different health conditions, even pregnancy, and in the 19th century it was considered standard practice to cut someone's hair when they had typhoid. That'S simply because it made it easier to keep the hair clean easier to have cool compresses on the person's head. They did think that it helped prevent later hair loss, which is a little more questionable, but understandably that is something that did happen occasionally. There are also more religious reasons or cultural reasons. There are some sections of Judaism, where women do keep their hair cut very, very short and wear wigs or cover their heads as part of their religion, and that's something that did carry over here to the United States. Though some of those women left that behind and changed their practices as they went, but it is still a practice today, in fact, so there are definitely going to be reasons why women have short hair other than fashion, but generally you're not going to find as many Photographs of them you're not going to find discussions in fashionable magazines about that to the same extent. And that's really what I'm looking for. Because our mindset of what the victorians look like. And I use that term - broadly, not just over in England, but also the spillover into United States and even into Europe, is that of women with incredibly long and luxurious hair. We see all of these images all of these photographs of women, with hair literally down to their ankles and down to the floor, and we see that - and we see all of these elaborate heavy intensive hairstyles that are fashionable throughout the 19th century. We think, of course, short hair wasn't really the thing they had this intense long hair, and there are many reasons why they did outside of just fashion as well. Just like there are religious or cultural reasons for short hair. There are religious and cultural reasons for long hair and, interestingly enough again, they do recognize this. That is something that they talk about. They understand the importance of long hair for many different cultures across the world. Of course, this doesn't mean that they respected this fact. As this 1902 order from the US government to forcibly cut the hair of indigenous men as part of an assimilation process really shows which exemplifies that the discussion around hair for many people was about far more than just fashion. So where do we begin our search to find evidence of short hair for women in the 19th century if it exists at all? Well, obviously, we can look through so many photographs, but the difficulty there is that the vast majority of the time the photographs are face on and there were major hair trends throughout the 19th century for shorter hair in front curls and frizz all sorts of different hairstyles. That would be short from the ears forward, so these aren't really going to be the best evidence for it, because you don't know, what's going on back and a lot of times, it is longer hair, it's large buns and updos and all sorts of crazy styles that Just hide behind the head, so we can't necessarily look just at photographs for this. Therefore, I first dug in to the text I started looking up simply short hair and women or, ladies short, hair in general, to see what came up and some of the first references that I found talked about a short hair trend in 1857, where they mentioned that There is a fashion for the shingle cut that ends up looking a bit bullet-headed as they put it and though it seems to be mostly popular with the younger Generations. It does trickle its way into the older population as well. This writer doesn't seem to be terribly fond of it, and I didn't find a lot of other literature on this. This really was the only one that I came across to begin with, so I would generally think that perhaps this didn't make it too terribly far. Now there are definitely examples and discussions about short hair in the 1850s and 60s, even if it is not a fashion trend. It'S more a discussion of Health, for example, this article that was published in goatee's ladies magazine talks about how difficult and time-consuming and frankly injurious it is to have all these really elaborate, large heavy hairstyles that women are doing up every single day and really. What'S the point, why do they need to keep their hair long if they're just going to coil it all up and put it onto their heads? So that way it looks like they have short hair in a way. So the argument here is effective. Women just had shorter hair there'd be a lot less effort, a lot less time. Their necks might be better off for it. They'D have fewer health issues when it comes to washing their hair. All sorts of different things that are argued for the fact that short hair is, at the very least, more practical and they're. Not the only one saying this. There are plenty of dress reform movements throughout the 19th century, and they really take off in the mid-century and short hair is something that is discussed alongside simpler hair. So it may be that simpler, hairstyles and updos are the option or that shorter hair, something more around. The length of the neck is the choice, there's even an example of one group that is started up and they decide that the best thing for women is going to be shoulder. Length-Ish hair, because it's more practical than long hair and it actually will continue to cover their neck and provide more coverage than having a full updo, would therefore it is more pious. So there's a hefty discussion happening around this time and, to be honest, there are photographic examples of this. Whether these women in these images are choosing to do this for fashionable reasons or for dress reform reasons or religious reasons, is really difficult to say, unless they are specifically wearing the type of thing we would expect from the dress Reform Group in terms of the overly Simplistic unfitted or unstructured gowns. So it's a little bit more difficult to say why these women all have short hair, but it definitely existed and it's not just one age group: it's not just one region, not just one country, not just one style, it does exist. But this is by no means a fashion trend and that's really what we're looking for we're looking more for perhaps a year where I could walk about with hair, not unlike this and not be too weird, can we find it? The answer is yes, we actually can as I continued forward. I came across an article in December of 1883 that talked about the short hair frenzy and they were saying that women were now starting to cut their hair fairly short and have it curled. So it stayed close to their scalp. What does this look like? I don't know just yet, but we're going to continue forward when we reach 1885, then there is an absolute plethora of information, suddenly, the