I Conquered 1796-ish Hair...After the Jane Austen Festival. Plus a Tutorial

Good evening there, everyone! The cicadas are busy outside, sounding like an ambient orchestra of power saws winding down, but there's something odd about it. Namely that our windows are wide open, so that the insect noise is very loud, and there are cool zephyrs whispering in, trying to raise goosebumps. You read that aright. Cool, as in almost long-sleeve weather, in midsummer Bluegrass Kentucky. It's sheer delight.

Meanwhile, in our upstairs hall, next to the settee from the early 19th century, my boys and I have been playing with the camera and tripod. They've been pirates and I've donned the half dress combination of spencer and matching petticoat, with the muslin wrap-front dress. You see, today at lunch I decided to work on 1790s hair once again, this time sans switches or additions. Today, after all the tries of the past months, Fortune's wheel turned in my favor and it came together fairly well. After the Jane Austen Festival, natch-and-wouldn't-you-know, but still, the effects are rather as hoped.

1790s Hair Effects, Pretty Well Effected
The blog title says "conquered". Well, not entirely. Let's say, pretty well effected, given constraints.

The very long locks of the portraits I so admire turned out to be more than I could manage these days. In 2011, I built a fuller look via a very long, very heavy hair switch plus a few pinned-in curled wefts. Now that this head is plagued with migraines, that's just not smart.

The 2011 hair-do. There's a chignon behind
that's built of a 22-24" switch. Heavy.

A shorter 'do was in order, and I ended up during the afternoon with the below. What were the sources, and what happened to it as it was worn? Let's see.

Day version, curlier: this was before the hair was
squished into a bun for the afternoon.
More of the side curls should have been lifted
and wound into the bandeau.

For hairdressing models I turned to a handsome portrait miniature of an English lady in a gray dress, by Richard Cosway, and offered at Bonhams some time ago, along with a series of other plates (see below), for help.

Our first model sports hair she has dressed above shoulder length. It's softly curled but not intensely curly or frizzy, and dressed fairly close to her head, parted in the middle, and finished with a narrow, thin, bandeau (with bow) and ostrich plume. I am fairly sure it's mostly her natural hair, and there is no visible evidence of a long chignon turned up and caught with a comb, in back, though there likely may be a short one. Usually, when present such chignons show at least a bit.

Whatever the actual date of the miniature, the slightly shorter hair reminds me of the trend in 1796 towards shorter hair that was to lead to the upswept styles of the 1800s.

Note: many miniatures and paintings of the period show women with the hair left loose, but most seem quite young. I would hazard that a married woman would sport a chignon, and usually an older woman covered her head with a larger turban or a cap.

Note the chignon loop to the bottom right of
her hair. Lady Hester Bellingham, Bonham's. 

Anyhow, this headdress, methought, was more doable, and would require no extra lockage, and thus be cooler and lighter. If it didn't fully take, no matter. Some fashion plates show tresses looser and snakier, some more tightly curled, some even rather smoothly, barely waved. Witness the below!

British Museum, No. C,4.1-468, detail.

British Museum, No. C,4.1-468, detail.

Bunka Gakuen Digital Library of Rare Materials

A Lady, by Alexandre Rocher. Dated 1796. French. Bonham's.

Models in hand, it was testing time. During lunch hour I created the curls and tested the headdress. The tools? A regular, small-barreled curling iron and heavy-duty hair goo, pins, silk gauze, and hair comb.

Lunch break over, I stuffed the poor hair back up in a bun, and went back to work. After dinner and cleanup, while the boys played some game with their stuffed animals that involved a party, I unpinned it, and the curls had held decently, if not as tightly as before they were unceremoniously pulled back and squished. Good hair goo, to have held at all.

Then it was dash together the headdress (how-tos below), rush into the ensemble, and take some pictures with the boys, before their bedtime arrived.

Here we are. Goofball smiles? Sure, it was a goofy, fun evening, playtime for all three of us.

Mama and her protecting pirate.

The third image shows the back of the headdress. Note that the back hair is lightly, barely looped at the bottom. That's the chignon. Had I longer hair, the loop would be longer, and the ends would be left a bit longer too, to wave and curl downwards.

Noah and his piggy. She is wearing a coat with a velvet collar: Noah gets concerned
his animals will take a chill, so I've made a few clothes.

I'd like to try this headdress again, with curls made on curlers. Why? Because then I can get smoother curls that will create larger ringlets, and that can poof and frizz a little for a softer effect.

What fun this was! The boys took the pictures, and did they like working the camera. Operating a real camera was almost a first for them, and it was heady, heady stuff. On a tripod, too. Noah insisted on holding the tripod aiming handle, or whatever you call it, while operating the camera with his other hand, his stuffed piggy sitting underneath, offering advice. Christopher put on his pirate hat and his weskit, and protected his mama with his wooden sword.

The twinkle in the twins' eyes means "Okay, our turn with that camera!"

After the photo taking, we ran into the guest room and uploaded them, critiqued the results, and then wandered to another folder on the computer to look at live-action shots of them jumping into the Spindletop pool yesterday: the pencil leap, the cannonball, all the jump-in-the-pool tricks. I have the distinct feeling that now they know how to press a shutter button, we've opened a Pandora's box :}

1790s Shorter Locks: A Tutorial

Those of you who have 1790s outfits and don't want to don a wig or wiglet to get the curls of a latter-day follower of Bacchus, here's how I did it. I have hair just about shoulder length, but bobbed hair at chin length, I suspect, will also work. Much shorter and you'll have a late 1790s or 1800s cropped look.

Curl Hair into Ringlets

First, curl your entire head into ringlets. How you do this is up to you: pin curls, papillote curls, curlers-and-setting-lotion, or curling iron. The key is to curl your hair as close to your head around your face as possible, but start the ringlets a little lower down the hair shaft on the rest of your head. Since I wasn't able to get really tight curls at my face, I employed a trick, which I'll show you.

Tools used to create the curls. What's missing: the big
curved bridal comb to hold the chignon.

I used a small-barreled curling iron. I curled the hair dry. I separated the hair into sections, holding the rest out of the way with hair-dresser's clips while I worked with each section. I'd take a small hank of hair, enough to heat all the way through on a small iron, rub a wee bit of hair goo in it, and use the iron. I'd unwind it carefully and move to the next one.

Create High, Curly Crown

After all the hair was curled, I parted the hair, and then gathered a sizeable hank off the top back, plus some from the sides, into a group. I tucked a hair rat under it, right at the back of the crown of the head, to lift the curls I was going to put on top, so they'd look more abundant. Note that there was still plenty of back hair left hanging down.

Individual hanks of hair off the top and sides curled over a hair rat at the back of the crown of the head.
Each curl gets a pin. You can see one in front. It will be covered by a bandeau.

