Short history of Hairdressing.

2008-11-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

Hairdressers have always moved among commoners and kings, but they have achieved their greatest popularity at three points in history: shortly before the decline of Greece, just before the French Revolution - and today.

In Europe during the Middle Ages, the local barber and physician were one and the same man. With the eventual division of labor, the doctor assumed long robes, while the barber, who was usually also a wigmaker, wore short ones. Originally, all hairdressing on women was done in the home, usually by the wives and daughters of barbers. For special occasions, they moved into the homes of wealthy noblewomen, sometimes working for days to build an elaborate coiffure.

The first male hairdresser to serve as a ladies’ stylist was Champagne, who flourished in the days of Louis XIV. An impulsive artist, he was in great demand for his monumental hairdos. But as he often lost his temper and stomped out leaving his patrons with half of their hair undressed, many women turned to Canillat and LeBrun, both of whom were wives of wigmakers.

There was no immediate successor to Champagne, but soon after 1640, at the height of his popularity, the wig and wigmakers came into their own.

Around 1740, women’s hair again began to be dressed by men. Peruke makers were called upon to make long rolled curls like the ones on men’s wigs. One of the first was Frison, who in 1763 established the first ladies’ hairdressers guild.

Legros, who was originally a baker, opened an academy where ladies’ maids and valets could practice the art of hairdressing on hired models. He was one of many crushed in the festivities attending Marie Antoinette’s wedding to Louis. The Queen and her husband were so moved by Legros’ death they donated a vast sum of money to his family.

Marie Antoinette’s first hairdresser was Larseur. Eventually, she came to prefer the designs of Leonard. But to save Larseur’s tender feelings, she let him do her hair first, then had it combed out and redone by Leonard.

Hoping somehow to escape the ultimate wrath of the Revolution, Marie Antoinette entrusted her jewels to Leonard. They were to be given to her sister in Brussels. Leonard, listed among those guillotined and buried in a common grave, turned up alive after a twenty-year stay in Russia. At the time of his death in 1820 he was superintendent of burials in Paris.

Shortly after the Revolution and the fall of monumental hairdos - followed by the Directory’s short-cropped “coiffure a la victime” - there was an amusing legal action taken against hairdressers by the master barbers and wigmakers guild, who considered hairdressers dangerous rivals.

The hairdressers complained, in brief:

“What are the duties of barbers but to shave heads and purchase severed hair to give the needful plait by means of fire and iron on locks that are no longer living?”

The art of hairdressing, they continued, required at once the talents of poet, painter, and sculptor. “It is necessary,” they insisted, “to understand shades of color, chiaroscuro and the proper distribution of shadow; the art of dressing prudes without making them obtrusive; the art of displaying the coquette, and of making the mother appear to be the elder sister of the daughter; the art of suiting the coiffure to the affections of the soul which someone is desired to comprehend, to the desire to please, to the languid bearing which wishes only to interest, to the vivacity which will brook no resistance - all this requires an intelligence which is not common and a tact which must be inborn. The art of the “coiffure des dames” is therefore an art bordering upon genius and consequently is a free and liberal art.”

Today’s hair stylist faces the same problems and must have the same skills as did those long-ago, militant hairdressers. He has, however, much more working for him than the eighteenth-century French coiffeurs who relied so heavily upon the whims of the very rich and very noble; namely, scientifically formulated beauty products and a widely varied

You have luxurious, professional salon quality hair color, and it is only natural that you would want to keep it that way. By using a multi step, multi spectrum beauty regimen of shampoos, conditioners, and leave in protectants, infused with high quality moisturizing and color revitalizing ingredients, your hair color will truly endure the test of time.

Professional quality shampoo cleans and protects hair, without eliminating or reducing color, an unfortunate, but common side effect of many hair care products.

For color that truly lasts and a lightweight clean that will not drag your style down, try shampoo with a color enhancer. When used in conjunction with a conditioner, your hair will be healthier, and your color will last longer guaranteed.