short hair craze as they've taken to calling it is absolutely everywhere. When it comes to American Media and it seems to have its epicenter in Chicago, in fact, some articles claim that one in three or one in Four Women in Chicago have this short haircut. They have shorn their heads as it were, and they also gave a description along with that. That gives us a little bit of imagery saying that they look much like a prize fighter or a convict, so we can definitively say whatever. This is is not going to be the modern shoulder length bob, just oh it's shorter than usual. No, it is definitely going to be short hair, even if they're exaggerating a fair amount. These articles also specify that it is any type of woman that you're going to see walking up and down the streets with this, that it is not just for the young for those that are the most crazy, fashionable it's something that you're seeing on all ages. All backgrounds all types of people now they also note the fact that this is a detrimental enough trend in not just Chicago but other places as well, that the hairdressers and hairpiece sellers are suffering for it that suddenly all of these hair pieces that they purchased for The year are not selling because no one wants them, so these women aren't cutting their hair short and then augmenting them immediately they're leaving their hair short as is granted. I have a feeling those hair pieces are going to come in in the future years. So maybe I don't feel too bad for those hairdressing businesses just yet, but they're supposedly dealing with some difficult times in 1885., in fact enough, so that the great concern is where did this come from and when will it end when it comes to Origins? There'S not an easy answer to this very likely just like today. Someone cuts their hair short for whatever reason and the trend takes off very slowly through different people seeing it, and they do say that that is a possibility that perhaps a young woman had her hair cut for any number of different reasons. Even but potentially for health and try to convince all of her friends that she did it on purpose, and it's just so cute, isn't it wonderful? They also propose that it might have come from England or from Philadelphia and made its way to Chicago. But the reason that I see the most often quoted is likely the fact that women had a trend for bleaching their hair just prior to this, and when suddenly the trend for having blonde or blonder hair goes away. Women are left with an unfortunate line of demarcation of grow out, which sounds very much a modern problem. The Balayage is around for a reason, but instead of coming up with the Balayage, they just decided to cut off all of the blonde portion, and then they could grow their hair out from there. What it is exactly, as the origins is going to be impossible for us to say without either a great deal of research or really in reality, probably at all things like that. Don'T necessarily get well recorded, but the point is it's there and it seems to have thoroughly taken hold the question then, for us is: what did it look like? Fortunately, one of the Articles, they actually name, two women with the type of haircut. That seems to be incredibly trendy. I'M sure this is not the only style, but it's definitely one of them. They specifically call out Ellen Terry, an actress and Miss Cleveland Grover, Cleveland's sister, who are both very much in the media Spotlight. Unfortunately, for us have quite a few photographs of them, including some that can very specifically be dated to right around 1885 and we can see their hairstyles and while they're not exactly the same. They are pretty similar, and this gives us a pretty good idea of what we should start looking for in photographs of the 1880s. Again, it's going to be a little bit difficult because there were trends for pain, curls and keeping the hair close to the head. It'S not always obvious, so I'm sticking to just photographs where we can really see the side and back of their head and tell that it's not just the Fringe up front, not just the bangs that are short and I honestly found a lot of photographs. There are definitely some that are on larger boards and articles about Victorian women with short hair, very vaguely. I try to, however, specifically look for things that resembled 1880s fashion things that really centered up around 1885, so I wasn't putting in 1890s big puffy sleeves. I wasn't putting in the 1850s and 60s looking just for the 1880s and I quickly discovered that the vast majority of these photographs that came across whether they were labeled as women, with short hair in the Victorian era, or just simply photographs that I managed to find On databases of the 19th century, they were overwhelmingly from around the mid-1880s. So I'm going to show you these. While I read off some of the quotes of opinions on this trend, because you know as well as I do that they are never quiet about their opinions. In the 19th century there is no fun in gently stroking, a head that has nothing but stubble the short hair craze, and this latitude has been condemned by doctors. It means Affliction, Qatar and maybe consumption. It is a foolish fashion and one that will not be followed by sensible, ladies or their daughters. For Heaven's Sake, don't let us have bald-headed. Ladies and in fact, there was even one story saying that the woman had one craze which she wanted to satisfy and which her husband fought against with all his might and once she gave into that craze and cut her hair. Her husband was so upset and they got into a fight and she went and jumped off a bridge her demise. I can't obviously speak to the validity of some of that sort of claim, but uh we'll definitely say that these short hair craze had mixed opinions. Obviously, plenty of people liked it because plenty of women had their hair cut short and photographic evidence of it and discussions of it. So it was definitely a popular thing, even if it wasn't popular with everyone. The arguments that they kept making to discourage. This, though, also greatly amused me. One of the first arguments that I started seeing regularly was that it would cause baldness to cut your hair so short that regularly cutting the hair short would change the texture change. The fullness mean that it'll grow in completely different than it used to. I think they're thinking of the fact that, like stubble grows and feeling stronger and stabbier, but their argument was that that was the case. And if you looked at men who cut their hair short, they bawled men bald, and that must be the reason why men, bold and women do not it's, because women keep their hair longer now, what exactly was the reason that that worked? That way, that gets even a little weirder one article