Note the ringlets: they are all one length, because my hair is. The curls start about halfway
down the hair shafts. You will wrap the bandeau around your head just in front of the crown.

Then I split out a hank from this group, looped it to the back of the head and then forward again, creating a fold with curly ends facing forward. I bobby pinned it in place. I did this over and over with the rest, placing each bit so that it built out a bit of a crown. I took a few extra pieces from the sides, pulled them up and wrapped them around the base to hide any rat that might be showing, and to add some top-side curls. Each hank got one pin.

Next I shifted the front hair forwards. I took a yard or so of silk gauze, laid it flat, and rolled it corner to corner to create a long bandeau shape, which I twisted to give some texture. I pinned one end to the side of my head in front of the crown, tucking the end underneath, and wrapped the rest around the back of my head, underneath the back hair, up over the top of my head again, and then wrapped the free end under what was already there, and tried to pin that without the pin showing. I wove the side hair in and out and let some ringlets hang as love locks, more so in the evening's version of the hairdo than the day version, which lets more locks hang.

The bandeau, added. This was at lunchtime. The curls were fuller and rounder, and I had not
fluffed them out at all.

Ta-da: narrow bandeau. It worked out to two trips around my head: if you like, you can divide it into two wraps, one set behind the other, for a very Classical look. If you had longer fabric, you could go for three wraps. In any case, notice the bandeau, or turban, is narrow, and rather scant. Most portrait miniatures seem to show this, perhaps because it was easy to wind and didn't look over-big on the head. As you will see in the Festival pictures below, my original turban was quite large, and, having no super-big hair, it overwhelmed my head and face in what is to my mind a less attractive way.

Now, to deal with the long curls of front hair. Take a ringlet, and a few inches out from the scalp, run it between the tines of a bobby pin. Then pull the curl back under the bandeau and pin it to the hair under there. Arrange the curly hair at the hairline. Still too long? Loop it back a second time with another bobby pin. Use the loops of hair as extra curls at the hairline, but make sure the ends hang and can be seen. Do this with all of the front hair.

Last step: take the back hair and hold it in a ponytail, but kind of flattened, very low on the head, and leaving a bit of a loop of hair beneath. Plaster the tail up against the top of the ponytail, against your head, leaving some curly tips in your hand hanging downwards. This is your small chignon, the traditional finish at the back of women's heads since the 1770s or perhaps even the late 1760s.

Here's an example of a short chignon, from 1796.

Detail from an album of largely
fashion prints. Fashion headdresses,
1796. British Museum, No. C, 4.1-468.

Now take a large hair comb (I have a large metal curved one for bridal use), and plunge it down into where the ponytail and the loop are held together. This holds the loop in place and allows the ends to fall over the top. This loop is what The Gallery of Fashion terms "the chignon turned up plain". Surprisingly, the hair holds well this way.

The chignon at the low back, held by a large, wide, bridal comb. Note that the chignon is supposed to be wide and flattened, nota narrow tube like a ponytail. Also note the curls at the back of the crown, dangling. This was at lunchtime, and in that
test I was able to create a fuller effect there than later that evening, after the curls had been squashed in a bun for hours.

Pull a few ringlets from the side back of the head down, as love locks, and you are done. You have a shortish 1790s hairdo.

To follow the picture a bit more exactly, take a curled ostrich plume (a doubled-and-sewn plume looks better), and spear it straight into the mass of hair at the side of your head, and underneath the bandeau. Pin it with a lightweight brooch to the bandeau. Lacking the brooch, pin the plume to the bandeau with a bobby pin, then add two wide-ended pins, one sunk horizontally into the hair pointing to the front of the head, and the other sunk horizontally into the hair but pointing towards the back of the head. The rounded end of each pin should encase the plume.

To be really en point, you should lightly powder your hair. In England, anyhow, this was common among a certain gentle set. I was going to, but realized it was 7:30 and I was out of time...the boys needed to get to bed!

About the Ensemble

The ensemble is half dress, for afternoon. I am wearing the "muslin" (Indian cotton voile) cross-front dress, to which I added a gathered and whipped neckline frill a few weeks ago to soften the neckline. The sleeves are also gathered in four places with thread to create a group of narrow puffs. This is seen occasionally around 1794-1796. I should have used doubled buttonhole twist for the gathering. Plain thread cannot take the strain and broke in a few spots. The sleeve ends were supposed to be lightly tied with yellow ribbon to leave small cuffs, but I cannot tie them myself, so I left them plain this time.

Under the dress is the lilac silk petticoat: it tints the dress skirt lightly.

Above the dress is the embroidered and spangled sleeveless spencer, which matches the petticoat. The two could be worn as a pair by themselves, if sleeves are added to the spencer.

Jewelry: a partial coral parure: necklace with yellow ties and coral hoop earrings.

The shawl is a matching red silk antique obi. Gloves are vintage tan kid and are the requisite elbow length.

The mix of lilac, red, and yellow accents would have been seen at that period: a coordinating mix of colors was appreciated.

The ensemble is fun to wear: it's full of life and color and sparkle. Worth the two-three years needed to bring it all together.

Papillote Curls Trial Run Number One

Practically sans makeup, and sunburned, to boot.

Forty-five minutes, a cut-up sheet of bright green tissue paper, a flat-iron, my turban silk and a few pins, and I have this very simple hairdo, or headdress, as it was known, to show you.

The spiral curls are made in the papillote, or butterfly fashion. It's a little tricky to learn, and this is only a first effort, but it's the method used in the 18th and early 19th centuries to create both spiral curls and frizzed curls, and I am surprised, but it's working for me :}

As a test, I made tiny spirals and big, fat spirals, to see how they would compare. Check. Tiny and big resulting curls. Well, at least I got what I expected! That doesn't always happen when it comes to my hair. The June picnic is a good example of a hair experiment that decidedly failed to produce the effect aimed for.

The curl-winding needs to be a little neater, so that the curls are more even, but still, the effect is pretty. The curls should sit and cool a bit longer, too.

Excepting one curl, there's no setting lotion, goo, or pomade, or spray in my hair. Am sure I'll have to use at least one of them for the real curling process next Friday evening. That and a night-cap (ye gods), to protect the hair until Saturday's Jane Austen Festival.

Because I have shoulder-length hair and these spirals don't easily go right to the scalp, there are pins shortening the curls in front. The back hair is straight and is turned up plain for the "chignon", as was often done. I'll need a bit of added hair for the chignon: that's the next trial, along with playing with the front curls to make them tighter, shorter, and more regular, and adding fat long curls on the sides and top. Once those lessons are learned, add hair décor appropriate to the occasion, and we have a usable headdress.

Of course, if these curls fall out overnight, Isis' standing pin curls are my backup. Thank you, Isis, for your research and tutorial!

