How often do you think a woman's hair was washed in the 19th century? Someone now, of course, will remember the works of the classics and imagine a woman taking a bath and distributing soap along the length of her hair; Someone will mention the means, which, for the sake of experiment, were tested by women in documentary projects of the BBC, which are wild at a modern point of view. By the way, the women who took part in these BBC experiments caused serious damage to their hair.
In reality, the ladies of the 19th century, of course, kept their hair clean, but this does not mean at all that they washed it. Owners of especially lush hair had to hire a hairdresser to help her wash, cut and even set (!) Her hair. All these manipulations were usually performed no more than once a month (!) - and these were wealthy ladies. Representatives of not too wealthy segments of the population were usually limited to one time per season.
Didn't their hair smell and look acceptable? - you ask.
Some writers often use such facts in order to justify their unwillingness to immerse themselves in the history of the events they are talking about: they say, "people were smelly and dirty then, and therefore I do not want to get into all this horror." However, this opinion is more an excuse for their own ignorance than a reasoned point of view.
In fact, women looked after their hair and kept their heads clean, but not by the methods we use now. Soap was originally created on the basis of alkali and alkaine, and hair and shampoo are based on an acidic environment. As a result of exposure to alkali, the hair became brittle, dry and severely tangled. In this sense, it was easier for men - they wore short hair, so they could easily wash their hair with soap, because there was enough natural sebum to restore the natural balance of the hair. But after all, women at that time wore long hair, which means that regular washing of the head with soap could simply destroy the hair.
Instead of washing, other alternative methods have been used to keep the hair clean. For example, special conditioning oils were extremely common, which were applied to the head with a comb. In about 100 combs, such oils not only detangled the hair, but also removed natural, but stale sebum along with dust and dirt that had settled on it. This whole procedure of brushing out the dirt took a lot of time and, just as important, money. Hair oils were expensive, and only women from wealthy families could afford such hair care.
As for the hairstyle, women extremely rarely wore loose hair: a lady with loose hair could be seen only immediately before or after waking up (the only exception could be a situation when a lady was painted a picture and asked her to loose her hair for an artistic idea). And even at night, women braided their hair in braids, and, you know, this is not surprising: if you tried to sleep with loose hair, the length of which is half your height.
The first shampoos appeared only in the 20s of the last century. They really did an excellent job of their task and washed away well not only dirt and grease, but also various styling products such as hairspray, gel and others. But frequent shampooing would dry out long hair, so most women would still wash their hair once a week at the hairdresser, after which they would have styling (and possibly a haircut) for the next week. Here is the answer to the question of how women did without hair conditioners - very simply - they did not use shampoo so often, and therefore natural oils were on the skin and hair long enough to have a nourishing and moisturizing effect.
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Another advantage of natural sebum is that it makes hair more manageable, and therefore women could easily do without tons of varnish, securing their long and thick hair with just a few hairpins. That is why, even now, hairdressers prefer to do styling on hair that was washed a day before visiting the salon.
But advertising already then influenced buyers, forcing them to buy something that in fact was not effective. For example, specialty lotions and hair tonics were very popular, some of which were intended for oral administration. They were completely useless, but the ladies bought them, under the influence of active advertising.
And, of course, if a lady, by some ridiculous accident, fell into a pond or lake, she must have thoroughly washed her hair after the incident. She used liquid soap and lather, which was also used for shaving. At the same time, the servant washed her hair while the lady herself leaned forward or backward. Considering the fact that hair was then worn long (below the waist), each stage of hair washing took a long time. And you certainly couldn't just lift your hair over your head and collect it there like a hat - it was simply physically impossible.
And some more facts about hair care
- Hydrogen peroxide was used to lighten hair only in 1867. Until this moment, the girls used only the sun and soda.
- Henna became popular in the late 19th century as a means for painting gray hair.
- Women also learned to curl their hair long ago. Initially, styling was done in two ways - using small fabric rolls and hot tongs. The latter were really dangerous for the hair - after all, the temperature of these tongs was not really regulated. So it turned out that half of the girls either walked with weak styling, or exposed themselves to the risk of burning their hair.
Anna Kiseleva
