TRICHOCOSMOS.
NOTES
HISTORICAL, ÆSTHETICAL, ETHNOLOGICAL,
PHYSIOLOGICAL, ANECDOTAL,
AND
TONSORIAL,
ON
THE HAIR & BEARD.
“Fair tresses man’s imperial race ensnare,
And beauty draws us with a single hair.”
LONDON:
READ & Co., 10, JOHNSON’S COURT, FLEET ST.
_Entered at Stationers’ Hall._
(THE RIGHT OF TRANSLATION IS RESERVED.)
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE.
I. The Beauty of the Hair 3
II. The Fashion of Antiquity 7
III. Freaks of Fashion 17
IV. Wigs 42
V. Barbers 83
VI. Structure, Growth, and Colour of the Hair 112
BEAUTY OF THE HAIR.
CHAPTER I.
Although much time and attention are usually bestowed in dressing and
ornamenting the hair, in compliance with the dictates of fashion, but
little regard is paid to the natural beauty of the hair itself, as
contributing to the expression and comeliness of the features. The
absurdities and caprices of fashion have been constant themes for
ridicule and declamation with the wits of all ages. The sharp epigrams
of Martial, the satires of Juvenal, the anathemas of the Romish
ecclesiastics, the invectives of sour Puritans, the coarse raillery of
Swift, and the good humour of Addison, have all in turn been levelled
against some prevailing folly of the day. It is not our intention,
however, to act the part of censor, but, as humble chroniclers, to note
the change from one fashion to another.
Before entering on the task we will say a few words about the hair,
in relation to art, a subject of some interest, and which we believe
has not been sufficiently insisted on. The hair is, undoubtedly, the
chief ornament of the head; we naturally associate the idea of vigour,
fertility, and gracefulness, with its growth. Its flowing outline
gives grace and freedom to the symmetry of the features, and by a
little license of the artist’s hand, its form may be made to correct
whatever harshness of character the countenance may chance to have
acquired. In the colour, too, and texture of the hair, what facilities
are afforded for heightening the charm of the most delicate complexion,
or the dignity of the manly brow. The poets have universally recognised
the truth of these principles, and in their descriptions of ideal
beauty we invariably find some allusion to the hair.
Milton delights to adorn the human countenance with long hair, flowing
in rich profusion. Of Eve he sings:
“She, as a veil, down to the slender waist
Her unadorned golden tresses wore
Dishevelled, but in wanton ringlets waved
As the vine curls her tendrils,----”
and to Adam he gives
“Hyacinthine locks
Round from his parted forelock manly hung.”
Even his angels are conspicuous for their beautiful hair--for instance
“Of charming sunny rays a golden tiar
Circled his head, nor less his locks behind
Illustrious on his shoulders, fledge with wings,
Lay waving round”----
The vivid descriptions of Homer, full of local colouring, afford
many instances of the picturesque effect produced by duly noting so
apparently a trivial matter, as the colour or crispness of the hair.
Shakspere makes frequent allusions to its beauty: at the touch of his
master hand a gleam of light seems to play about the silken tresses:
“Here in her hairs
The painter plays the spider, and hath woven
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men!”
The Italian poets also show the same love of the beautiful, and
fondness for
“Le crespe chiome d’or puro lucente.”
How much the form and variety of the hair help to distinguish the style
and character of a composition was well understood by the ancient
sculptors and painters. “The hair of the Phidian Jove, in the Vatican,
rises in spouts, as it were, from the forehead, and then falls in
waving curls, like the mane of the lion, most majestic and imperial in
appearance. The crisp curls of Hercules again remind us of the short
locks between the horns of the indomitable bull; whilst the hair of
Neptune falls down wet and dank, like his own sea-weed. The beautiful
flowing locks of Apollo, full and free, represent perpetual youth; and
the gentle, vagrant, bewitching tresses of Venus, denote most clearly
her peculiar characters and claims as a divinity of Olympus.” We remark
the same peculiarity in the portraits by Sir Peter Lely of the court
beauties of the time of Charles II.
“Loves walks the pleasant mazes of the hair.”
Hair is to the human aspect what foliage is to the landscape; and,
whenever pen or pencil is guided by poetic feeling or good taste,
it lingers with admiration and delight amid the shadows and glossy
silken sheen--the ever-varying tints, and waving, wanton loveliness of
sunny, luxuriant hair. Indeed, so beautiful is the hair itself, when
arranged with taste, and kept in good order, (that is in a growing,
healthful state,) that the addition of any further ornament, by way of
head-dress, is all but superfluous. Not that all ornament should be
dispensed with, but that great judgment is necessary in selecting such
as correct taste may approve. Addison, with his usual good sense, thus
counsels his fair readers: “I would desire the fair sex to consider
how impossible it is for them to add anything that can be ornamental
to what is already the masterpiece of nature. The head has the most
beautiful appearance, as well as the highest station, in the human
figure. Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the face; she
has touched it with vermilion, planted in it a double row of ivory,
made it the seat of smiles and blushes, lightened it up and enlivened
it with the eyes, hung it on each side with curious organs of sense,
given it airs and graces which cannot be described, and surrounded it
with such a flowing shade of hair as sets its beauties in the most
agreeable light. In short, she seems to have designed the head as a
cupola to the most glorious of her works; and when we load it with such
a pile of supernumerary ornaments, we destroy the symmetry of the human
figure, and foolishly contrive to call off the eye from great and real
beauties to childish gew-gaws, ribbons, and bone lace.”
And beautiful exceedingly are those beloved memorials--the silken locks
of childhood, the treasured tresses of riper years, or the silver gray
of reverend old age--which, in the eyes of sorrowing friends, are the
dearest relics of the loved ones whose angel spirits beyond the tomb
have passed through death into eternity.
“There seems a love in hair, though it be dead:
It is the gentlest, yet the strongest thread
Of our frail plant--a blossom from the tree
Surviving the proud trunk; as if it said,
Patience and Gentleness in Power. In me
Behold affectionate eternity.”
_Leigh Hunt._
THE FASHION OF ANTIQUITY.