This is what we're aiming for: a mix of Hortense de Beauharnais' style (I even have the cross-front dress!) on Pinterest, and the second young lady's fluffier 'do (Circle of Jean-Baptiste Soyer, circa 1790/1795, at Christie's).

Gee, the more I look at Madame de Beauharnais' portrait, the more I like it. Sensitive, well painted, calm, atmospheric.

This young lady looks fun, doesn't she? Her smile is real, and I can imagine that she was a treat to be around.

You know what's ironic? I have curly hair. It ringlets on its own, once washed. The issue is that the ringlets won't stay more than a few minutes before they fall out and frizz starts to take over. The amount of curly-hair goo added makes no difference. Hence all this craziness, getting 1790s curls that will hold up.

On to the next trial...

Addendum, two mornings later: yesterday, I just bunched it all in a ponytail bun, without brushing, and they held. No ponytail the second night, just plain hair. This morning, the curls are holding together -- still. I brushed my hair at last, and now I have fluff. Not frizzy, just fluffy waves. Interesting.

The Wigmaker, Barber..., Part 2: Powdering!!




Well frizzed and powdered, 1782.
Misses Annabella and Mary Craufurd (mistakenly
Crawford), afterwards Countess Lockhart
and Mrs Palmer. V&A
P.7-1925.

Another selection from the Encyclopédie Méthodique, Arts Mécaniques, "Perruquier-Barbier-Étuviste (Art du).

This time, let's have the English version, first.


Powdering

The hairstyle being arranged, one has nothing else to do, but powder.

The best powder for the hair is made of wheat flour, and the pomade is of lard*; one puts the powder into a large box of tin, or in a sack of mutton skin.

The best powder puffs are made with the long bristles that are the tops of silk fabric (I am not sure about this, but this sounds like fringed ends from silk fabric. However, see the plate: the images show different materials!)

Begin by laying on pomade on the inside of the two hands, which you then pass lightly over the entire hairstyle; charge your puff with a little powder to powder "in half-powder style", as perruquiers term it.

This small quantity of powder suffices to make perceivable the hair which comes out from its general arrangement and [allows you] to cut it, after which you finish the powder.

For fear that the powder does not fall on the face and does not enter the eyes of the person being powdered, perruquiers give them a "horn"; this is a piece of pasteboard turned like a paper horn.
One hides one face in the large end of this horn; there are glass (glass-covered) holes for eyes, and air for breathing comes in through the small end; one holds it in one's hand.

* Many thanks to Marion Brégier for explaining that "satin-doux" is lard. Gracious, what a dandy name for something so, so, so...fragrant...


Madame Isis powders Marianne's hair. From Madame Isis' Toilette.

Now for the French original:

Poudrer

La frisure étant arrangée, il ne s'agit plus, que de poudrer.

La meilleure poudre pour les cheveux est faite de farine de froment, et la pommade est du sain-doux: on met la poudre dans une large boîte de fer blanc, ou dans un sac de peau de mouton.

Les meilleures houpes à poudrer sont faites avec les longues soies qui sont aux chefs des étoffes de soie.

Commencez par enduire de pommade le dedans de vos deux mains, que vous passerez ensuite legèrement sur toute la frisure; chargez d'abord votre houpe de peu de poudre pour poudrer "à demi poudre", terme de perruquier.
 
Cette petite quantité de poudre suffira pour faire appercevoir les cheveux qui sortent de l'arrangement général et les couper, après quoi vous acheverez de les poudrer.


Madame Isis prepares to powder
Caroline's hair. From Madame Isis' Toilette. Do
see the article!

De peur que la poudre ne se répande sur le visage et n'entre dans les yeux de celui que l'on poudre, les perruquiers lui donnent un "cornet", c'est une feuille de carton tournée comme un cornet de papier. On se cache le visage dans le gros bout de ce cornet; il y-a des yeux de verre, et l'air pour la respiration entre par le petit bout: on le tient à la main.


Comments

Fascinating!

The process makes perfect sense: run pomade -- good sticky product -- through the hair with your hands, powder lightly, trim off any poorly cut ragged ends, and then finish the powdering.

Not that I relish hair that lacks softness and bounce and shine, but think how many people routinely spike or otherwise sculpt their hair into improbable shapes, or color all or bits of it in violent purples and hot pinks. It's all in the eye of the beholder.

What about the pomade's lard fragrance? I certainly hope that the perruquier either made or bought his pomade from a parfumier well mixed with good-smelling things. I've used pig lard to make winter bird food, and after five minutes with the stuff, had to take it outside to bury it -- well -- in the garbage. Granted, the 18th century nose, assailed as it was with strong odors every sort, from smoke and sewage to body odor, might not have objected out of hand to the scent of lard. Still, there were other, non-animal recipes. The Toilet of Flora (1772) has a chapter entitled Pomatums (pp. 152-176) with recipes for pomades of all sorts. These days, Ageless Artifice uses one of these recipes, with almond oil and beeswax, in their version. Isis discusses pomatum (pomade) at points in her blog. 

Yet ye gods, the idea of running one's hands through a beloved's be-floured hair...erk...

Plate

Okay, now for the plate. It's a repeat from last post, but you don't mind, do you? The implements used in powdering are at the bottom of the plate.

(Hey! If you haven't heard them, have a listen to the Icelandic band, Of Monsters and Men. First heard them on Tom Morton (Radio Scotland). What a band, what a sound! I know, they've been around a bit, but I'm a bit slow, you know.)

Planche II.
Plate 2.

Fig. 34, n°. 2, boîte à poudre; A, la boîte à poudre; BB, les boîtes à pommade liquide and forte; C. l'anse. Fig 34, number 2, powder box; A, the powder box; BB, the liquid and strong pomade boxes; the handle.

 

 
Fig. 34, n°. 3, pot à pommade liquide. Fig. 34, number 3, pot of liquid pomade.

Fig. 35, boîte à pommade liquide; A, le couvercle; B, la boîte. Fig. 35, liquid pomade box; A, the cover; B, the box.
Fig. 36, bâton de pommade forte. Fig. 36, stick of strong pomade.

Fig 37, sac à poudre pour porter en ville; AA, les cordons. Fig. 37, powder sack for carring in town; AA, the twists.

Fig. 38, poudroir à soufflet; A, la boîte; B, le soufflet. Fig. 38, powder bellows; A, the box; B, the bellows.

Fig. 39, houppe de cígne pour la toilette des femmes; A, la houppe; B, le manche.
Fig. 39, a swans-feather tuft for the women's toilette; A, the tuft; B, the handle.

Fig. 40, houppe sans tête. Fig. 40, tuft without a head.

Fig. 41, houppe à tête; A, la tête. Fig. 41, tuft with a head; A, the head.

Fig. 42, masque à placer sur le visage lorsque l'on poudre. Fig. 42, mask to place on the face when one powders it.

