Having exclusively had a pixie cut for a little more than a decade. I can attest people having their opinions on it hasn’t gone away. “Y’know, men don’t like short hair.” Is for some reason the most common one, as if the rest of me looks like I care what men like.
“Good, Im gay” usually shuts them up and works for me. Of course if you’re not actually gay you may not be comfortable fibbing like that / don’t want to be perceived as something that isn’t true, which is fair. And I personally am annoyed when I’m assumed gay because I have short hair (stereotypical, lame), and not because I radiate queerness from my fucking pores. It IS funny to see their shocked face though after replying to their dumb comment
@@Joyride37 not specifically gay, but definitely a queer person. It never fails to amuse me that they think my untamed neon yellow threat display passing for hair exists explicitly to appeal to men of a certain persuasion.
@@monicathornton8227 I've worked and travelled all over the planet and I have rarely found a group of men less attractive en masse than your standard issue American blokes with their loud opinions given unasked for at every turn and their weird little bouts of insecurity-borne or religious misogyny.
You can accurately portray almost any era at all as a woman with short hair - poor women have been selling their hair for the convenience of rich people throughout most of history. We seem to want to forget poor people so often in the costuming comunity
100%. On one hand, people are by and large naturally/instinctually drawn toward beautiful objects. The fact that the vast majority of extant garments are both beautiful *and* of the "look at the $$$$$ I spent on it" variety compounds this considerably.
Indeed, the population of the past just like today was comprised of poor ppl that couldn't follow the high class trends because they needed to work gruesome hours for scraps and barely getting by and feeding their families
The poor have disproportionately been women for the last 5000 years for a reason. Please don't act like ANY of these practices effect, are imposed on or are directed at men to the same degree (rich or poor) that they are towards women (since birth). The poorest of men is always above the poorest woman in this Patriarchal world.
Yes, and they also sometimes cut it very short if they had a fever or other illness to help them recover. Small children also sometimes had short hair for convenience. But sometimes you see the opposite - poor girls growing their hair very long because it was free to do that and it was a way they could have one very beautiful thing.
Light bulb popped up for me as soon as you brought up the bleached hair trend. It's not just the stark line between the bleached hair and the natural color. Even today bleaching damages the hair, sometimes to the point where all there is to do is cut it off. I imaging the Victorian's bleaching methods weren't any better.
Yes this. Curling tongues could literally burn the hair off too. So short curly hair could simply be the result of a failed long hair curl as the only way to hide it would be by cutting the rest the same. Bleached hair probably did mix well with overly hot curling tongues either.
I cut my long hair short when I quit dying it because of that line - especially noticeable since my hair was growing in gray from dark brown dye. My hair grows slowly, so that meant a couple of years of non-long hair. Years before I had ended up cutting it after burning it red and frizzy when I tried to straighten it. So yeah, I do get that.
Henna was also used as well as other unknown dyes which had harsh chemicals. Henna changed my hair forever and dried it out, i had to wait until it grew out then had a big chop.
My grandmother talked about two different instances in which short hair was considered desirable. First, women (especially) would have their heads 'shorn' if they were ill with any sort of fever. Long hair was considered a 'drain' on the limited energy that fevered people experienced. Men already had shorter hair so they usually weren't mentioned. Then, when she was a young woman the flappers with their bobs became fashionable. Grandmother was right in tune. She couldn't wait to get rid of her long hair. In contrast, Great Aunt Laura, my great grandmother's sister never cut her thick dark hair which she wore wrapped around her head until her death at 105. It's notable that she had siblings who were stolen away to school where hair was forcibly cut. One other thing, short hair was also a statement that women have always made when they were protesting against their expected role as a woman. They still do. Perhaps in some of your photographs we are looking at women who did not have the vocabulary to speak about their feelings but found they could be eloquent with their hair.
@@kathyp1563 hair could be cut to fit the rules of an institution or as a punishment. Cutting hair even now holds connotations of social shame or humiliation. Shearing hair short was also used to eradicate vermin such as lice, so having short hair could be an indication of attempts to manage this and the accompanying social stigma.
To avoid lice, for punishment , . Usually poor girls in charitable Christian institutions suffered this . They were sometimes run by nuns . They also brought forward the “shunning vanity argument “
my great grandmother had gorgeous LONG thick red hair. and migraines -- a LOT of migraines. her doctor finally told her she MUST cut her hair to help stop them.. SO she did & pretty much the whole family cried when she did, but the migraines pretty much stopped cold.. one of the reasons for cutting hair in those times
I've had short hair most of my life. Tried growing it out a few times. The last time... so many migraines...and it turns out occipital neuralgia setting off migraines. Shaved my head for cancer charity some years ago and the pain was gone. My hair grows fast so I have to keep it short or I have more ON/migraines. Can't help but wonder if it hadn't been the same for my mother. Short hair and less head pain? I'll take the stupid assumptions for less pain.
I present for your consideration: head lice First haircuts I gave my boys were because of lice. Impossible to get that fine tooth comb through curly hair. After the cut, the beasties were gone in two treatments. I imagine back then, when there weren't treatments as easy and effective as we have now, lice must have been a nightmare! Then you get a short do and whoop! there they go. What a relief! Great video, so much great information and so many pretty pictures!
My sister was about 13 when her class got head lice. My mom and I were patient and spent a couple of weeks going through her long, very curly hair. You had to slide the nit down the entire length of the hair to remove it. She was in junior high and would have been traumatized to be forced to cut it. Until a couple of years later when she took herself to the Mall and got it cut off really short. I don't think she was really happy about it, but we all just told her it looked great.
