The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-06-23
FOR THE LADIES.


Dressing the Hair.
A book that should give the full his
tory of the feminine headdress would
be book full of interest. How many
long and patient researches its author
would have to make to give even
glimpse of the thousands on thousands
of Transformations that the natural
ornament of the human skull has un-
dergone at the bidding of taste and of
caprice
During the epoch of paganism the
priestess of Bacchus appeared in public
with flowing tresses, while Diana and
her nymphs are represented as knotting
their hair on the top Of their heads. The
coiff'ure of the ancient Greek ladies, as
also of the Roman DANES, WAS of an ex-
treme simplicity they parted the hair
on the top of the head and braided it in
long plaits falling down the shoulders.
Very often they made with these plaits
twist behind the head, which was kept
in place by means of bandelet. The
Roman ladies, whose slaves were counted
by thousands, employed many of these
solely in dressing their hair. Woe to
the slaves If the coiffure became dis
arranged Patience was not one of the
virtues of the fashionable women of
those days. They diverted themselves
by thrusting long pincers into the flesh,
of their improvised bairdressers.
Even at that time the hairpin was al
ready in use; for we know that Flavia,
by way of insulting the corpse of Cicero,
drew hairpin from her locks and thrust
it through the tongue of the illustrious
orator, as though thus taking vengeance
for the sarcasms that tongue had hurled
at her. The use of hair powder was
also known, since Poppea, the second
wife of Nero, never allowed herself to
be seen by her lord and master until
she had first covered her locks with
powder of gold.
During the middle ages fashion did
not get any further than the plaits and
bandeaux until the Crusaders left an
Oriental imprint on the art of hair
dressing. Toward 1860 a revolution
suddenly broke out among the ladies
who set the pattern of elegance. Curls
became the fashion and graciously
shaded the charming features of the LIE
Vallieres, the Sevignes, the Maintenons,
the Ninon de PEnclos and the other
beauties who adorned the reign of Louis
XIV. A little later the pyramidal head
dresses came into vogue and grew to
ridiculous heights. So absurdly high
were they that ladies going to the ball
we're forced to kneel down in their car
riages or to thrust their heads out of the
windows. In caricature of the period
hairdressers on the way to the houses
of their patrons are represented as carry
ing ladders upon their backs.
The revolution of 1889 was terrible
blow to the artirts of the profession,
and the disuse of powder and of wigs
forced them to sensibly modify their
art. 1t was at this time that hair
dresser named Michalon invented and
brought into fashion the practice of ex-
hibiting different styles of headdresses
on the heads of the wax figures which
still ornament the windows of his sue
cessors. The reigns of Louis XVIII,
Charles Y. and Louis Philippe con-
tributed nothing to the history of hair
dressing, except fashions that nowadays
would be considered eccentric.
With the advent of the Second En-
pire we enter the domain of modern
hairdressing. Felix Escolier, hairdross-
er to the Empress Eugenie, composed
for the wedding of that sovereign a
coiffure consisting Of two bandeaux in
front; the one in the Marie Stuart style,
the other rolled, beginning at the top
of the head and falling gracefully down
the neck in little curls. This dresser
of crowned heads was before everything
else an innovator. For many years he
created the new styles. His profess
sional brethren could not succeed in
initiating him, and they employed all
sorts of stratagems to discover his Sc
crets. One day as he was dressing the
hair of the wife of a great uignitary of
the Empire he perceived one of these
rivals who, disguised as a valet, has
entered the shop to spy out the new
style, in order to employ it on the head
of one of his own clients. Felix, pre-
tending not to see anything, dressed
madam's head in the most laughable
and grotesque fashion that he could de-
wise. AS soon as his rival had gone
away he undid all that he had done and
constructed scie entifc and novel colt
fure. AS for the rival, he initiated with
implicit confidence what he had seen.
filled with enthusiasm, he dressed the
hair of his client, lady who was to
pass the evening at the Tuileries. Her
L eltrance into the imperial ballroom
vas the signal for laughter and jests on
all sides. 1t was the ruin of the un-
| lucky hairdresser