The fashion of ornamenting the hair is an universal vanity, probably as
old as the creation; for the earliest records and antiquities introduce
us to the mysteries of wigs and beard cases, and such evident and
lavish displays of tonsorial art, as remind one more of the skilful
artist than the first rude essays of the craft. It has been suggested
by a writer in the _Quarterly Review_ that we are indebted to Eve
herself for the first principles of the art, and that probably by the
reflection in some tranquil stream she made her earliest studies.
In the sculptures from Nineveh we have an exact representation of the
fashion of the hair among the Assyrians--thousands of years before
Britain had a place in history. The office of _coiffeur_ in those
days must evidently have been one of no little importance. From the
king on the throne--the mighty hunter, lion slayer, and destroyer
of men--his counsellors, and great captains, to the poor slave, the
mere hewer of wood and drawer of water, all seem to have passed under
the discipline of the curling-irons. The curling and plaiting of the
beard and hair, as shown in the sculptures, is doubtless intended
as a distinguishing mark of a superior and conquering race. Their
colossal-winged bulls and monstrous deities are adorned with the same
venerable badge of power and authority. Since nearly all that is known
on this subject is directly derived from the researches of Mr. Layard,
we cannot do better than refer to the volumes of one to whom not only
this nation, but the civilised world, are indebted for his arduous and
most successful explorations.
“The Assyrians paid particular attention to the adorning of their
persons. Besides wearing numerous ornaments, they most carefully and
elaborately platted their hair and beards. The hair was parted over the
forehead, and fell from behind the ears on the shoulders in a large
bunch of ringlets. The beard was allowed to grow to its full length,
and, descending low on the breast, was divided into two or three rows
of curls. The moustache was also carefully trimmed and curled at the
ends. The hair, as well as the beard, appears to have been dyed, as is
still the custom in Persia; but it has been doubted whether the hair,
represented in the sculptures, was natural or artificial.
“According to Herodotus (Lib. 1, c. 195) the Babylonians wore their
hair long. The great regularity of the curls in the sculptures would
certainly lead to the impression that part of the hair, at least,
was false; but we can scarcely suppose that the warriors, as well as
the king and the principal officers of state, wore false beards, for
all the sculptured beards are equally elaborate and studied in the
arrangement. The mode of representing hair in the bas-reliefs is most
probably conventional. Most Eastern people have been celebrated for
the length and beauty of their hair, and if the Assyrians were as well
provided with it as the inhabitants of Persia were in the days of
Darius, or as they now are, they would have had little occasion for a
wig.”
The hair of females, in the sculptures, is usually represented in long
ringlets, sometimes plaited and braided, and at other times confined
in a net. The modern fashion of wearing the hair in a net is therefore
a revival of a very ancient one. Isaiah alludes to “the caps of
net-work,” (chap. III., v. 8).
It is to ancient Egypt we must look for the earliest instance of a
people investing themselves with that symbol of wisdom and gravity--the
wig. It was reserved for the courtiers of Louis XIII. to re-introduce
and remodel the ancient perruque, but its origin certainly dates from
a very remote antiquity. The Egyptians as a nation were “all shaven
and shorn:” they shaved even the heads of young children, leaving only
certain locks as an emblem of youth. All classes among the people, the
slaves imported from foreign countries not excepted, were compelled
to submit to the tonsure. The universal custom of shaving the head
led to the use of wigs. “It may appear singular,” says Wilkinson,
“that so warm a covering to the head should have been adopted in the
climate of Egypt; but we must recollect the reticulated texture of the
ground-work, on which the hair was fastened, allowed the heat of the
head to escape, while the hair effectually protected it from the sun:
it is evident that no better covering could have been devised, and that
it far surpassed, in comfort and coolness, the modern turban.” Wigs
were worn both within the house and out of doors, like the turban of
the present day. A wig in the British Museum, from the temple of Isis,
and one in the Berlin Museum, still attest the skill of the Egyptian
artist. For the use of those who could not afford the more expensive
wigs of real hair, an imitation appears to have been made of wool and
other stuffs. A most singular custom of the Egyptians was that of
tying a false beard upon the chin, which was made of plaited hair, and
of a peculiar form, according to the rank of the person by whom it
was worn. Private individuals had a small beard, scarcely two inches
long; that of a king was of considerable length, square at the bottom;
and the figure of gods were distinguished by its turning up at the
ends. The women always wore their hair long and plaited. The back part
was made to consist of a number of strings of hair, reaching to the
shoulder-blades, and on each side other strings of the same descended
over the breast. The hair was plaited in the triple plait, the ends
being left loose, or, more usually, two or three plaits were fastened
together at the extremity by woollen strings of corresponding colour.