@@argusfleibeit1165 We had the same issue one time. The kids went to New York City to the circus, and they came back with lice! We just took the boys outside and gave them buzz cuts, but my daughter had that long, curly hair and boy was it difficult. We finally asked her to get it cut short just to make sure we got everything.
@@katherinechapman1309 Well, once you do the chemical treatment, they've all supposed to be dead. It just feels and looks icky to still have the nits. I've heard of flea circuses, but that was a "lousy" result of a fun time for you all.
My great-grandmother, who was born in 1875, told the most common reasons for women/girls to cut their hair short was lice, scarlet fever, and they had recently been in prison, where they were forced to shave their heads.
I actually cut my hip length long hair because of men playing with it. When I would have it down in public, I would have complete strangers (men) come and put their hands in my hair from behind WITHOUT ASKING (women tended to ask), so it was a safety issue and concern for me. So I always wore it up when going outside, and decided to cut most of it off mid lockdown (as a lot of people did). I cut it to my mid shoulders, cutting off nearly 20 inches of hair. It's oddly freeing to have shorter hair. Definitely not as short as most people consider, but definitely short for me to have such near shoulder length hair.
I would be absolutely terrified if a random man started touching my hair (it hasn'tgone past shoulder length since I started my gender transition though). I'm sorry you had to chop, my ex had waist length hair and it can be such an important piece of yourself
I have hair down to almost my butt now and I have little kids grab it in public transport. Probably because the ends are also green but either way I'm angry at the parents for not doing anything most of the time. Men make creepy comments occasionally but so far nobody had tried to just grab a handful of my hair. Women either don't say or do anything or the older ladies talk about how they wished they did this to their hair when they were younger. I always tell them they are never too old for fun colors my mom has them too at 71.
@@DieAlteistwiederda Yes. It's always public transport where kids do stuff with my hair. Either bus or train. And yeah, it gets worse when I do brightly colored hair. It might just be where I'm from... I dunno. But then again, women getting their hands in my hair has been happening since I was a child in Wisconsin, a teen in CT, and even now as an adult in PA. And the rona times didn't make it any better! Many women do apologize after but not all, usually with an "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done that but your hair is just so X" Usually X is shiny/blonde/colorful/straight/soft looking. I mean, I get having impulse control issues... I have them too (ADHD) but ugh! Maybe because people were always touching my hair as a kid (sometimes even my skin because its freaky pale & cool toned so it looks even paler) that I just never want to do that to others. And knowing that kids do it now because their parents don't discipline them makes me think adults do it because their parents didn't discipline them... so then where does the cycle end?
A guy once came up behind me in a store at the mall while I was looking at hats and started tickling me, which ended up with him taking my elbow to his ribs. I recommend this for all unwanted touching.
I find it so fascinating how humans don't really change throughout our history, but people will paint humans of the past as extremely different than how we are today, however, if you do any bit of research into it, you find that they were indeed just like us.
I have been keeping my hair bobbed for the last 3 years. Looking back in my life the times I have been happiest my hair was bobbed. I have always loved a bob since I was a little girl (although I wasn’t allowed to cut my hair until I was 16). Anytime I see pictures of women the woman with the bob always looks prettiest 😂 to me. It’s weird how much I love a bob. I always wonder if in a past life I had an experience with a bob that’s left a permanent love for that hairstyle 😂❤!
For health reasons I started to go grey earlier than I was prepared for (is any prepared for?). I first cut hiplength to shoulderlenght for easier colouring. Now I have about 5cm nearly complete grey hair and I think I gonna cut them to end the story, let them grow again in full grey and colour it, if I like, not "in need".
Another reason could be because they had head lice. I wonder if the doctor who said cutting the hair caused baldness, kept his hair long, or insisted his sons do the same?
@@NicoleRudolph I remember reading that men's short hair (as in that short back and sides style) only really came in after WW1 because of men having military haircuts. Hence, I suppose, the shock at Oscar's hairstyle - either that or because it's just a bad haircut. Sorry Oscar.
I love that Viking men's hairstyle that is very short cropping in the back and long in the front. It is so aggressively ugly that it just says "Let's Vike!"
Roflmao I completely agree having seen that picture. Omg his face does not do short hair very well. You have to remember that it this time period growing your hair as long as you can physically stand to was just a sign of General Health in adults. You're still only just barely getting out of the big powdered poofy wig face for men. Therefore having long natural hair was considered desirable and attractive for both sexes. It really wasn't a gendered thing yet at least not in America
Was that before or after his time in prison? I know that ruined his health and he was banished from Great Britain, but could he have come to America again?
Same! Or “he let you?” If I even asked him he’d shrug and say “it’s your head.” Right now my hair is really long. I got 4 inches cut off and he thought I hadn’t done anything 😂 I think he was hoping for something shorter. Maybe next time 😀
As someone who went from 'at the hip because I don't have a lady's maid so it can't be longer' to 'post breast cancer quasi boot camp' over the last six months, short hair is SO easy. I think I'm keeping it short for a while. It's good to know that I can still wear historical costume! Great video and your cut is very cute.
You look beautiful with long or short, you rock that short hair beautiful. In Jesus Christ name i pray you have a full recovery and that The Lord has His holy hand on you and your life 💕
Even if women did not have short hair until the flapper era, you could still wear historical costume. A long wig could be worn, and if you have a wardrobe of wigs they could be done in different styles.