Fig, 43, cornet destiné au même usage. Fig. 43, horn meant for the same usage.

Resources

Madame Isis' Toilette (blog). Isis is making and testing 18th century receipts for pomades, rouges, powders, and more.

Hair and Hairdos of the 18th Century. La Couturière Parisienne.

Women’s Hairstyles and Cosmetics of the 18th Century: France and England, 1750-1790. Kendra Van Cleave. Démodé.

American Duchess (blog). Type 18th century hair into the blog's search engine and you'll find several nifty posts.

The Wigmaker, Barber..., Encyclopédie Méthodique, Part 1 Cutting and Curling Hair

The perruquier, Plate 1.

In a post recently I wrote that I had the urge to explore the world of the wigmaker and translate that article from the Encyclopédie Méthodique. Isis, of Isis' Wardrobe and Madame Isis' Toilette said please do! Now, if you haven't read her research and experimentation on and with 18th century cosmetics, you should. It's fascinating. From distilling to rouge to strange ingredients like burned bone and labdanum, she's showing us wonders.

So, in honor of all that work (!) I offer this more or less faulty translation of selections from the encyclopedia, all about that rather odd, talented, but somehow equivocal character, the man mandated by French law with keeping French men, and women, fresh and trimmed and stylish.

Isis, wish I could translate it all, but, Real Life (TM) and all demanding primary attention, we'll focus on the barbering, styling and perruquing parts, and leave out the baths.

Today, here are the article's first sections, about what the perruquier does as a whole, then how hair is cut and curled.

Notes on the translations:

• I have kept as close as possible not only to the original words used, but to the original sentence structure and phrasing. In this way I hope to portray some of the flavor, and perhaps shades of meaning, of the 18th century usage that otherwise would disappear.
• Other words that might be substituted for the words I chose are put in parentheses.
• Dictionary used: Boyer, A. The Royal Dictionary, French and English, and English and French.... London, 1729.  (Google ebook)
• The perruquier article appears in Lacombe, Jacques. Encyclopédie Méthodique. Arts et Métiers Mécaniques. Vol. 6. Paris: Panckoucke, 1782-1791. (Gallica). Please note that much of the work is identical to Diderot.

Extra, extra! Janet Stephens has published a superb tutorial on making papillote curls today, plus explained their history. Watch the method in action!




Watch Janet Stephens' Papillotte Curls: Historical Hairdressing Techniques.
It's excellent. These kinds of spiral curls were popular well into the
19th century.

Selections from Encyclopédie Méthodique, Arts Mécaniques, "Perruquier-Barbier-Étuviste (Art du).

About the Perruquier



Curl papers in use.

First comes a history of hair in France, then what tasks pertain to wigmakers, barbers, and bath-keepers, and what do not, and how the situation came to be. Next, some words on what perruquiers are allowed to do.

N.B. I am going to use the French term perruquier throughout; no English translation covers all the bases adaquately, so we might as well use the French so as to set it off.

Ils font la barbe; cette opération du perruquier est la seule qui soit permise aux chirurgiens, le rasoir étant regardé comme un instrument de chirurgie.

They perform barbering; this operation of the perruquier is the only which is permitted to surgeons, the razor being regarded as an instrument of surgery.

Wigmaking at Williamsburg. Image courtesy fletcher6, Wikimedia Commons.

Ce qui constítue particulièrement Part du perruquier, est celui de faire les cheveux, c'est-à-dire, de les étager pour leur donner un aspect agréable, celui de construire toutes espèces de perruques et  parties de perruques, comnme tours, toupets, chignons, and c. pour hommes and pour femmes, and de tenir des bains and étuves.

La manufacture des perruques est un art moderne ; il se perfectionne de jour en jour; and il y a apparence qu'il sera durable par les avantages qu'il acquiert sur les cheveux naturels, dont un des plus grands est de débarrasser des soins journaliers.

Les femmes même en profitent, quoique plus rarement, attendu que leur tête ne se dégarnit pas; si cemmunément que celle des hemmes: en un mot, la perruque est de tout sexe and de toutes conditions.
L'usage de la poudre est encore plus nouveau que celui de la perruque: Louis XIV ne pouvoit la souffrir ; on obtint cependant de lui sor la fin de son règne, quelqu'adoucissement à cette aversion, and même il enduroit qu'on en mît très-peu à ses perruques; maintenant il est très-commun de mettre de la poudre aux cheveux and aux perruques.

Curling irons for
curl papers.

That which constitutes particularly the art of the perruquier, is that which has to do with hair, that is to say, to layer (cut) it to give it an agreeable look, to construct types of wigs and parts of wigs, such as  "tours", "toupets", "chignons", and etc. for men and for women, and to hold baths and hot baths.

The manufacture of wigs is a modern art; it is perfected day by day; and there is the appearance that it will be durable through the advantages that it has on natural hair, of which one of the biggest is the riddance of daily care.

Even women profit by it, though more rarely, expected that their heads are less often trimmed than those of men": in a word, the wig is for all sexes and all conditions.

The usage of powder is even more new than that of the wig; Louis XIV would not allow it; yet one obtained it despite him at the end of his reign, somewhat softening his aversion, and even it came that one put a little bit on their wigs; now it is very common to put powder on hair and on wigs.

Plate 1 (see the image above)

Planche Première.

Le haut de cette planche représente une boutique de perruquier, où plusieurs garçons sont occupés à divers ouvrages de cet art; un en a, à faire la barbe; un en b, à accommoder une perruque; une femme en c, à tresser; deux ouvriers en d, à monter des perruques; un autre en e, à faire chaufer les fers à friser, tandis qu'un particulier en f ôte la poudre de dessus son visage.

Soap and sponge
in their boxes.

The top of this plate represents a perruquier's boutique, where several men are occupied in diverse parts of this art; the one in a, is barbering, the one in b, fitting a wig; a woman in c, in weaving hair
(Dictionary definition: tresser: mettre des cheveux enm tresse - to weave hair); two tasks in d, to mount wigs; another in e, to heat the curling irons, while a particular in f takes away powder from above a face.

The Art of Hairstyling

First, the original French. (For pictures of most of the tools referred to below, please see plate 2 and its captions under the translation.) Please note: this section is just an introduction to the outlines of cutting, combing, and curling. The article goes into much greater detail later on.

ART DE LA COEFFURE

Faire les cheveux et friser.

La coupe des cheveux consiste à donner aux cheveux naturels une forme régulière, en retranchant leurs inégalités, and les taillant par étages, lesquels doivent s'arranger avec grâce, èn accompagnant le visage.

II est à propos de détailler lê mieux qu'on pourra cette opération; attendu qu'elle est une des plus essentielles du perruquier.

Les "perruquiers" appellent "faire les cheveux", les couper soivant les règles de l'art; ce qui se termine ordinairement par friser and poudrer.