claimed that it must be because we have muscles in our head and these muscles are connected to our hair follicles and by not having weight constantly pulling on these muscles. They get lazy and atrophy and we stop being able to hold on to our hair. Essentially, but obviously we know that's not the case. Another person claimed that hair was potentially a conductor of electricity to the brain and by cutting your hair short. You are essentially stunting. Your brain activity, others fell back to the standard argument of, but women's long hair is beautiful and one article that I found was rather romantic about this argument. I don't know another way to put it without it, just sounding creepy, because, frankly, it does sound kind of creepy. When you read it that basically not only does longer hair divert from a plain face, but there is nothing more wonderful than when women let their hair done down and Men play with it, and women pretend not to notice which, frankly, the act itself is not necessarily Creepy but the fact that this needs to be written down as an argument as to why women need to have long hair, because men like playing with it, is just a little weird now granted men did not escape the long hair short hair argument either. Obviously, a lot of those arguments would also apply to men. They were bold. They will apparently not have electricity going to their brain properly. Any number of different things. One of the issues, obviously, is the fact that when you have short hair, your head's going to be colder and there's potential for illness there, all those sorts of things, Oscar Wilde was actually one of the people that they specifically jumped on for having short hair when He returned to the United States, and it was just, I guess, slightly scandalous, and so there's all these articles written about oscar Wilde getting a haircut, so men were not exempt from this, though it was definitely aimed more towards women, and some articles do talk about the Fact that women seem to be attempting to look younger than they are so short hair does seem to be a little bit associated with children, perhaps more, but I didn't come across much. That was saying. Women shouldn't have short hair because it makes them look like men in part, because men were only just then really starting to cut their hair short. So it wasn't as associated with masculine feminine in the same way as it seems to be associated with perhaps child versus adult, or there were definitely some mentions of religious reasons why women are supposed to have their hair long et cetera, Etc. But the gender thing didn't seem to come into this argument nearly as much as I thought it would. To be honest, it was more like women, don't cut your hair short and be like men, because men are bald, as for the end of the fashion, it does start to fade pretty quickly, not surprisingly, by the time you reach 1888 articles do say that the craze Has ended, it has calmed down. Lots of women were wearing wigs to make up for the fact that they had cut their hair short for a few of the years there to deal with the grow out. Despite that, however, the hair of staying short in the front still seemed to be continuing on. They moved that short hair into bangs and frizzes in the front of the head and started to grow out the back. So it doesn't stick around for entirely long time, but it doesn't entirely go away either. In fact, that short hair on women later 19th century and into the early 20th century seems to be more associated with political leanings. Women, with short hair, were free thinking. They were perhaps suffragettes or they were Russian revolutionaries and anarchists, so short, hair in adult women becomes Associated more with their lifestyle choices on a number of different levels, so it clearly never really entirely disappears. Fashionably parts of the hair remain short, some of it remains long and in reality, from 1885 to 1915, when it starts to Trend again it's only 30 years, so not a terribly long time for us to go through the trends of long hair and back to short Hair again, just as we do today, the best part is for me, though, the fact that I apparently can accurately portray the mid-1880s with this haircut
Comments
Elizabeth W.: I actually cut my hip length long hair because of men playing with it. When I would have it down in public, I would have complete strangers (men) come and put their hands in my hair from behind WITHOUT ASKING (women tended to ask), so it was a safety issue and concern for me. So I always wore it up when going outside, and decided to cut most of it off mid lockdown (as a lot of people did). I cut it to my mid shoulders, cutting off nearly 20 inches of hair. It's oddly freeing to have shorter hair. Definitely not as short as most people consider, but definitely short for me to have such near shoulder length hair.
Eiryn Hegland: Light bulb popped up for me as soon as you brought up the bleached hair trend. It's not just the stark line between the bleached hair and the natural color. Even today bleaching damages the hair, sometimes to the point where all there is to do is cut it off. I imaging the Victorian's bleaching methods weren't any better.
Helena Teixeira: I present for your consideration: head lice First haircuts I gave my boys were because of lice. Impossible to get that fine tooth comb through curly hair. After the cut, the beasties were gone in two treatments. I imagine back then, when there weren't treatments as easy and effective as we have now, lice must have been a nightmare! Then you get a short do and whoop! there they go. What a relief! Great video, so much great information and so many pretty pictures!
Annemarie Cronen: The only reason I ever thought women had short hair in that time period would've been because they sold it. This was enlightening, thank you!
mechanical-scarecrow: What they said about women cutting their hair short leading to baldness is so dumb and it reminded me of how people tell kids not to make faces or their face will stick like that. Can't tell if the Victorians really believed that or if it was just another way to control women by infantilizing them.
SeanMcGCostumes: Not only is this video fascinating, but with talking about short hair I *immediately* spotted your earrings, which were made by my friend! It was so cool to spot them, her stuff really suits your style!
Renji21: As someone who has to keep their hair short for their health Thank You so much for this. It's so nice to know that at least by the 1880's some women where using short hair. I've fought with wanting long hair so that it would look right in vintage fashion this has given me so freedom from that. I can't tell you how freeing this was for me so again thank you so much for sharing this.