When Jo March had her hair cut off in Little Women, she mentioned that the barber said she could have a "curly crop" once it grew out a bit. If there was an actual name for the style, cutting hair short must have been a more common practice than we realize.
Of course, when we read that she cut it off, it doesn't say how much. Maybe it wasn't such a short cut, but like ear-length short. I suppose we will never know.
My grandfather (born 1906) used to talk about his mother’s hair. It was so long it reached the floor. She would let it down and all her children would gather to comb and brush it every day.
You have no idea how happy this video has made me... I'm still going through what will be six months of chemotherapy, and lost all of my hair, apart from a scattering of eyebrow hairs, which stubbornly hung on! My last chemo is on 20 Dec, and it started growing back a couple of weeks ago so I'm not even at a buzz cut stage yet... but it is so nice to know that I don't have to wait a few years for my hair to fully grow back before I can authentically do my vintage wardrobe. This brings me enormous joy. Thank you x
Congratulations on your finishing chemo! I hope you do well from now on. I lost all my hair due to chemo for breast cancer 23 years ago, and I remember going out on New Year’s Eve after I dyed the scruffy little sprouts blonde! Sadly, due to my cowlick situation, short hair is a battle, so I grew it out, but I did enjoy trying out short hair for a while. Prayers for your quick recovery!
@@daxxydog5777 thank you for your kind words :) I've still got surgery and radiotherapy to have, so this isn't the end of it yet. But I'll get there. I have to wait 6 months to be able to colour my hair, which is kind of sad because I'm impatient and want funky coloured pixie hair, but also kind of cool as it us coming back white, even though I'm only 44...
You look beautiful with long or short, . In Jesus Christ name i pray you have a full recovery and that The Lord has His holy hand on you and your life 💕
Mine came back white and "bent" (that's the only word for it -- it couldn't be called curly) after chemo, at age 44. My first post-chemo perm, about a year later, did not take at all. But subsequent perms and highlights have been lovely.
Beatrix Potter, as a young lady with a lymph node condition, cut her hair short in this fashion. This was so fascinating, thank you for all your research and for sharing your findings!
Women in 19th century moved to big cities and started working full time so there was no time for hairdresser appointments. Also, it was hard to keep a good appearance at work, wearing a complicated hairstyle. Cutting hair short was liberating.
My mother who was born in 1918 England told me that when she was a girl if someone had head lice, their hair would be cut very very short. She knew that this had been the case for generations. They would have their heads examined at school and would not be able to return until their hair had been cut.
@@romystumpy1197 I was in elementary school in the 80s and early 90s, and we did, too. The shitty thing is that you got inspected in front of the whole class. I never actually knew of anyone who was found to have lice that way, but I can imagine how humiliating it would be to have the entire class see you were found with lice in your hair.
the sheer cognitive dissonance i felt at seeing people in 1880s dress sporting pixie cuts truly did me in. because, all of a sudden, their faces looked like people i would meet today. they resemble my sister and their partner; my non-binary friends; middle school girls freeing themselves from their hair for the first time; women i know that have lost their hair during chemo. i felt a kinship with the women in those pictures that i have not felt before. the young girl on the right at 13:19 looks like a young Millie Bobby Brown; the person on the left on the very first set of images reminds me of Kaz Rowe. i love this video and i cant wait to share it with my short-haired friends.
I fought to be allowed short hair, and once I finally got it, my grandmother described how every relative with my hair type got a short haircut by the time they were 18, since our hair is frizzy and has the consistency of sheep wool.
This reminds me of a classmate who was the only girl of 7 kids. Her hair was past her back jeans pockets. (I dunno, that’s just how 7-8 year olds measure, I guess?) She hated it. One day she came to school with a “boy” haircut. Her mom kept her big fat braid so Daddy could see Terri’s beautiful long hair any time he liked 😂😂 As far as I know she never regretted that hair cut.
I used to keep my hair long because i just didnt care, that was until my sister had a girlfriend that would constantly play with it. She would come up behind me and pet me and go on about how pretty it was. One day i chopped it off super short, she acted like i committed a crime against humanity.
Not only is this video fascinating, but with talking about short hair I *immediately* spotted your earrings, which were made by my friend! It was so cool to spot them, her stuff really suits your style!
My gramma got what she called an Eton Crop in 1919 ish- she was very fashionable! This was in London England and she went to work! As a secretary! Not a role filled by many women at that time.
My Grandmother had the Eaton Crop too. It looked very mannish in her photos from that time. There are even photos with the haircut where she is wearing shirts and ties, and jodhpurs, as did many young women. I wonder what my grandfather felt about that. I believe they were dating at that time. Strange fad to want to look like a young man.
When you mentioned Chicago, I immediately thought "Windy City" and then googled because something was niggling in the back of my head. The tallest skyscraper in the world was in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Given the Great Fire was in Oct 1871, Chicago was going through a massive building boom and they were building UP. That creates wind tunnels and amplifies the wind off the lake even more. Could this have all started with one woman or a handful of women cutting their hair short out of pure frustration with up-dos being blow to bits or collapsing from the wind? All of a sudden a city of women are realizing its just so much more practical? At least one major playhouse also opened in Chicago that year... likely bringing in a bevy of dancers and stage actors. Maybe it all started because of a haircut for a part in a play.
"Windy City" was a reference to Chicago's blustery, gasbag politicians, not the weather. (Though the weather can get as bad as anywhere in the Midwest 🙂).