Many of the mummies of women have been found with the hair perfectly
preserved, plaited in the manner described, the only alteration in its
appearance being the change of its black hue, which became reddened by
exposure to great heat, during the process of embalming.
The Hebrews wore their hair generally short, and checked its growth by
the application of scissors only. They seem at an early period to have
availed themselves of the assistance of art, not only for beautifying
the hair, but increasing its thickness; while the heads of the priests
were anointed with an unguent of a peculiar kind. The custom of
anointing the head became a general mark of gentility, and an essential
part of the daily toilet. The Lawgiver of the Jews did not think it
beneath the dignity of his code to introduce into it an especial
ordinance concerning the fashion of the beard--“Thou shalt not mar the
corners of the beard”--(Leviticus XIX., v. 27). By the “corners” the
commentators understand the extremities; and this precept, no doubt,
like others in the same chapter, arose from the leading policy of the
theocracy, which sought to create a people in everything distinct from,
and unmixed with, the idolators by whom they were surrounded.
It was the noble destiny of the Greeks to add beauty and refinement
to the creations and speculations of a previous age. The love of the
beautiful was a passion with the Greeks; it was stamped, so to speak,
on the meanest objects of every-day life, and found its loftiest
expression in their poetry and the magnificent works of art, which
every civilized people regard as models for imitation. Even in the
mere matter of a head-dress, we are struck with the beauty of the
classic forms in Greek sculpture, which show a rare perception of the
beautiful, in wonderful contrast to the barbarism of earlier, and, we
may add, succeeding ages. In Homer the Greeks are repeatedly spoken
of as the “long-haired Greeks,” and to almost every character in the
Iliad and Odyssey some epithet is applied in allusion to the beauty of
the hair. It is enough to allude to the fair-haired Helen, the nymph
Calypso, Circe, and Ariadne; the flowing locks of Achilles, the curls
of Paris, and the auburn hair of Ulysses. It will be remembered that
Achilles made sacrifice of his yellow hair at the funeral pyre of
Patroclus, in honour of the friend he loved.
The ancient practice of wearing the hair long was adhered to for many
centuries by the Spartans. The Spartan boys always had their hair cut
quite short; but, as soon as they reached the age of puberty, they let
it grow long. They prided themselves upon their hair, and called it
the cheapest of ornaments. Before engaging in battle, they combed and
dressed their hair with much care, as did Leonidas and his followers at
Thermopylae.
The custom of the Athenians was different. They wore their hair long
in childhood; but the youths cut off their flowing locks at a certain
age, and, as a religious ceremony, consecrated them to some god:
on attaining the age of manhood, they again let the hair grow. In
ancient times at Athens the hair was rolled up in a kind of knot on
the crown of the head, and fastened with golden clasps in the shape of
grasshoppers. The Athenian females, also, wore the hair much in the
same fashion. It was usually confined in a net-work of silk or gold
thread, or a cap or turban of close material, and, at times, by broad
bands of cloth of different colours wound round the head.
The Greek philosophers were distinguished by their majestic beards,
and Socrates, it would seem, pre-eminently so. Homer’s description of
the venerable beards of Nestor and Priam is doubtless familiar to most
readers. The Greeks wore their beards till the time of Alexander; and
Plutarch mentions that the beards of the Macedonian soldiers were cut
off to prevent the enemy from seizing hold of them in battle.