Kittling: You can accurately portray almost any era at all as a woman with short hair - poor women have been selling their hair for the convenience of rich people throughout most of history. We seem to want to forget poor people so often in the costuming comunity
Sarah Johnson: Thank you for answering that question. I wondered something similar after watching the BBC Miniseries Wives and Daughters and seeing the character "Lady Hawiott" with VERY short hair. I thought she looked simply elegant. It's nice to know that the costume and hair department must've done their research too. I love short hair on women and I think yours looks beautiful.
Kaytie J: I always love your research. And as a short hair fan, this is wonderful. Over the years (I'm now 60) I've lost count of the number of times women of all ages have said they wished they had short hair but their husband/partner liked it long; the whole 'sexy' argument. Oh my.
Dawn Vickerstaff: My grandmother talked about two different instances in which short hair was considered desirable. First, women (especially) would have their heads 'shorn' if they were ill with any sort of fever. Long hair was considered a 'drain' on the limited energy that fevered people experienced. Men already had shorter hair so they usually weren't mentioned. Then, when she was a young woman the flappers with their bobs became fashionable. Grandmother was right in tune. She couldn't wait to get rid of her long hair. In contrast, Great Aunt Laura, my great grandmother's sister never cut her thick dark hair which she wore wrapped around her head until her death at 105. It's notable that she had siblings who were stolen away to school where hair was forcibly cut. One other thing, short hair was also a statement that women have always made when they were protesting against their expected role as a woman. They still do. Perhaps in some of your photographs we are looking at women who did not have the vocabulary to speak about their feelings but found they could be eloquent with their hair.
ItWasAGoodIdeaAtTheTime: This is fascinating, I was always told women in the. Victorian & Edwardian era never cut their hair. Thank you for this it's very interesting. ♀️
MarquisdeL3: I go through various variations on short cropped hair, (most recently I've been sporting a look inspired by the French Revolution styles) and my hairstylist commented that she loves how I always come in with interesting short hair requests and how she loves getting to do very short cuts on women.
Maybe Later: Oh no, the articles about my boy Oscar having a haircut were fully justified. That hairstyle was a war crime.
Ravenbloom: Your video inspired me to do some research on Trove, a free resource of scanned newspapers at the National Library of Australia. I discovered that there was also a fashion for short hair in 1877. According to one 1877 article I read, the demand for false hair outstripped supply, so some women who couldn't buy false hair just cut their hair short instead. This created its own trend. It was described as 'cut quite short to the head all round, except in front, where it is left long enough to form round ring-curls ... It is young-looking, pretty, becoming and advantageous to the hair.' I agree with you that the Victorians defy our stereotypes of them. They were much more interesting, individualistic and unpredictable than we tend to assume.
Nick Hentschel: I'm glad you took thsi topic on, for the simple reality is that not everyone, whether man or woman, actually CAN grow long hair. Having tried to do so myself, as a young man, I can attest that I am one of those who can't, and thus I know that had I been a woman in the time periods in question, I would have had no choice except to embrace this trend, no matter what the "gentlemen" of the time, or even myself, wanted to see.
werelemur1138: I cut off my bsl hair to a bob because chronic pain made me tenderheaded. I went from high pony, all day every day to not being able to find a hairstyle that didn't hurt. I'm starting to grow it back now that nerve blocks every four months are helping, but I doubt I'll ever be able to comfortably wear it that length, so I am loving the hairstyle inspiration.
Lorraine Munoa: Thank you for acknowledging Indigenous practices and how some of us as groups do prefer long hair on every gender for many reasons. My Dad's hair is nearly as long as mine. I used to like wearing my hair in an almost masculine short cut, but I haven't cut it properly since march 2020, and Culture is one reason I am leaving it long these days. I also do Medieval reenacting so it's fun to have natural Lonnnng hair for that, but when I had super short hair I'd wear a big false braid and/or a veil anyway, so it's true you can make any hair length look historical if you know your history (and sometimes use hairpieces! Very Historical)
Dili Hopa: My mother who was born in 1918 England told me that when she was a girl if someone had head lice, their hair would be cut very very short. She knew that this had been the case for generations. They would have their heads examined at school and would not be able to return until their hair had been cut.
isaac raine: well done and thank you! This is very interesting - I would also love to know about shaved heads for women, from nun's to convicts to collaborators to punks - will it ever be "normalised"?' And Nicole, please would you think about making a video on the history of dressing vintage. When and how and why did this start? Thank you so much for all the information you give!
SprocketsAndLupins: I love the Victorian era aesthetic but I have lupus and it badly affects my hair. I'm no good with wigs either so I always felt like I was missing out on experimenting with modern takes on their hairstyles. Then I found your video! I'm now down the rabbit hole of cute hair styles to try and I'm so excited
Priscilla Marie: I love the short hair with these Victorian dresses. I myself have short hair and love historical dress. Now that I'm aware that this was actually a thing...well then!
Bella Rose: I cut my hair very short when I was 16, I have thick curly hair and it took a lot of convincing to my mom over the years to let me cut it. When I eventually did it was incredible! the feeling of the lightness, the wind on my neck, and the maintenance freedom! It is incredibly liberating. I've never been able to successfully commit to long hair after that.