What they said about women cutting their hair short leading to baldness is so dumb and it reminded me of how people tell kids not to make faces or their face will stick like that. Can't tell if the Victorians really believed that or if it was just another way to control women by infantilizing them.
The passing of generations usually involves some degree of astonishment at what past people did and believed I often wonder what people are going to find horrifying about us 100 years from now.
What is funny is if you believe it then it will develope. I have seen women who cut their hair and it grew right back just as thick as ever, then I know women who cut it as a "rebellion" and it never grew back the way it was before. Whatever you do, do with a clear conscience and you will not stray far.
I used to make faces a lot by crossing my eyes , but then when I went to the eye doctor, the eye doctor told me I was slightly cross-eyed. So I stopped doing that.
Interesting that women were accused of trying to look younger by cutting hair short, and that shorter hair was seen as more childlike", when these days people generally have the opposite association.
I keep my hair cut short because of my chronic migraines. Also, keeping my hair short makes my life SLIGHTLY easier with many of the rest of my chronic illnesses with many of them being chronic pain.
Yes I went through that too. The smell of my hair during a migraine just drove me nuts and heaving into a bucket. The weight bothered my neck which could trigger things. A complete hysterectomy solved the migraine problem. Estrogen was my worst trigger.
Me 2. I broke my shoulder in 3 places & couldn't put my hair in a ponytail or scrunchie. My Mr tried to do it for me. but just couldn't get it. I had broken my arm, wrist so I figured out to prop my hair dryer on the hand towel rack. I could style it with 1 hand. ✌️
Those 1880s pictures of the women with short cuts are so surprising! It makes them look so modern in a way because I’m so used to seeing women in the past with long hair. So interesting! ❤
I love the Victorian era aesthetic but I have lupus and it badly affects my hair. I'm no good with wigs either so I always felt like I was missing out on experimenting with modern takes on their hairstyles. Then I found your video! I'm now down the rabbit hole of cute hair styles to try and I'm so excited 😊
Fascinating look at a little-known subject. Love the part about short hair not being associated with masculinity in 1880s because men were still wearing it longer. Good research explained well!
okay but when you said that having short hair stunts growth for the brain. DAMN SON!! The dude who wrote that had a major self call out post. Callin himself and other men out.
We do in fact have tiny muscles on our follicles, namely the Arrector Pili muscle, which is what makes our hairs stand when we are cold or get shivers. Just wanted to point that out. :P
@@adamdaichendt3838maybe…like when we say the hairs on the back of our neck stood up. I haven’t researched it but I wouldn’t be surprised if the hair on our head is usually too long to feel the effect?
At 13:39 I noticed that the lady's "brooch" in the right picture is actually a traditional piece of silver used in the Norwegian folk dress "bunad", it's specifically a belt clasp. Maybe she immigrated to the USA and didn't get to bring her entire dress, so she just had that small piece of her heritage with her and wanted to incorporate it into more modern clothes. Anyway that's just a little thought...
As someone who has to keep their hair short for their health Thank You so much for this. It's so nice to know that at least by the 1880's some women where using short hair. I've fought with wanting long hair so that it would look right in vintage fashion this has given me so freedom from that. I can't tell you how freeing this was for me so again thank you so much for sharing this.
What a difference to schools these days in which lice become endemic because teachers and school nurses are not allowed to search through the children’s hair. By the time the lice are obvious the child’s head is full of them and have infested most of their class.
Your video inspired me to do some research on Trove, a free resource of scanned newspapers at the National Library of Australia. I discovered that there was also a fashion for short hair in 1877. According to one 1877 article I read, the demand for false hair outstripped supply, so some women who couldn't buy false hair just cut their hair short instead. This created its own trend. It was described as 'cut quite short to the head all round, except in front, where it is left long enough to form round ring-curls ... It is young-looking, pretty, becoming and advantageous to the hair.' I agree with you that the Victorians defy our stereotypes of them. They were much more interesting, individualistic and unpredictable than we tend to assume.
I’m currently growing out a buzz cut and trying my best with the awkward stages, this is giving me all kinds of inspiration for better do’s!! Thank you Nicole!
Thank you for answering that question. I wondered something similar after watching the BBC Miniseries Wives and Daughters and seeing the character "Lady Hawiott" with VERY short hair. I thought she looked simply elegant. It's nice to know that the costume and hair department must've done their research too. I love short hair on women and I think yours looks beautiful.
I go through various variations on short cropped hair, (most recently I've been sporting a look inspired by the French Revolution styles) and my hairstylist commented that she loves how I always come in with interesting short hair requests and how she loves getting to do very short cuts on women.
The rather weird article that goes on about there being no pleasure in stroking short hair reminds me of a quote from Maurice, the Edwardian gay novel by E.M Forster. Maurice is being hypnotised to try and cure him of being gay (it doesn't work obviously) and the hypnotist is convincing him there's a painting of a beautiful woman called Miss Edna May. "And look at her lovely long hair." "I like short hair best," says Maurice. "Why?" says the hypnotist. "Because I can stroke it." So there you go, short hair, way more stroke-able according to Maurice (of course in this case it's because he's thinking of men). This was a great video! I've had short hair for a long time and one of the reasons why I didn't think I'd ever get into historical reenactment in any way is because I don't want to wear a wig or grow my hair out. I could always dress as a man which would be totally fine but it is nice to know that the mid 1880s would also work. And yes, people still have Opinions about women cutting their hair short. The good news is, the vast majority of the people I know have never met me while I had long hair, so they don't have anything to compare it to and can't go "you looked better with long hair wahh why did you cut it." If people wonder why I cut my hair short, here are the short reasons. a) Matches my gender presentation better as I lean more butch, b) I never learned how to style long hair so I just wore it in a ponytail all the time and what's the point, c) the ponytails were giving me a headache and d) didn't enjoy the wind blowing hair into my mouth. Short answer is just because I like it.
it is funny bc I grew out my hair since I wanted to be able to braid it and wear claw clips, but I also wish I could do that while having it shorter since I think it's much nicer to pet when it's like that
As someone with long hair, I get it. Any time I'm getting intimate with someone, they try to stroke my hair. They end up finding every damn knot in it.
