Ideal Characteristics of the Perfect Coiffure-the "Palla' - Anglo-saxon "Heafod-hroegel - Flowing

Hair Typical of Maidenhood - Coiffures in the Reigns of Edward IV., Henry VIII., Charles II.,

William and Mary, and the Georgian Period - Revival of Classic Designs

Dame Fashion has, probably, been more capricious in modes of hair-dressing throughout the ages than in any other detail of female attire. Ancient authors declaimed constantly against the absurd fashions of dressing the hair. "You are at a loss," says Tertullian, "what to be at with your hair. Sometimes you put it into a press; at others you tie it negligently together or set it entirely at liberty. You raise or lower it according to your fancy. Some keep it closely twisted up into curls, while others choose to let it float loosely in the wind."

A Greek coiffure. The hair is parted and turned back on either side towards the temples. A jewelled fillet confines it in place

Purity of outline and simplicity of arrangement are the two ideal characteristics of a perfect coiffure, and for examples of such models we have to go to the ancient Greek and Roman period. The Greek beauty parted her hair in the middle, turning it back on either side in a semi-circle towards the temples. It was then gathered up into a knot at the back. This the Greeks called corymbion and the Romans nodus. Sometimes, also, after tying the hair in this way, it was brought again to the top of the head, where it was fixed by a single ornamental pin. As civilisation progressed, and luxury grew, the coiffure became more complicated. Sometimes the natural hair, curled by a hot iron called calamistrum, was confined by a bandeau, fillet, or jewelled chaplet, which separated the false hair and kept it smooth.

A passage in a curious book, "The Toilette of Sabina," by Boettiger, gives interesting details of the different kinds of head-dress worn by Roman ladies. It describes the nodus, the diademct, and the turtulus (or bourrelet, as the French called it), a kind of knot, pad, or loop, which, when prettily made with the natural hair, they considered as the perfection of art. Ladies of rank had slaves whose sole employment was to do up this hair-knot.

As far as we can judge from the monuments which exist, Roman and Greek women seldom wore any covering over the head; anything like a hat or bonnet being rarely shown. There are, however, several figures among the paintings found in Pompeii in which the "palla" seems to be thrown over the head, so as to form a cover for it, or a separate cloth is used for that purpose. It is interesting as being a part of the Roman costume which seems to have been adopted by the people of Gaul and Britain, and was continued into the Middle Ages, forming, in fact, the mode of the mediaeval couvrechef.

The Anglo-saxon women covered their hair closely when out of doors. The covering appears to have been usually called a head-rail (heafod-hrcegel) or head-garment. It appears sometimes as covering the head closely and reaching no lower than the neck; at others, and, in fact, usually among the

Anglo-Saxons, it sits more loosely and flows over the shoulders, and even beyond them, so as to form a kind of hood.

The 'head-rail," or head covering, of an Anglo-saxon lady. When worn long and flowing it served as a kind of hood

In earlier times the cutting of the hair, in either sex, indicated slavery or crime, which merited the severest punishment.

A coiffure of the Georgian period in a style immortalised for us in the pictures of Reynolds, Romney, and Angelica

Kauffman

Among the Anglo-saxons a young, unmarried girl was obliged to wear her hair flowing loose, typifying her maidenhood, although after a certain age she was allowed to plait it. On her wedding-day she unplaced it, and threw it loose and scattered over her shoulders. After the marriage, however, the woman's hair was cut short, to show that she had accepted a position of servitude towards her husband; but as civilisation developed, this degrading part of the marriage ceremony was dispensed with, and brides after the ceremony were only required to braid their hair in folds round the head. Loose hair continued to be the distinction of an unmarried girl.

In feudal times the ladies and "damoi-selles" of the castle had a fashion of dressing their heads with garlands and chaplets of flowers. These chaplets of flowers were not worn only by the gentler sex, for we are told in the romance of Lancelot that "there was no day in which Lancelot, whether winter or summer, had not, in the morning, a chaplet of fresh roses on his head, except only on Fridays and on the vigils of the high feasts, and as long as Lent lasted."

In Planche's "History of British Costume" some quaint illustrations are given of early coiffures and head-dresses. In the reign of Henry IV. the costumes of the women were most elaborate, and the coiffures were, of course, en suite. "The reticulated head-dress" (as the hair gathered into a gold caul at the sides has been called), says Planche, "sometimes covered with a kerchief or veil, assumes in this reign a square, and in the two following a heart-shaped appearance, which seems to have awakened the wrath and satire of the moralists and poets of the time."later on a simple golden network confined the hair, and a quaint but elegant head-tire was worn, consisting of a roll of rich stuff, sometimes descending in a peak on the forehead or circling the brow like a turban.

In the days of Edward IV. the hair was completely covered, and the head-dresses were of a most extravagant nature, consisting of enormous caps with two points like steeples, from which hung long crapes or rich fringes like standards. About 1483, however, these steeple caps disappeared, and gave place to a much more artistic arrangement. The hair was frizzed at both temples, turned back from the forehead, and a small cap of satin or velvet worn. This was sometimes enriched with pearls and precious stones. The coiffure of the time of Elizabeth was somewhat similar, but became much more elaborate.

In the reign of Charles II. simplicity and negligence were the characteristics of the coiffure. The hair fell in glossy ringlets round the face and was adorned by a simple bandeau of pearls or even a plain ribbon. This did not last very long, however, and during the reigns of James II. and William and Mary a return was made to over-elaboration. The hair was again combed up from the forehead and arranged in towering billows, surmounted with piles of lace and ribbon or with lace scarves or veils.

The hair during the Georgian period was almost as elaborate, yet it must be confessed that some of the coiffures of the beauties of the day pictured for us by Romney, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Angelica Kauffman, were picturesque in the extreme.

The early Victorian fashions in hair-dressing were all very simple. One only needs to glance at the illustrations of Dickens' and Thackeray's novels to see this. The tendency of the present day is to copy the classic models of ancient Greece and Rome.

A becoming coiffure of to-day. The tendency of the modern coiffure is to copy the classic models of Greece and Rome