Victorian Hair
Ornaments
by
Carolyn Logan
"Hair is at once the most delicate and last of our materials and survives us like love. It is so light, so gentle, so escaping from the idea of death, that, with a lock of hair belonging to a child or friend we may almost look up to heaven and compare notes with angelic nature, may almost say, I have a piece of thee here, not unworthy of thy being now."
Godey's Lady's Book, circa 1850
Perhaps a Victorian woman’s most
interesting leisure activity was hair work. What we know as Victorian
hair work began in Scandinavia as a craft. Groups of unmarried girls
traveled throughout northern Europe to sell their intricate handmade
products.
England’s Queen Victoria had her own hair made into a bracelet
for her friend, Empress Eugénie. Eugénie, it is said, was touched to
tears.
By the mid 1800s, hair jewelry and other forms of hair work
were being made to a represent those loved ones who were still alive but
had gone away, as well as those who had died. Godey's magazine
eventually supplied patterns for the hair crafter, who could practice
first on thicker horsehair.
Wearing hair jewelry was popular on both sides of the
Atlantic. Mourning custom at the time of the Civil War was that women
were to wear nothing shiny for the first year and a day of deep
mourning. After that, a lock of hair left behind when a soldier went off
to battle could be intricately braided or woven and placed in a small
locket or brooch.
Long hair was the style and brushing was a daily ritual.
Women collected loose hair from their brushes and stored it in a bowl
whose lid had a hole in the middle. These are known as hair receivers
and there are several in the museum.
To begin her work, the hair artist boiled the collected hair
in
soda water
for fifteen minutes. It was then drained, cooled, and sorted into
strands at least 24 inches long. Next, the hair was divided into
bundles of two to three dozen hairs. Single or multiple colors of were
woven on wooden molds and bobbins that kept the pattern regular. The
finished hair art was boiled for another quarter hour. When dry, it was
removed from the mold and ready to be displayed in a metal locket,
brooch, or picture frame.
Today, societies and museums display and sell hair work and
promote instruction in hair work techniques. Fund raisers are
inevitably given the name "Hair Ball."
A framed hair mourning wreath complete with black silk
ribbon and a hair brooch are on display in a Mill House. Marvel at a
this craft on your next visit to the museum.