I love how these 19th Century writers had zero self-awareness about this. Women's own desires for themselves doesn't seem to enter into their calculus. "Women should wear their hair long because I prefer it" seems to be the crux of the matter.
Back then you couldn’t divorce your wife if she would become a short haired and unattractive so it kinda makes sense men viewed it as a problem. Now you can just swipe left and move on to a pretty girl with long hair 😂
I cut off my bsl hair to a bob because chronic pain made me tenderheaded. I went from high pony, all day every day to not being able to find a hairstyle that didn't hurt. I'm starting to grow it back now that nerve blocks every four months are helping, but I doubt I'll ever be able to comfortably wear it that length, so I am loving the hairstyle inspiration.
Oh my goodness a high ponytail every day sounds painful to me and I don’t have a tender head! 😮 I’ve got done gentle updo styles on my channel if it helps. There’s even a video talking about avoiding headaches when wearing long hair up ❤
You had me at "Men love to play with it!" They like to play with so many things. :-)) Kidding aside, my great -grandma told me that in late victorian era women cut their hair to get rid of lice, for high fever or to sell, never for personal comfort or to antagonize anybody.
My Granny's mom kept all her girls hair short because it was easier and less time consuming: She had 8 kids and a farm to help run. "Worry about your hair some other time, we've got chores to do!"
@l frmella the movie Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken set in the depression era (?) The girl cuts off all her hair in an effort to try and look like one of the women in a fashion magazine. Her mother freaked out and made her wear a bag on her head as punishment.
Most of them didn't cut it if they could help it. But there were various circumstances that made them do it. Except for that period she mentions, when short hair was in fashion. But it's an isolated phenomenon.
Disease can cause hair loss - the high fever and stress messes up the usual follicle cycle and throws many of them into the shedding stage simultaneously. I lost about half my hair after typhoid fever - it fell out in handfuls a couple of weeks after I was "well". Having half long hair and half stubble doesn't style well, so I had it cut into a pixie cut and grew it out again. Also, for periods of convalescence - and the aftermath of typhoid or whooping cough could be months of bed rest and recovery - short hair mats and tangles less than long hair. So cropping the hair of the invalid was seen as necessary. Lady Caroline Lamb's hair was cropped because of a fever. She decided she liked it that way and kept it short for at least several years.
I cut my hair pixie short 6 years ago and have never looked back. It is sooooo easy (I also stopped dyeing it at the same time and am greying). I have felt more feminine with my short hair too which I was not expecting and had spent years being very attached to my long curls. Don’t think I’d ever go back - and super interested that I could go for a Victorian silhouette if I wanted and it still be accurate!
I always love your research. And as a short hair fan, this is wonderful. Over the years (I'm now 60) I've lost count of the number of times women of all ages have said they wished they had short hair but their husband/partner liked it long; the whole 'sexy' argument. Oh my.
Also 60, single by choice. I tend to chop all my hair off every 5 years or so. I am lucky as I have fantastic hair & it looks good either short or long. And, it tends to grow fast. Who wants a partner that tells you how to live ???? To heck with that. Rather be alone than with a controlling jerk. It's an option ladies ! Lol ! I think it is HILARIOUS when people tell me that older women should cut their hair short. Like I would listen to them, lol ! I am rocking my gray "racing stripes" & I don't give a damn about others opinions! (THIS is the good part of aging. Ya just don't CARE after you hit 50! Care even less when you hit 60 ! Lol ) Be you. It's all you have. And, it's fantastic ! Great video, by the way !
@@m.maclellan7147 I recognise the privilege of having a husband (38yrs together) who respects me and recognises I'm my best self with short hair and he puts no demands on me 'looking' a particular way.
@@m.maclellan7147 I'm 60 & short-haired (I love the ease & convenience of it), and I also had purple hair last year. First time in my life it had ever been dyed. I let it go back to my natural colour to see if I'd gone grey underneath it - not yet - and in the New Year I'll be going back to purple hair.
I cut my hip-length hair without telling anyone. Pixie cut short. Asked my boyfriend what he thought afterwards. He said he didn't mind, as long as I liked it. That was three years ago, and I'm never growing it out again. Short hair suits me. My best friend has been thinking about cutting her hair short since I did, but her husband doesn't like short hair on women. She cut it shoulder-length recently, and she said she won't go any shorter because her current length "broke his heart". To each their own, but I don't think I'd be able to deal with a guy like that. I'm too rebellious, and I'd cut my hair just to spite him. 😅 So lucky my guy doesn't care.
@@VaryaEQ It is your hair, not his. Apparently you are better at setting boundaries then your friend is ! I would tell your friend's man to "piss up a rope" personally! Lol !