Ordinary curl
paper and crepe
curl paper.

Commencez par peigner toute la tête à fond, pour bien démêler les cheveux; ensuite prenant and engageant dans votre peigne, d'abord sor le haut de la tête, une portion ou rangée de cheveux, vous amènerez doucement le peigne vers vous en droiture ou de biais, soivant que vous voudrez couper ou dròit ou en biais.

Avancez ainsi jusques vers la pointe des cheveux, que vous laisserez en-dehors engagée dans le peigne; puis coulant vos ciseaux à demi fermés, par-dessous le peigne, ils couperont tout ce que vous voulez retrancher de ce rang.

Vous continuerez cette façon sor toute la tête, jusqu'à ce que les cheveux soient faits, observant que les rangs supérieurs soient plus courts que les inférieurs par toute la tête.

II est nécessaire que le perruquier en amenant, comme il vient d'être dit, les cheveux-à-lui, les maintienne toujours d'équerre à la tête; car s'il les abáissoit avant de couper, il arriveroit que ceux de dessus recouvriroient ceux de dessous, ce qui seroit une épaisseur désagréable.

Cette remarque doit servir aussi pour les perruques sur lesquelles lê perruquier fait à-peu-près la même opération.

II sembleroit, sur l'exposé qu'on vient de faire de la coupe des cheveux, qu'un peu d'habitude suffroit en venir à bout; cependant il se trouve des perruquiers bien soupérieurs en cela à d'autres.

Comme cette opération n'a point de règles précises, un certain talent, le goût and le coup-d'oeil en font tous les frais.

Quand les cheveux sont faits, on les met ordinairement tout de suite en papillotes pour les friser, on les passe au fer and on les poudre.

Or, comme ces opérations ne se font point au hasard, mais sont assujéties à des procédés and à quelques instrumens particuliers, c'est ici le lieu d'expliquer comment on doit s'y prendre pour bien opérer.

Lés papillotes font faites de papier taillé en petits triangles de deux pouces ou environ: préférez, pour les faire, le papier gris, le papier joseph, le papier brouillard, parce qu'ils se déchirent and se cassent plus difficilement que tout autre.

Rassemblez avec votre peigne une petite portion de cheveux, saisissez-les en-dessous avec les deux premiers doigts d'une main vers le milieu, and les prenant de l'autre par la pointe, roulez-les sur eux-mêmes, and enveloppez-les tout de suite avec une papillote.

II se fait deux sortes de frisures, ou en crêpé, ou en boucles.

Pour le crêpé qui s'exécute ordinairement aux cheveux courts du haut de la tête, on prend les cheveux pêle-mêle, and on les tourne court and serré sans précaution, afin qu'il ne se fasse point de vuide dans le milieu; au lieu qu'à la frisure en boucles, on ménage un vuide dans le milieu, du roulement.

Toupet iron and two
hair rollers.

Toute la tête étant garnie de papillotes, il s'a git maintenant de la passer au fer.

Le perruquier se sert de deux sortes de fer: l'un est une pince terminée par deux mâchoires plates en-dedans, l'ancienne façon étoit de les faire d'égale épaisseur: l'autre ressemble à de longs ciseaux.

Le premier se nomme "fer à friser".

Le second, "fer à toupet", dont une des branches qui est ronde, entre dans l'autre qui est creusée.

Faites chauffer le fer à friser, à nud, sur de la braise, jamais fur le charbon.

Quand il sera au degré de chaleur nécassaire, ce qu'on, reconnóît lorsqu'il ne roussit pas un papier qu'on lui présente, ou bien en l'approchant de la joue, vous serrerez chaque papillote un instant plus ou moins long; mais il vaut mieux l'employer assez chaud pour qu'il reste peu fur chacune: c'est pourquoi, quand on a toute une tête à passer, on a plusieurs fers qui chauffent en même-temps.

Quand toutes les papillotes seront refroidies, vous les déferez and peignerez le tout ensemble, puis vous formerez and arrangerez avec grâce les boucles, le toupet and le crêpé qui se pratique ordinairement aux cheveux courts vers le front and les tempes.

Crêper est mêler and confondre ensemble les cheveux frisés: cet accommodage par sa legérété donne un aspect agréable à la vue.

Pour crêper, on pince de haut en bas légèrement avec deux doigts au travers des cheveux qu'on veut crêper; on amène doucement à soi ceux qu'on a saisis, and en même temps on les repousse avec le peigne fin à mesure qu'ils se dégagent d'entre les doigts.

The Barber's Shop, Marcellus Laroon the
Younger. Yale Center for British Art.

Quant aux boucles, on les forme, en peignant ensemble une quantité de cheveux, dont on rabat la frisure sur le premier doigt qui leur sert de moule.

"Le perruquier" a encore d'autres rubriques, soit pour dégarnir les chevelures trop épaisses, soit pour rendre les cheveux plus fermes, afin qu'ils tiennent la frisure.

Pour dégarnir, il fait une opération qu'il appelle "effiler": voci comme il s'y prend.

Il relève and fait tenir à lá tête avec son peigne un rang de cheveux, and portant ses ciseaux aux racines de ceux que ce rang relevé a découverts, il les tient entr'ouverts les pointes en bas, and par le moyen d'un léger pincement, il coupe ce-qu'il juge être de trop; il parvient ainsi à réduire une chevelure quand ellë est trop enflée.

II affermit and donne plus de consistance aux cheveux mous and qui se laissent trop aller, avec ce qu'il appelle de la "pommade forte".

II fait cette pommade sur le champ, en mêlant un peu de poudre avec de la pommade qu'il fait fondre dans ses maîns.

Hair in process of
being curled.

II retrousse les cheveux comme à la précédente opération, met de cette pommade à la racine des cheveux qu'il vient de découvrir, ce qu'il continue d'étages en étages.

Quand on veut un toupet qui couronne le front, c'est-à-dire, que le premier rang, au lieu d'être frisé, soit relevé à plat and recourbé en arrière , c'est l'office du fer à toupet.

Le "perruquier" le fait chauffer modérément; il prend ensuite entre ses deux branches le rang qui doit former le toupet, il le dirige en haut tout droit; puis tournant le fer, sa branche ronde en dessous, il le courbe en arrière, and 'fait faire aux cheveux par le bout le crochet en bas.

Now, the translation.

The Art of Hairstyling

+Do the hair and curl it.+

Cutting hair consists in giving to natural hair a regular form, by subtracting its inequalities, and cutting it by stages, which must be arranged with grace, to go with the face.

It is a propos, then to detail the best one can do in this operation; the expection of which is one of the essentials of the barber.

The "perruquiers" call "doing the  hair", to cut it following the rules of the art; this which ordinarily ends by curling and powdering.

Combs in two finenesses.