Rosie Leaverton: I used to have hair all the way down my back, and it was honestly really pretty, but it was constantly tangled and matted (just because of what the strands are like), so I was constantly putting it up in ponytails and braids. My hair is also very thick, so if I washed it, it would take hours to dry. It was beautiful when I'd take an hour of my time to slather it in oil and work all the hundreds of tangles out, but eventually, I was like, "What's the point of having long hair if it's too frustrating to keep down?" So, over the course of the next couple months, I got it cut three times. The first time by my mom (she cut it to about two inches below my shoulders), then when it started to grow out again, I got it cut by a hairstylist to above my shoulders, then when that grew out, I got it cut again by a stylist to my current style, which is sort of a "feminine Beatle cut" as I like to call it. (Not a bowl-cut, btw. It looks like the Beatles' 1964/65 hairstyles) This is the first time that I've ever had my hair any shorter than a bob, and I adore it. It's so easy to take care of, and it looks decent 99% of the time (which was not the case with my long hair, lol). It still takes at least 2 or 3 hours to dry if I don't put it up in a towel or blow-dry it, but since it doesn't really touch my clothes, I don't mind too much. I've been trimming it myself at home, too, since it's not an elaborate pixie style. I've also been surprised at all the compliments i've gotten because of it! People say it really suits me, and I think so too. I sometimes feel like I was just meant to have this style my whole life.
Meredith Barbery: The first time I ever got a pixie...so many people asked "is your husband ok with it?!" Which was just... so annoying.
Amanda Baule: When you mentioned Chicago, I immediately thought "Windy City" and then googled because something was niggling in the back of my head. The tallest skyscraper in the world was in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Given the Great Fire was in Oct 1871, Chicago was going through a massive building boom and they were building UP. That creates wind tunnels and amplifies the wind off the lake even more. Could this have all started with one woman or a handful of women cutting their hair short out of pure frustration with up-dos being blow to bits or collapsing from the wind? All of a sudden a city of women are realizing its just so much more practical? At least one major playhouse also opened in Chicago that year... likely bringing in a bevy of dancers and stage actors. Maybe it all started because of a haircut for a part in a play.
Sarah Green: I always learn valuable information from your videos! I did not know about short hair in the mid 1880s and I'm so excited about it. Some of those hairstyles were very cute and some were downright sultry. I had long hair for quite a few years because I vend at Ren fairs dressed as a viking. However, during the pandemic I cut it all off, close cropped to my skull and I LOVED IT!! All that weight off my neck! All that heat it absorbed, gone at last! And I discovered I had curly hair. Now it's grown out to just hit my shoulder and I think I'm going to crop it off again.
skolljumper: I see a lot of "grow your hair long" videos talk about massaging the scalp to increase blood flow for hair growth. Since massaging your scalp is easy, free and you can do it right now (and it actually feels nice) I do it, but I'm not sure I'm actually doing anything for my hair length so much as having a little "me" moment at the end of the day.
Remarkable Stitches: I've had short hair for years now and it's actually really good to know that if I ever get around to making myself a bustle dress that I don't actually need a wig.
Mariko True: My knowledge of U.S. history is deficient. I knew about mistreatment of indigenous people, but forcibly trying to make everyone look "standardized" is horrific. While my hair has thinned in recent years, it still looks fine long (midway down my back). I tried short hair and bangs once as a child...still have PTSD whenever I get my hair professionally cut.
Grace SW: the sheer cognitive dissonance i felt at seeing people in 1880s dress sporting pixie cuts truly did me in. because, all of a sudden, their faces looked like people i would meet today. they resemble my sister and their partner; my non-binary friends; middle school girls freeing themselves from their hair for the first time; women i know that have lost their hair during chemo. i felt a kinship with the women in those pictures that i have not felt before. the young girl on the right at 13:19 looks like a young Millie Bobby Brown; the person on the left on the very first set of images reminds me of Kaz Rowe. i love this video and i cant wait to share it with my short-haired friends.
darthbee18: Huh, fancy that! Didn't expect there's a brief trend of short hair in the 1880s! Always love how you go about such historical topics, Nicole (...also that photo of Oscar Wilde with bowl cut hair sure gave me emotional damage )
Emma Atkins: AH this is wonderful! I'm currently grown my hair out from a buzz cut and now I'll have a bench of historical styles to try out while it grows!
Tamara Figge: I remember my mother telling me that my great grandmother had to have her floor length hair cut because all her strength was believed to be going to her hair. She died of pernicious anemia which thankfully people do not die from anymore.
Anežka Jandová: I have seen it a lot in reenactment, but I don't know if it is historical. You have shorter hair, style the front part as fringe, tie the back part back, and add pre styled hairpieces. So you don't need to do the complicated updo all over again. It seem very practical and posible for upper/upper middle class. But I don't know if they really did it.
Alex Ashcraft: I used to keep my hair long because i just didnt care, that was until my sister had a girlfriend that would constantly play with it. She would come up behind me and pet me and go on about how pretty it was. One day i chopped it off super short, she acted like i committed a crime against humanity.