There is a link between fever and hair loss - it's called telogen effluvium. Basically, for some people a fever will cause the normal hair follicle's growth and fallout cycle to reset. I know after having a vicious flu a few years ago, with a fever, I lost handfuls a few months later.
I had major surgery several years ago and my hairdresser at the time explained this to me, and commented about how much hair it seemed I had lost. He told me hair often responds to health.
I grew up in a VERY Pentecostal area...a whole community full of women with hair so long is sweeps the floor... growing up as a child...it was always so majestic to me....but short hair is so chic and convenient.
I used to have hair all the way down my back, and it was honestly really pretty, but it was constantly tangled and matted (just because of what the strands are like), so I was constantly putting it up in ponytails and braids. My hair is also very thick, so if I washed it, it would take hours to dry. It was beautiful when I'd take an hour of my time to slather it in oil and work all the hundreds of tangles out, but eventually, I was like, "What's the point of having long hair if it's too frustrating to keep down?" So, over the course of the next couple months, I got it cut three times. The first time by my mom (she cut it to about two inches below my shoulders), then when it started to grow out again, I got it cut by a hairstylist to above my shoulders, then when that grew out, I got it cut again by a stylist to my current style, which is sort of a "feminine Beatle cut" as I like to call it. (Not a bowl-cut, btw. It looks like the Beatles' 1964/65 hairstyles) This is the first time that I've ever had my hair any shorter than a bob, and I adore it. It's so easy to take care of, and it looks decent 99% of the time (which was not the case with my long hair, lol). It still takes at least 2 or 3 hours to dry if I don't put it up in a towel or blow-dry it, but since it doesn't really touch my clothes, I don't mind too much. I've been trimming it myself at home, too, since it's not an elaborate pixie style. I've also been surprised at all the compliments i've gotten because of it! People say it really suits me, and I think so too. I sometimes feel like I was just meant to have this style my whole life.
Huh, fancy that! Didn't expect there's a brief trend of short hair in the 1880s! Always love how you go about such historical topics, Nicole 😺 (...also that photo of Oscar Wilde with bowl cut hair sure gave me emotional damage 😩🤪🙃🥲💀🔥)
I love the short hair with these Victorian dresses. I myself have short hair and love historical dress. Now that I'm aware that this was actually a thing...well then!
Thank you Nicole. Now we can associate short hair in XIX c with Suffragette movement and free thinking women like painters or novelist. Not only with convalescent, mental hospital patient or circus troupe member. Also hair piece ( like bun on back of head) can be pin to short hair and with hat of this era your hair will look more traditional.
My hair goes all the way down to past my butt now but I have also had it cut short just to my ears… it’s amazing the difference just changing the length of your makes on a day to day. I imagine that’s why that’s one of the things people change the most often. Thank you for sharing
i think they shaved their hair for hair loss treatment because hair lost due to stress usually grows back after a couple of months. So when someone shaves their thinner hair and about maybe 3-4 months later their hair starts to be fuller again it might apper like what fixed the issue was cutting the hair.
Having had alopecia, I can tell you that shorter hair hides the thin patches better than long hair. Mine was almost waistlength at the start. A shoulder length Bob worked for a time before going for chin length and rough cut layers.
Actually regularly cutting the hair can stave off balding to some extent because it reduces pulling on the scalp caused by weight and combing through stubborn tangles. Also if you shave it 😮 (which seems harsh for most people but if you can get over the initial shock it’s not that bad) it reminds the hair to grow sufficiently dense to make up for the lack of coverage that you normally have with longer hair.
In the book, "Little Women", Jo has her hair cut off so that she can make some money to send to her sick father. Since "Little Women" was a very popular book, I wonder if maybe that helped to make short hairstyles among women more popular? Also, some women probably had short hair because they sold their long hair to wig makers, so that they could make a bit of extra money if they needed to for some reason!
I always learn valuable information from your videos! I did not know about short hair in the mid 1880s and I'm so excited about it. Some of those hairstyles were very cute and some were downright sultry. I had long hair for quite a few years because I vend at Ren fairs dressed as a viking. However, during the pandemic I cut it all off, close cropped to my skull and I LOVED IT!! All that weight off my neck! All that heat it absorbed, gone at last! And I discovered I had curly hair. Now it's grown out to just hit my shoulder and I think I'm going to crop it off again.
Wow, the lady on the left at 13:10 had the perfect mod sixties hair style! If she was wearing a poor boy sweater, mini skirt, and high boots, she would have fit right in dancing to the Beatles music. Nobody would have guessed she was from 80 years back in time!
I cut my hair very short when I was 16, I have thick curly hair and it took a lot of convincing to my mom over the years to let me cut it. When I eventually did it was incredible! the feeling of the lightness, the wind on my neck, and the maintenance freedom! It is incredibly liberating. I've never been able to successfully commit to long hair after that.
When my grandmother was a little girl around 1905, a neighbor's daughter got scarlet fever, and her hair fell out (hmmm, maybe they cut it) and came back red and curly. My grandmother said she wanted to get scarlet fever, too, so her hair would come back so wonderfully. Cutting hair to sell reminds me of "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry in 1905. My other grandmother, born in 1912, despised long hair on anyone--kids, men, women, dogs. From old photographs we could see she had very curly hair as a child, but it was always short.
Jeezzzz. Good to know the Daily Mail was alive and kicking in the nineteenth century. A little puzzled that they disposed of the crazy hair-weight but kept the fabric tonnage.