Start by combing the whole head to the bottom, to fully untangle the hair; then taking and engaging in your comb, first on the top of the head, a portion or row of hair, you will bring the comb gently straight towards you or on an angle, according to whether you want to cut straight or on an angle.

Advance in this way until towards the end of the hair, which you leave outside engaged in the comb; then running your scissors half closed, from below the comb, it will cut all that you wish to subtract from  this row.

You will continue in this fashion on the entire head, until the hair is done, observing that the upper rows are shorter than the lower rows throughout the head.

It is necessary that the barber in bringing, as it has been said, the hair towards him, still maintains squareness on the head; because if he lets it fall before cutting it, it would happen that the hair on top would cover over the hair below, this would give it a disagreeable thickness.

This remark must also serve for wigs on which the wigmaker performs a similar operation.

It would seem, due to the experience which one gets by cutting hair, that a little experience would suffice to bring it a good level; however it occurs that some wigmakers are better at it than others.

As this operation has no precise rules, a certain talent, taste and a good eye are what set the fees.  (loose translation)

When the hair is done, one ordinarily puts it immediately in curlers to curl it, one irons it (passer au fer) and one powders it. [Dictionary definition: Papillote: papier dont on envellope les cheveux pour les tenir frisés. Curl paper: paper with which one envelops the hair to hold curls.]

Now, as these operations are not made at hazard (randomly), but are subject to procedures and to several particular instruments, it's the place here to explain how one must proceed to operate well.

The curl papers are made of paper cut into small triangles of two inches [Dictionary definition: pouce: humb, or the 12th part of a foot] or thereabouts: do use preferentially, to make them, gray paper, joseph paper, blotting paper, because it rips and breaks with more difficulty than any other.

Tailed combs.

Gather with your comb a small section of hair, seizing it underneath with the two primary fingers of a hand towards the middle, and taking of the other by the end, roll them on themselves, and envelop them immediately with a curl paper.

To sorts of curls are made: frizzed (frizzled, crisped) or in curls (interestingly, also described as buckles).

For the frizzed hair which is executed ordinarily with hair that is short high on the head, one takes the hair pell-mell, and turns it short and tight without care (precaution), so that it does not leave (fasser???) any hole (void) in the middle; instead of the hairstyle in curls, one takes care of a hole in the middle with rolls (a-rollings). (Could also be read as "leaves a hole in the middle of rollings", which makes no sense).

The entire head being garnished with curl papers, now it is time to iron [the hair].

The wigmaker uses two sorts of irons, one is a pincer (nipper) terminated by two jaws with plates inside, the old fashion being to make them of equal thickness: the other resemble long scissors.

The first one calls a "curling iron".

The second, a toupee iron, of which one of the branches is round, in between the other which is hollowed. [Dictionary definition: toupet: a little tuft of hair]

Make hot the curling iron, bare, on the embers (live coals), never on the coal.

When it (the iron) gets to the necessary heat level, which one recognizes when it does not brown a paper presented to it, or even when it  comes close to (approaches) the cheek, you iron each curl paper a moment more or less long, but it is better worth employing it (the iron) hot enough  so that it remains less on each (curl paper): this is because, when one has an entire head to iron, one has several irons which are heating at the same time.

When all the curl papers are cooled again, you yield (remove?) each one and comb the entire ensemble, then you form and arrange the curls with grace, the toupee (tuft of hair) and the frizzes which ordinarily are practiced on short hair towards the front and the temples.

Frizzing is mixing and mingling (jumbling) the frizzed hair together: this dressing (fitting up) by its lightness gives an agreable aspect to the sight.

To frizzle (crisp, curl), one lightly pinches from top to bottom with two fingers across the hair which one wants to frizz; one softly draws towards onesself that which one holds; and at the same time one 
As for curls, one formes them while combing together a quantity of hair, which one tilts (brings down) the curl on the first finger which serves as (a) mold.

The wigmaker has other rules, whether to thin out (ungarnish) too thick strands, or whether to render the hair firm (to hold fast) so that it holds the curl.

To thin out (the hair) he performs the operation which is called "unravelling": this is how one does it.
He raises and holds at the head with his comb a row of hair, and carrying the scissors to the roots of those which this rown raises and uncovers, he holds them (the scissors) half open with the points lowered, and via the middle of a light pinching, he cuts that (hair) which he judges too much; so he reaches reduction of a strand when it is too thick (swollen).

Marriage à-la-mode: The Countess’s Morning Levee. William Hogarth.
Wikipedia.

He strengthens and gives consistence to soft hair and (hair) which lets too much go, with what one calls "strong pommade".

He makes this pommade on the field (on the spot), in mixing a little powder with a little pommade which he makes in his hands.

He rolls up the hair just like the preceding operation, puts this pommade at the roots of the hair which he comes to uncover, and so continues stage by stage.

When one wants un toupet (tuft of hair) which crowns (garlands) the front (hair), that is to say, the first row, in place of being frizzed, whether raised flat and bent (curved) backwards, this is the office of the toupet iron.

The wigmaker heats it moderately; he then takes between two branches the row which must form the toupet, he guides it right straight up; then turning the iron, its branch round below, he bends (curves) it backwards, and makes a low hook at the end of the hair.

The Second Plate, and Its Captions

Note: I have yet to really examine each of the tools in detail.