Jeanne Ellison: When I decided to stop trying to be a redhead, I cut my hair very short. It made growing it out so much easier. That was also when I embraced my grays. I go through phases where I grow it out (it's below my shoulders now) and then cut it short. I have very fine, straight, hair so it doesn't style well so long hair works best for me.
Teverell: I have short hair because it's easy to deal with. My sister used to ask why I had it short, and I did grow it out (it took two years and the longest I could grow it was to approximately my bra band) and I had it long for her wedding... When I walked past a mirror after getting it cut a few weeks after the wedding, it was one of those 'hello me!' moments. Short hair is 'me' in a way long hair isn't. I loved the pics you put up, especially the young lady on the left at the 13:00 mark - apart from the side parting where mine is centre-parted, that is very much like how I wear my hair! I don't intend to portray an 1880s lady, ever, but if I do fall into a fit of madness, I will gladly point to that picture. If she can do it, I certainly could! Also that Beatrix Potter wore her hair short is a revelation to me! I think Rene Zellweger had a long-hair wig for the film Miss Potter, though I'd have to watch that again to be certain. :D
saffodils: loved all the pictures, it's so cool to see how women of the time fit short hair into their aesthetic!
Infamous Sphere: The rather weird article that goes on about there being no pleasure in stroking short hair reminds me of a quote from Maurice, the Edwardian gay novel by E.M Forster. Maurice is being hypnotised to try and cure him of being gay (it doesn't work obviously) and the hypnotist is convincing him there's a painting of a beautiful woman called Miss Edna May. "And look at her lovely long hair." "I like short hair best," says Maurice. "Why?" says the hypnotist. "Because I can stroke it." So there you go, short hair, way more stroke-able according to Maurice (of course in this case it's because he's thinking of men). This was a great video! I've had short hair for a long time and one of the reasons why I didn't think I'd ever get into historical reenactment in any way is because I don't want to wear a wig or grow my hair out. I could always dress as a man which would be totally fine but it is nice to know that the mid 1880s would also work. And yes, people still have Opinions about women cutting their hair short. The good news is, the vast majority of the people I know have never met me while I had long hair, so they don't have anything to compare it to and can't go "you looked better with long hair wahh why did you cut it." If people wonder why I cut my hair short, here are the short reasons. a) Matches my gender presentation better as I lean more butch, b) I never learned how to style long hair so I just wore it in a ponytail all the time and what's the point, c) the ponytails were giving me a headache and d) didn't enjoy the wind blowing hair into my mouth. Short answer is just because I like it.
Siansonea Orande: I love how these 19th Century writers had zero self-awareness about this. Women's own desires for themselves doesn't seem to enter into their calculus. "Women should wear their hair long because I prefer it" seems to be the crux of the matter.
Saralius: We do in fact have tiny muscles on our follicles, namely the Arrector Pili muscle, which is what makes our hairs stand when we are cold or get shivers. Just wanted to point that out. :P
Karla Denton: As someone who went from 'at the hip because I don't have a lady's maid so it can't be longer' to 'post breast cancer quasi boot camp' over the last six months, short hair is SO easy. I think I'm keeping it short for a while. It's good to know that I can still wear historical costume! Great video and your cut is very cute.
Beth Liebman: I had heard that Coco Channel had cut off her hair after having singed her long hair on a hot water heater in her bathroom. Coco, being such a trend-setter, set the example and women cut off their hair to match. This story, of course, may be apocryphal, but I like it. BTW, your new cut looks great on you!
Joy Davis: I always enjoy your videos You are forever teaching me something new. Thank you for your hard work
Alma L: This Finnish painter Ellen Thesleff had short hair and she was an icon
Oliver Sasse: i think they shaved their hair for hair loss treatment because hair lost due to stress usually grows back after a couple of months. So when someone shaves their thinner hair and about maybe 3-4 months later their hair starts to be fuller again it might apper like what fixed the issue was cutting the hair.
RR830: I love all these hairstyles, being a short haired person myself. It is great to see short hair in history. The jacket at 13:31 makes me wish I could pattern.
Sagaincolours: And that means that these were the mothers/grandmothers to the young people of the 1920s. And might have been more likely to accept/allow their younger family member's haircuts, making it easier for them to do.
janet lesley: Well! I have a memory of my gg grandmother about 22 in 1854 /5 with my g grandmother 18 months old probably by her flushed cheeks, and my gg grandmother was slim and bright with shiny close to face black hair with jagged ends. No part. Plus scenery plus husband plus the horses and cart to go to the goldfields in Aus. I was always puzzled, wondering if I was completely wrong or what happened to her hair…maybe cut off to help fund them, but now could have been justifiable fashion given where they were going. Being a Irish famine orphan survivor and highly intelligent I expect she had strength of mind to do as she decided. Cut, sell, be fashionable. Thanks Nicole this is very interesting. There are some with frightening curls and others parted on the side and straight, very surprising given they look otherwise bland rather than obvious adventure women.