For those with hair of silver and gold, blonde and gray, a violet shampoo and violet conditioner will contain the highest level of the dye to tone, neutralize, and brighten, while maximizing the staying power and color of your natural or color treated hair at the same time. Shades of blonde and gray hair are especially vulnerable to oxidation, which causes brassy overtones and fading.

With violet shampoos you can banish the brass while achieving and preserve the stunning color you were meant to have. For an extra boost of violet protection, try a conditioner with violet infused in it, and get ready for the most brilliant silver or golden tresses you have ever experienced.

Imagine tonal loss prevention and ingredients for healthier, more vibrant hair, all in the convenience of a spray. A leave in protectant makes this possible, combining the ease of a leave in with the salon strength color protectant and conditioner.

Most leave in protectants also give hair that glossy glamorous look that over processed hair has a tendency to lose. They usually contain sunscreens which will further protect your hair from sun damage.

Color treated hair can be difficult, not to mention time consuming, to care for, but using the right products will make sure that it does not have to be. By using a full line of professional products, your hair color will be protected, nourished, and preserved more completely, and much longer, than you ever thought possible. One of the key elements in having beautiful healthy hair is to use professional products that provide the best hair care possible.

Color treated hair has special needs, and by using professional shampoos, conditioners and protectants, you can revitalize and restore your hair back to its shiny, healthy best.

The Changing Fashions In Haircuts

Although fashion is so important to women, the fact is that surprisingly few women understand its workings. Fashions develop, usually with logic, from human nature; from the lives people lead, their needs and desires, sometimes unconscious.

A wise man once said that if he could have only one book from which to learn about any era in history, he would not choose a serious scientific study but a book of fashion plates. It is the costumes people wear, their haircuts, accessories and cosmetics that show what they were really like at any time in history.

It is generally agreed that women choose their hair styles and their clothes in order to look beautiful, but beauty in fashion is not absolute like beauty in nature. A rose that was beautiful a hundred years ago would still look beautiful today.

Although standards in art are less positive than standards in nature, a Renoir painting that was beautiful in his time still looks beautiful to us. But the fashions of past periods which were considered lovely in their own day may look strange, quaint, or even grotesque to us.
The lack of an absolute standard for fashions is proved by the fact that as fashions in hair styles and clothes change, women adopt or adapt each of them in turn and still always succeed in looking well.

During World War II, long pageboys and upsweeps were the vogue. In 1947 the New Look introduced short, cap-shaped haircuts. Yet at both times, women looked attractive because they were in fashion. The styles in women’s clothes followed a similar pattern.
This leads us to the conclusion that a fashion is successful partly because we have become accustomed to looking at it. When designers or stylists try to change fashions too quickly, they meet resistance from some of the public who cannot adjust their standards abruptly. They need time for their eyes to become accustomed to the new fashion.

Fashions in beauty
There are also changing conceptions of women’s beauty. Every period has its own ideal of beautiful womanhood. Fashionable Greeks and Romans admired women with oval faces and figures that were much fuller than those we admire today.
In our grandfathers’ time, popular beauties looked like Lillian Russell. In the Twenties, the flat-chested, hipless figure was in vogue.

There are many reasons for changing fashions in beauty. Some we can figure out, others must remain obscure. In earlier periods of history, it was often a queen or a member of court circles who influenced fashion.

Because Queen Elizabeth I had red hair (genuine or otherwise) her followers admired red hair. Later, fashions were set by social leaders, by stage stars and then movie stars.
Mary Pickford inspired a whole generation of mothers to force corkscrew curls on their daughters. Greta Garbo popularized the long bob, Jean Harlow the platinum blonde craze.
It is safe to say, however, that none of these women could have created the various vogues single-handed, unless the public was ready for each of them in turn. In Miss Pickford’s time, the ideal was the little girl type. Later the worldlier Garbo and Harlow answered the public’s need for a new standard to follow.

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