Pliny says that the Romans wore their hair long till the year 454
A.U.C., when P. Ticinius Mena first introduced a number of barbers from
Sicily. Those bearded ancestors of the Romans, with their long hair,
came, in after times, to be regarded with no little reverence, as the
true type of manly virtue and integrity, “the fine old _Roman_
gentleman.” At the time of the invasion of the Gauls, Livy tells us, as
the soldiers entered Rome, they were struck with awe and astonishment
at the noble beards and venerable aspect of the old magnates seated at
their thresholds; and, that a soldier venturing, out of mere curiosity,
but to touch the beard of one of them, the affront was resented by
a blow with his ivory sceptre, which was the signal for a general
slaughter.
The hair was usually worn short and crisp till the time of Commodus,
who was particularly luxurious in the dressing and ornamenting of his
hair, which was powdered with gold. Having, however, a somewhat uneasy
conscience, he resorted to the singular practice of burning off the
beard, “timore tonsoris,” says Lampridius.
Scipio Africanus first set the example of shaving. Persons of quality
had their children shaved for the first time by a person of the same or
greater quality, who, by this means, became godfather or adopted father
of the children. The day was observed as one of rejoicing, and the hair
of the beard made an offering to some god. The beard of Nero, we are
told, was put into a golden box adorned with pearls, and consecrated
in this way to Jupiter Capitolinus. Hadrian was the first emperor
who wore a beard; Plutarch says he wore it to hide the scars in his
face. Constantine was distinguished by the title of “Pogoniatos;” and
we should do injustice to Julian’s beard to omit mention of it here.
Gibbon says, “the Emperor had been insulted by satires and libels; and,
in his turn, composed, under the title of the ‘Enemy of the Beard,’
an ironical confession of his own faults, and a severe satire on the
licentious and effeminate manners of Antioch.” He descants with seeming
complacency on his own “shaggy and _populous beard_”--a phrase
which we may interpret literally or not, as we please. The historian
adds, “This imperial reply was publicly exposed before the gates of
the palace, and the MISOPOGON remains a singular monument of the
resentment, the wit, the humanity, and the indiscretion of Julian.”
Probably no nation ever patronized the tonsor with more assiduity than
Rome in the decadence of the Empire. The young patrician exquisites
of those days devoted hours daily to the barber and the bath; and no
lady’s train of slaves was complete without the _ornatrix_, whose
duty it was to attend the toilet of her mistress, for the special
purpose of dressing her hair.
An elegant simplicity at one time characterized the head-dress of the
Roman ladies, who generally adopted the fashion of the Greeks, which
usually, however, soon degenerated into extravagance and coarseness.
They piled upon their heads imitations of castles and crowns, cumbrous
wreaths, and other absurdities, and knotted the hair with tiresome
minuteness.
“With curls on curls they build their head before,
And mount it with a formidable tower:
A giantess she seems, but look behind;
And then she dwindles to the pigmy kind.”
The _calamistrum_ or curling irons, had a busy time of it, for the
craving after novelty was intense, and any artificial arrangement of
the hair welcomed as a change.
“More leaves the forest yields not from the trees,
Than there be fashions of attire in view,
For each succeeding day brings something new.”
Poppea, Nero’s wife, was so conspicuous for the beauty of her hair,
that he composed a poem in honour of it.
It was the custom of the Romans to let their beard and hair grow during
the period of mourning; as we are informed by Suetonius, Augustus did
his, after the terrible Varian catastrophe. The slaves had the hair
cut close as a mark of servitude. Wigs and false hair were worn by the
Romans, more especially by the females; thus Martial----
“The golden hair which Galla wears
Is her’s--who would have thought it?
She swears ’tis hers; and true she swears,
For I know where she bought it!”
Juvenal describes Messalina putting on a wig of flaxen hair to conceal
her own black locks when she left the palace in disguise:
“Et nigrum flavo crinem abscondente galero.”
Among the Gauls (Gallia comata) long and flowing hair was greatly
esteemed. Cæsar says that he always ordered the long hair of the
conquered races to be shaved off, in submission to the Roman arms; and,
during the decline of the empire, whenever a province revolted, the
patriot leaders urged the adoption of the opposite fashion of wearing
long hair, as a mark of freedom and independence. Thus the fashion of
the hair, as in later times, had a political significance, and took
part in revolutions and the great struggles for social freedom.
FREAKS OF FASHION.