TheCreoleQueen Chachere: Is that woman in the thumbnail on the left wearing a short mullet?!? I LOVE it! Also…she looks A LOT like Kristen Wiig. ETA 13:30 Yes!!! Cornwallis West DEFINITELY had a mullet!!! Apparently this was Lady Patsy Cornwallis-West who was King Edward’s the 8th of England mistress. Also…to read the info you included about cutting hair being a punishment is so interesting! Here in New Orleans they didn’t make Creole women cut our hair but since we “caught the eye” of many French, Spanish and white men…the Tignon Laws of 1786 (an effort to stop placage unions in Louisiana) were passed and made it illegal to wear our hair exposed. Very interesting!
KuK1910: Ms. Rudolph, may I offer for your consideration the most famous case of short hair in the late 1800's - the fictional Violet Hunter from the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches". While the story was written in 1891, it was set, based on the background information, in the mid 1880's - the same time that the Chicago short hair fad was at its peak - (pardon the pun). Also, while the purpose of getting Miss Hunter to cut her hair was to impersonate a young lady, who lost her long hair to a fever, the villain insisted on the haircut, because he and his wife were "faddy" people. Of further interest is the prejudice of the artist, Sidney Paget, against short hair. Paget was the original, contemporary illustrator for the serialized stories, in the Strand Magazine in the early 1890's. He goes out of his way to draw Miss Hunter attractively with long hair, at the beginning of the story, and then presents some of the worst drawings as the Sherlock Holmes illustrator, when she has short hair. You can see what I mean at: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Strand_Magazine/Volume_3/The_Adventure_of_the_Copper_Beeches, which has the original drawings.
Esme's Vintage Closet: You have no idea how happy this video has made me... I'm still going through what will be six months of chemotherapy, and lost all of my hair, apart from a scattering of eyebrow hairs, which stubbornly hung on! My last chemo is on 20 Dec, and it started growing back a couple of weeks ago so I'm not even at a buzz cut stage yet... but it is so nice to know that I don't have to wait a few years for my hair to fully grow back before I can authentically do my vintage wardrobe. This brings me enormous joy. Thank you x
Cara: I find it so fascinating how humans don't really change throughout our history, but people will paint humans of the past as extremely different than how we are today, however, if you do any bit of research into it, you find that they were indeed just like us.
Polka Dot: In the sherlock holmes story 'the copper beeches' the governess gets told one of the conditions of employment is to cut her hair short. When she asks why her employers say its because they like the fad. That got me looking for short hair options. As I just can't grow my hair long. It gets to my shoulders and stops so I'm generally stuck with a Bob. Which makes historical hair tricky.
Melissa MyBubbles: I didn't know that typhoid patients had their hair cut short. If they really believed that short hair led to baldness, why didn't they tell men to keep theirs long?
Syed Mazhar Hasan: I thought that the buzz cuts with the big bustles looked very well together! It was a cute look.
Carrie Fernandez: when I shaved my head a few years ago, my grandmother made it a point to tell me daily that I looked like a convict and cancer patient. I don't talk to her anymore.
Flygirl fly: I lived through many scorching hot, humid Chicago summers. I bet that those ladies found short hair was immensely freeing. I'd like to know what the temperatures were during those years.
J Cortese: It's funny how they polarized very short and very long hair -- nowdays, it seems like both buzzcuts and knee-length braids on women mean you're probably growing your own organic granola, ranging goats, and living off the grid in a yurt.
Oonagh72: 1:45 the reason cutting hair helps prevent later hair loss is because of the weight. If one is sick and hair becomes fragile, long heavy hair can pull it out. Especially with washing, because wet hair is heavy. Also when a person is sick their hair get tangled. Removing those tangled causes manual damage and boom more hair loss.
janet lesley: Once I left home for University I never had my hair cut. My son didn’t have his cut much until a trim at 6 and kept it long until his profession did not give him a weekly 1.5 hours for wash and dry at the hairdressers. I don’t like short hair. Mine is pearlescent pale no longer charcoal or coloured golden blonde, and thick and past my ribs
K.A.: Great ideas. Punishments via cutting/ shearing hair off too, I would think.
P Heart: Beatrix Potter had her hair cut off after a bout of rheumatic fever caused it to fall out in clumps. She hated it because her hat wouldnt stay on in the wind and once blew off into a fountain,and she and her father had to stand there while the park keeper fished it out.
Nic: Loving the androgynous look these ladies were rocking with their short hair
Perma Pen UK: Jeezzzz. Good to know the Daily Mail was alive and kicking in the nineteenth century. A little puzzled that they disposed of the crazy hair-weight but kept the fabric tonnage.
A.R. Stone: I'm curious. How do you do lighting so that you're lit, but not the background--side lighting? You have such beautiful lighting and I love the backdrop.
Lauren Schiller: Yeah, I have definitely cut my hair short after deciding that if I was going to wear it up all the time to keep it out of my way I might as well chop it all off.
Nanner: okay but when you said that having short hair stunts growth for the brain. DAMN SON!! The dude who wrote that had a major self call out post. Callin himself and other men out.