Planche II.
Plate 2.
Fig. 1, boîte à savonnette; A, la boîte; B, le couvercle. Fig. 1, box of soup, ; A, the box; B, the cover.
Fig. 2, A, la boîte; B, la savonnette. Fig. 2, A, the box, B, the soap.
Fig, 3, rasoir; A, la lame; B, le manche. Fig. 3, razor; A, the blade; B, the handle.
Fig. 4, couvercle de l'étui à rasoirs. Fig. 4, cover of  the razor case.
Fig. 5, étui à rasoirs; A, l'étui ; BB, les rasoirs. Fig. 5, razor case; A, the case, BB, the razors.
Fig. 6 and 7, savon and éponge dans leurs boîtes. Fig. 6 and 7, soap and sponge in their boxes.
Fig, 8, poche à rasoir; A, la poche; BB, les cordons; CC, les rasoirs. Fig. 8, razor pocket; A, the pocket, BB, the twists;  CC, the razors.
Fig. 9 and 10, papillotte ordinaire and à crêpe. Fig. 9 and 10, ordinary curl paper and a crepe curl paper.
Fig. 11 and 12, peignes à retaper et à queue; AA, les dents; BB, les dos;
CC; les queues. Fig. 11 and 12, touch-up combs and a tail; AA, the teeth, BB, the back;
CC, the tails.
Fig. 13, papillotte tortillée, sur laquelle en roule les cheveux. Fig. 13, twisted curl paper, on which one rolls the hair.
Fig. 14 and 15, petites brosses à nettoyer les peignes; AA, les brosses;
BB, les manches. Fig. 14 and 15, small brushes for cleaning the combs; AA, the brushes;
BBm, the handles.
Fig, 16, pincée de cheveux à demi en papillotte; A, les cheveux; B, la
papillotte. Fig. 16, pinch of hair half in the curl paper; A, the hair; B, the curl paper.
Fig. 17, la même mise en papillotte; A, la pincée; B, la papillotte
faite. Fig. 17, the same placed in the curl paper; A, the pinch; B, the made-up curl paper.
Fig. 18 and 19, élévation coupe d'un peigne à retaper, à deux fins and à
dos plat; AA, les dents; B, le dos plat. Fig 18 and 19, side view and cut of a touch-up comb; of two finenesses and
of two sides; AA, the teeth, B, the flat back.
Fig. 20 and 21, élévation and coupe d'un peigne à retaper and à deux fins, and à
dos rond; AA, les dents; B, le dos rond. Fig. 20 and 21; side view and cut of a touch-up comb and of two finenesses, and a round back; AA, the teeth; B, the round back.
Fig. 22, ciseaux sans pointe à tailler les cheveux; AA, les branches; B,
la charnière; CC, les anneaux.  Fig. 22, scissors witout a hair cutting point; Aa, the branches; B, the
joint (hinge); CC, the rings.
Fig. 23, fer à friser le toupet, dît fer a toupet; AA, les branches; BB,
les anneaux; C, la charnìère. Fig. 23, curling iron for toupets, called toupet iron; AA, the branches;
BB, the rings; C, the hinge.
Fig. 24, Compas à pistolet à rouler les cheveux; AA, lée jambes; B, la poignée; C, le poucier; D, la charnière; E, le ressort. Fig. 24,  a "pistol compass" to roll the hair; AA, the legs; the
handful; C, the thumb; the hinge; E, the spring. [The term "pistol compass appears in other dictionaries and is just described as a tool for rolling hair.)
Fig. 25, autre compas à charnière à rouler les cheveux; AA, les jambes;
B, la charnière. Fig. 25, another hinged compass for rolling the hair; AA, the legs; B,
the hinge.
Fig. 26, pincée de cheveux prête à être frisés, A, la pointe. Fig. 26, pinch of hair ready to be curled; A, the hair end.
Fig. 27, la même tortillée lorsque l'on veut y mettre des papillottes
fendues; A, la pointe; B, le tortillé. Fig. 27, the same twist when one wants to make split curl papers.
Fig, 28, la même pincée par la pointe; A, la pointe pincée. Fig. 28, the same pinch by the end; A, the pinched end.
Fig. 29, la même frisée.Fig. 29, the same curl.
Fig. 30 bis and 31, démêloirs; AA, les dents; BB, les dos. Fig. 30 bis and 31; wide-toothed combs; AA, the teeth; BB, the back.
Fig. 32, peigne ceintré de chignon; A, les dents; D, le poucier. Fig. 32, arched chignon comb; AA, the teeth; D, the thumb.
Fig, 33, fer à passer les papillottes, dit fer à friser; AA, les mords;
B, la charnière ; C, la poignée; D, le poucier. Fig. 33, curl paper passing iron ; called curling iron; AA, the bits; the hinge; the handful; the thumb.
Fig. 34, autre fer à passer; AA, les mords; B, la charnière; C, la
poignée, D, le poucier. Fig. 34, another passing iron; AA, the bits; B, the hinge; C, the
handful; D, the thumb.
Fig. 34, n°. 2, boîte à poudre; A, la boîte à poudre; BB, les boîtes à pommade liquide and forte; C. l'anse. Fig 34, number 2, powder box; A, the powder box; BB, the liquid and
strong pomade boxes; the handle. 
Fig. 34, n°. 3, pot à pommade liquide. Fig. 34, number 3, pot of liquid pomade.
Fig. 35, boîte à pommade liquide; A, le couvercle; B, la boîte. Fig. 35, liquid pomade box; A, the cover; B, the box.
Fig. 36, bâton de pommade forte. Fig. 36, stick of strong pomade.
Fig 37, sac à poudre pour porter en ville; AA, les cordons. Fig. 37, powder sack for carring in town; AA, the twists.
Fig. 38, poudroir à soufflet; A, la boîte; B, le soufflet. Fig. 38, powder bellows; A, the box; B, the bellows.
Fig. 39, houppe de cígne pour la toilette des femmes; A, la houppe; B, le manche.
Fig. 39, a swans-feather tuft  for the women's toilette; A, the tuft; B, the handle.
Fig. 40, houppe sans tête. Fig. 40, tuft without a head.
Fig. 41, houppe à tête; A, la tête.
Fig. 41, tuft with a head; A, the head.
Fig. 42, masque à placer sur le visage lorsque l'on poudre.
Fig. 42, mask to place on the face when one powders it.
Fig, 43, cornet destiné au même usage. Fig. 43, horn meant for the same usage.

Here's what I think are among the most interesting things about the sections above. What do YOU think is coolest or uncoolest?

• Many of the tools are quite similar to those we use today.
• The curl papers don't curl the hair themselves: the papers with the hair inside them are ironed with a curling iron. The paper thus protects the hair from being burned.
• The 18th century version of "bed head" hair products is a mix of pomade and hair powder, made right on the spot. Like setting the style with clay...
• The description of frizzing: pell mell!
• Boy, was he ever wrong about the continuing popularity of wig-wearing. They've never had such a heyday since.

Resources

• Janet Stephens, who studies historical hairdressing, offers a tutorial on making papillotte curls on YouTube. Well worth the watch.
• Women’s Hairstyles & Cosmetics of the 18th Century: France & England, 1750-1790, by Kendra Van Cleave. Well written article, long bibliography.

Good gracious, that was a bit of work. A week's break is in order :} Next up: hair powdering...

Just A Reminder to Put Your Best Foot Forward: You Don't Know Who Might be Watching

Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of
Devonshire, by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

"...Hetty and I took a walk in the Park on Sunday morning, where, among others, we saw the young and handsome Duchess of Devonshire, walking in such an undressed and slatternly manner, as, in former times, Mrs. Rishton* might have done in Chesington garden**. Two of her curls came quite unpinned, and fell lank on one of her shoulders; one shoe was down at heel, the trimming of her jacket and coat*** was in some places unsown [sic]; her cap was awry; and her cloak which was rusty and powdered****, was flung half on and half off. Had she not a servant in superb livery behind her, she would certainly have been affronted*****. Every creature turned back to stare at her. Indeed I think her very handsome, and she has a look of innocence and artlessness that made me quite sorry she should be so foolishly negligent of her person. She had hold of the Duke's arm, who is the very reverse of herself, for he is ugly, tidy, and grave. He looks a very mean****** shopkeeper's journeyman."

Fanny Burney's comments in a letter to her friend and second "Daddy" Mr. Crisp, April 1776.*******

Ow.