My great-grandmother cut off her long ponytail and kept it in a covered glass bowl on her dresser. I have that bowl on my dresser. Every morning, she would gather the rest into a tiny ponytail in the back and wrap her ponytail around it to make it look like she had long hair. Wondering if this was going on more than we thought. She was not fashionable. Although others wouldn’t see it, I’m sure all of the extended family had seen her very short hair regularly.
In former times, women saved the hair from their brushes every night and put it in a "hair receiver". This was a china box with a lid that sat on their dresser or vanity. When it was filled, the hair was sent off to a factory where they made braids, buns, rats and switches to augment the lady's natural hair. They even provided illustrated catalogs with many styles for the customer to choose from. (Rats were large puffs of hair that made the Gibson girl pompadours possible.). It sounds like your relative was well acquainted with the practice.
Thank you for acknowledging Indigenous practices and how some of us as groups do prefer long hair on every gender for many reasons. My Dad's hair is nearly as long as mine. I used to like wearing my hair in an almost masculine short cut, but I haven't cut it properly since march 2020, and Culture is one reason I am leaving it long these days. I also do Medieval reenacting so it's fun to have natural Lonnnng hair for that, but when I had super short hair I'd wear a big false braid and/or a veil anyway, so it's true you can make any hair length look historical if you know your history (and sometimes use hairpieces! Very Historical)
I remember seeing photos of my great grandmother with very short hair around 1900. My grandmother told me she was delighted to have her hair cut as soon as she could. Hair was heavy and very hot.
Holy fry fish, I am astounded that the various stylings of the antique pixie are nearly identical to any modern interpretation. It makes every one of these women look instantly modern and relatable… takes off some of the. Intake patina we’re accustomed to. Fascinating.
Beatrix Potter had her hair cut off after a bout of rheumatic fever caused it to fall out in clumps. She hated it because her hat wouldnt stay on in the wind and once blew off into a fountain,and she and her father had to stand there while the park keeper fished it out.
Probably what those Victorian ladies fell out of love with about short hair was that you have to cut it regularly or it sticks out at crazy angles by your ears. That's why I keep growing my hair out. Ain't nobody got time for that constant trimming. But washing and doing your hair is much easier. Btw. Those Victorian ladies look pretty good. I never really considered, though, how women's short haircuts are so sculpted today compared to some of those 1880s cuts.
It's the same for me. Funnily enough, I just read the exact opposite here, someone who said they cut it short because they hate the high maintenance of long hair.
I cut my own hair at 19 VERY short. Thought I'd do the spiky pixie thing. Took 3 days to say eff that. And growing it back out was a nightmare. Never, ever doing that again!
I ditched the blowdrying and started cutting my own hair several years ago after my hairdresser had a stroke and could no longer dress/cut hair. The bangs/fringe gets cut every three or four weeks, the rest every three or four months. I love it.
1:45 the reason cutting hair helps prevent later hair loss is because of the weight. If one is sick and hair becomes fragile, long heavy hair can pull it out. Especially with washing, because wet hair is heavy. Also when a person is sick their hair get tangled. Removing those tangled causes manual damage and boom 💥 more hair loss.
well done and thank you! This is very interesting - I would also love to know about shaved heads for women, from nun's to convicts to collaborators to punks - will it ever be "normalised"?' And Nicole, please would you think about making a video on the history of dressing vintage. When and how and why did this start? Thank you so much for all the information you give!
In some places, some governments have shaved women's heads for humiliation purposes signaling them as no good. Example: the winners of the civil war in Spain on women relatives of the defeated democratic republic defenders.
I was interested that one writer said all kinds of women were cutting their hair short. Where I live now, it's rural, and windy, and sandy. Most people don't have that much money, and many women are ranchers and farmers, and care more about practicality than style, except for a few young women and teens who go for short hair and various colors. It's not common away from cities and larger towns. This is true for Anglo, Mexican and Indian women. Most grown women around here let it grow longer, and clip it up out of the way, make a bun, or wear it in a single braid, and some just wear it long, if they don't have crazy hair. Mine is curly and crazy, so it gets the braid or clips. Some women cut their hair shorter, but just a practical sort of short. Women often do dye their hair here, but that's a cheap and easy bit of vanity to manage. It seems to be both a practical and cultural preference. I thought it might be like that for country women then, too.
My long hair was lovely in my youth. I stopped slaving over the blowdryer several years ago. I keep my hair around shoulder length and spend ten minutes or so setting it in pincurls before bed. It is easier to style in the morning, needs washing less, and looks nicer.
My knowledge of U.S. history is deficient. I knew about mistreatment of indigenous people, but forcibly trying to make everyone look "standardized" is horrific. While my hair has thinned in recent years, it still looks fine long (midway down my back). I tried short hair and bangs once as a child...still have PTSD whenever I get my hair professionally cut.😂
But through social coercion we still aim to make those around us similar to ourselves. You don't like someone's choice of music, art, or whatever and then they will not be in your circle of friends or people to be admired. We like to feel free and easy and if that means ejecting a sibling from our social circle but at the same time we will allow a 'dangerous' person in on the edge of our group. Normality is not a uniform concept your normality is vastly different to the average Chinese. Listen to the Russian's on the TV and you get a different opinion about the war. Do you rate people who live in your street or apartment block even if you don't know them?