Katelynn Tull: I'm nonbinary and love Victorian women's fashion but hate long hair. I've been looking for a video like this for forever and I'm so glad I found it
Dee-Anne Gordon: This makes me want to go through my own collection of photographs to see if I have any short haired ladies hiding among them.
Zhi Su: yet even in 2022 a lot of people STILL have the same opinions/reactions to women with short hair
Hadley James: So fascinating. ♀️The bit about Oscar Wild/ so funny. ♂️ I would agree the barber went too short on poor Oscar.
Laura Lake: My hair just doesn't grow past the neck. It's genetic. Neither does my mom or grandma's. It was a disaster for my grandma, born 1921. She couldn't get a good victory roll going! My mom couldn't get a flip! I've just sort of had a pixie thing, but sometimes a bob.
JillianEve: I love seeing all the old pictures with the mullets and pixie cuts!
Bygone Wardrobes: This was a fascinating look on the subject! Thank you for sharing!
Art By Emily Hare: I cut my hair pixie short 6 years ago and have never looked back. It is sooooo easy (I also stopped dyeing it at the same time and am greying). I have felt more feminine with my short hair too which I was not expecting and had spent years being very attached to my long curls. Don’t think I’d ever go back - and super interested that I could go for a Victorian silhouette if I wanted and it still be accurate!
Linda Parker: Wow, the lady on the left at 13:10 had the perfect mod sixties hair style! If she was wearing a poor boy sweater, mini skirt, and high boots, she would have fit right in dancing to the Beatles music. Nobody would have guessed she was from 80 years back in time!
Leather Ace: I can’t imagine a stanch going from that knee length bun sweaty after wearing a 26 kilo dress on a daily basis. That men who liked to play with it had their entertainment bar very low.
Elizabeth Beierle: I’m currently growing out a buzz cut and trying my best with the awkward stages, this is giving me all kinds of inspiration for better do’s!! Thank you Nicole!
Evie M: Jane Dieulafoy, a French archaeologist had short hair
Kartsie: Another fascinating video!
Alicia F: "There is no fun in gently stroking a head that has nothing but stubble" - au contraire. Is there anything nicer than stroking a freshly buzzed head?
Beck H.: Having exclusively had a pixie cut for a little more than a decade. I can attest people having their opinions on it hasn’t gone away. “Y’know, men don’t like short hair.” Is for some reason the most common one, as if the rest of me looks like I care what men like.
Liz B: 9:15 "Are millenials killing the hairpiece industry?"
Chelsea L: My husband does prefer my hair long, but never once has he played with it
Obiwan-in-a-pudding: This was incredibly validating for me.
Hannah Bradshaw: As a woman with alopecia, if only the muscle thing was true. Alas haha
Anne Johnson: Hi from Australia, l love your shows and looking forward to watching more video next year. Have a great Christmas and a safe New Year.
MsLouisV: Think of all the time,energy and money, shampoo, conditioner, hair salon visits, headbands, hair, clips, combs, brushes, hairdryers, straightener irons, and time we would save if we were bald. We would have so much extra time we wouldn’t know what to do with it. How freeing it must be!!!
Kate Craig: WOOHOO!- a mention of mid-19th-century reform fashion! (topic of my thesis)!
Lorelei: You had me at "Men love to play with it!" They like to play with so many things. :-)) Kidding aside, my great -grandma told me that in late victorian era women cut their hair to get rid of lice, for high fever or to sell, never for personal comfort or to antagonize anybody.
Mother of Hurricanes: So were Victorian women the founders of business in thy front, soiree in thy back?
wren_m: Beatrix Potter, as a young lady with a lymph node condition, cut her hair short in this fashion. This was so fascinating, thank you for all your research and for sharing your findings!
angel whispers: LOL I love to think that we're discussing this as a fashion trend when it's really just all of these women that had naturally darker hair cutting off the blonde parts so that their hair could grow out and figuring out nice ways to style it in the meantime. That would be one of the greatest iranies of fashion history and anthropology in my opinion and it's just glorious that that is a very real possibility
Илья Тихомиров: Николь,прекрасно выглядишь!
Selene Anne Rose: Thank you Nicole. Now we can associate short hair in XIX c with Suffragette movement and free thinking women like painters or novelist. Not only with convalescent, mental hospital patient or circus troupe member. Also hair piece ( like bun on back of head) can be pin to short hair and with hat of this era your hair will look more traditional.
Leslie Hyde: I keep my hair cut short because of my chronic migraines. Also, keeping my hair short makes my life SLIGHTLY easier with many of the rest of my chronic illnesses with many of them being chronic pain.
Steve Zytveld: I've always wondered how my curly-headed Scottish Grannies coped with long hair. What's sitting on my head is a medium, irregular curl that's more prone to ringlets when short, and a wild, matted, intertwined mess when longer. For the past almost ten years my hair has been put up in locks and has now reached my waistline - which would not have been an option in Victorian times. The photos I have are from the early-to-mid 20th century and in them, anyone with curly hair has a short bob. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi
Erin Rabideau: Those 1880s pictures of the women with short cuts are so surprising! It makes them look so modern in a way because I’m so used to seeing women in the past with long hair. So interesting! ❤