*Mrs. Maria Rishton, Fanny's close, flighty, spirited friend.
**Chesington, the private, rural home where Mr. Crisp boarded, and where Fanny and Maria often stayed.
***"jacket and coat": jacket and petticoat. "Coat", the 1880s-era editor of Fanny's early journals tells us, was an old term for "petticoat", and when Fanny edited her journals later, she often corrected the word to read "petticoat".
****"rusty and powdered": "rusty" was often used to describe black garments of which the dye, never fast, had faded in spots. "Powdered", I am guessing refers to some of her hair powder having fallen on it. Ugh.
*****"affronted". In this case, may mean something on the order of being snubbed, or worse.
******"mean". In that day, mean usually meant poor, penurious, of low means.
*******The Early Diary of Frances Burney, 1768-1778. Vol. II. Edited by Annie Raine Ellis. London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1913, pp. 138-139. 

Mid-1790s Hair Tutorial and Hat Precis

Channeling 1794-1795.

Late eighteenth cenrtury hair was big, wasn't it? First we had Marie Antoinette and her giant poufs topped with sailing ships and whole birds. Then we had giant boufs with tails in back, as if ladies had slept in the poufs for months and then just teased them out in frustration.

By the mid 1790s, fashionable women transferred their passion from big frizz to big, long locks. A spiral-curl lock or two might hang fetchingly over a shoulder and inspire plays like The Rape of the Lock earlier in the century, but now those curly long locks multiplied until the head was covered with them.

The locks could be pulled up into messy masses, or sometimes woven more carefully with ribbons,or headbands, or left au natural. For this era was the prelude to Romanticism, and what is more romantic than tendrils around the face and shoulders?

Here are two mid-1790s fashion plates from The Gallery of Fashion that show two variations on the look.

As alway, please click the images for larger versions.

Please also pardon any typos...for an experiment, I typed the whole thing on my Blackberry...excepting image code, which I set up earlier. Um, sore fingers ahead.

By 1796, high fashion began to take the hair high up onto the head again and while curls were still the rage, they became sparser, set closer to the head, and kept more controlled, more in emulation of the Classical than of Nature's Child.

The Hair

My problem for the 1790s picnic we held Saturday was translating this look onto a 21st century head of hair, bobbed and straightened. Not good "lockige" material.

Lauren of The Lady of Portland House and her friends at the Oregon Regency Society, who favor the same decade our group does, seem to have gone for full wigs as a solution. There are variations on the Hair Metal theme out there in wig world, with names like "Lionness". Teased and shaped a little, these do admirably.

I had neither the money nor the chutzpah to go for a wig, though; I like my own hair, and wondered if I could do a variation on Vivcore's Georgian pouf wiglet (Google it for a great tutorial). Then I could use my own front and back hair.

But midway through making it, it began to look too poufy, and I had a Eureka moment. Are you familiar with the Paris Hilton headband wiglet that some stores sell? Have you seen the Costumer's Manifesto tutorial for hair for the play Les Liaisons Dangereuses? I have, and, a day before the picnic, the lightbulb blinking on after months of intermittent mindless musing, I pulled out a Scunci 1.5-inch-wide elastic headband bought years ago, some brown thread and a needle, and 10-12 curled wefts of imitation hair some 22 inches long, from Sally Beauty Supply that I bought for 5 dollars, again years ago.

The wefts I had cut into slices some 2 or 3 inches wide early this summer. I had found a wooden dowel a half inch in diameter, and had, one by one, wound wefts around one end of it like one winds hair around a curler, pinned the hair ends in place with a bobby pin, and plunged the dowel and its hair into a pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds, enough to make the strands on the weft take a permanent curl. Once gently worked off the dowel and dried, each weft was now a long sausage curl. Left alone, the ingredients for any formal look that requires sausage curls -- mid-eighteenth century, 1830s, 1850s, 1870s. Pulled out with the fingers, loose long locks.

You can see the wefts above, bobby pins run through them.

Certainly you can just pin the wefts onto your head with bobby pins, mixing wefts with your own hair, I tried that and it works -- just think hair extensions.

An easier route, the one I ended up taking, is to sew the tops of the wefts to the headband. I set a weft to the outer edge of the band, and sewed it to the band with a few stitches. Then I set a weft next to it and did the same...repeating until I had gone almost halfway round the band.

Then I sewed another row of wefts on a half an inch in from the band edge. That proved to be enough hair for me, but you might add as much as you like.

You can sew how rough the sewing is, below.

If you wish, cover the sewing with shorter locks or a period head wrap: since I was wearing a hat, I did not.

Put the headband on, bobby pin it to your hair to hold it in place, and style it as you like: push some towards the front of your head, other parts to the sides, pile some of the locks up on your head and pin in place as I did... If thick enough and of a similar color to your own hair, it blends with your hair nicely.

Remember to pull your own natural front hair forwards towards your face and to spiral-curl it with curlers or curling iron or foam curling rods. Using setting lotion on dry hair, and blow-dry your hair to speed things up. When you take the curlers out, your front hair will be curly, too. Now you can blend it with your new locks. If you have long hair, looping some of it up for slightly shorter by-the-face face curls looks nice. 

Use fashion plates and paintings of the era to help decide how to arrange it into a coiffure with hat, hair wrap, turban, ribbons, feathers. (See my Research Resources page...link in menu at blog top, to find fashion plates.) 

Here above is the sewing; rough, eh?

Here above is the completed wiglet.

The Hat

This is just a precis, for the hat was very simple.

You see the fashion plate above in which the young woman is wearing a hat with a band around it, tied in a 3-way bow in front and with the fringed end pointing obliquely up, and a plume set behind the bow? That was my model.

I used a hat bought my freshman year of college and modified it. The base hat is a boater of sorts, the brim width the same all the way around, with and three-plus inch straight crown.

I sewed two lengths of millinery wire to the inside from crown out to the edge of the brim and bent the wire to bring the hat equally down on either side, which style was also popular in 1795.

Then I tacked a scrap of shot pink and cream silk-cotton around the brim, tucking raw edges under the scrap for a more finished look.

Next, another scrap was formed into a bow, and one end, longer than the other, brought up obliquely in back.Because the fabric frayed naturally, I took advantage of it and frayed the bow's sides for a two-tone effect. Again, an idea from fashion plates, and you see fringing in trim of the day.

The bow was pinned with a silver hatpin to the front of the hat.

Finally, I took two medium ostrich feathers, tacked them together with thread to make a single fluffier plume, and inserted it behind the hatband, tacking it into place. Should have tacked it more: it twisted. The plume should be set so the top cuves forward -- that means the back of the feather faces front.

The Results

Here you go. A pretty 1790s look, with minimal outlay of construction time or funds. The research and thought time? Months and months. I have a slow brain.