Once I left home for University I never had my hair cut. My son didn’t have his cut much until a trim at 6 and kept it long until his profession did not give him a weekly 1.5 hours for wash and dry at the hairdressers. I don’t like short hair. Mine is pearlescent pale no longer charcoal or coloured golden blonde, and thick and past my ribs
I was always taught that in my mikmaq culture we would cut our and mourning and some ppl would paint their body black the colour or mourning ,I went my whole life as a two spirited person with short hair to please my family and I grew it out and my French grandmother told me to never cut my hair she sees the strength in hair but I do see her with shirt cut or buzz cut and she has no Greg hairs but always bleached her hair idk y she did but I love her
Is that woman in the thumbnail on the left wearing a short mullet?!? I LOVE it! 😂 Also…she looks A LOT like Kristen Wiig. ETA 13:30 Yes!!! Cornwallis West DEFINITELY had a mullet!!! Apparently this was Lady Patsy Cornwallis-West who was King Edward’s the 8th of England mistress. Also…to read the info you included about cutting hair being a punishment is so interesting! Here in New Orleans they didn’t make Creole women cut our hair but since we “caught the eye” of many French, Spanish and white men…the Tignon Laws of 1786 (an effort to stop placage unions in Louisiana) were passed and made it illegal to wear our hair exposed. Very interesting!
The arguments are so familiar to me it's both funny and sad. I had mid back length and went to pixie, and I was told I looked like I was sick and I wouldn't be sen as beautiful by men. Let me tell you, whatever compliments men don't give to my hair is definnitely leveraed by all the compliments women do give me
How rude of people to tell you that. We have a family friend and every so often she will wear her hair in a pixie cut. I have know her to wear her hair to her shoulders, or around her ears, and now in a pixie she is a lovely as she has always been.
This makes so much senseee!! Like whenever I research Late 1880s early 1890s pics I would always think "Wow this updos really do look like trendy 2016ish men". And viceversa, I would scroll down instagram and think "all this guys look just like they are wearing late victorian ladies updos" So in a sense, I always though, Why have that luscious beautiful long hair to wear it in such a tight updo? haha I wish people would have had freedom to wear things as they pleased always... even today Thanks for this incredibly informative video! I´ll definitely implement this short hair trend in my victorian illustrations!
You have an extinguished sense of fashion and I love that I’m jealous how you described the videos and I loved the videos you have shared. Thank you so much for sharing. ❤❤❤❤
1:30 - can attest that having even shoulder length thick hair during COVID last year my hair was actually hurting me at the roots. I had to wash it every or every other day, when normally I can go a few days between shampooing. My hair felt horrible, weird, strawlike, heavy, hurting, got so snarly from reclining in a chair all day and fever sweats day and night for a few days in a row. I was ready to shave it off. Glad I hadn't seen this video and your gorgeous hair then cuz I would have def gone for a pixie cute, you pull it off so well!
When I decided to stop trying to be a redhead, I cut my hair very short. It made growing it out so much easier. That was also when I embraced my grays. I go through phases where I grow it out (it's below my shoulders now) and then cut it short. I have very fine, straight, hair so it doesn't style well so long hair works best for me.
Yes! I don't have hair so much as feathers! I also spent decades as a chemical redhead. Letting that go while out of circulation for a few months and cutting it all off to be undyed led to quite short hair for me for another couple of decades! I loved being a redhead with oooddles of hair. Now I love being silver-tinsel haired with long unrully curls. It is all about the joy of the day!
when I shaved my head a few years ago, my grandmother made it a point to tell me daily that I looked like a convict and cancer patient. I don't talk to her anymore.
I see a lot of "grow your hair long" videos talk about massaging the scalp to increase blood flow for hair growth. Since massaging your scalp is easy, free and you can do it right now (and it actually feels nice) I do it, but I'm not sure I'm actually doing anything for my hair length so much as having a little "me" moment at the end of the day.
Having exclusively had a pixie cut for a little more than a decade. I can attest people having their opinions on it hasn’t gone away. “Y’know, men don’t like short hair.” Is for some reason the most common one, as if the rest of me looks like I care what men like.
My hair has been in various Pixie styles since I was in late teens! There have been times I let it grow out, but always went back to my Pixie!
“Good, Im gay” usually shuts them up and works for me. Of course if you’re not actually gay you may not be comfortable fibbing like that / don’t want to be perceived as something that isn’t true, which is fair. And I personally am annoyed when I’m assumed gay because I have short hair (stereotypical, lame), and not because I radiate queerness from my fucking pores. It IS funny to see their shocked face though after replying to their dumb comment
@@Joyride37 not specifically gay, but definitely a queer person. It never fails to amuse me that they think my untamed neon yellow threat display passing for hair exists explicitly to appeal to men of a certain persuasion.
@@JillWhitcomb1966 American men prefer women to be submissive. Just my observation. It was a shock when I came to the US.
@@monicathornton8227 I've worked and travelled all over the planet and I have rarely found a group of men less attractive en masse than your standard issue American blokes with their loud opinions given unasked for at every turn and their weird little bouts of insecurity-borne or religious misogyny.
You can accurately portray almost any era at all as a woman with short hair - poor women have been selling their hair for the convenience of rich people throughout most of history. We seem to want to forget poor people so often in the costuming comunity
100%. On one hand, people are by and large naturally/instinctually drawn toward beautiful objects. The fact that the vast majority of extant garments are both beautiful *and* of the "look at the $$$$$ I spent on it" variety compounds this considerably.
Indeed, the population of the past just like today was comprised of poor ppl that couldn't follow the high class trends because they needed to work gruesome hours for scraps and barely getting by and feeding their families
The poor have disproportionately been women for the last 5000 years for a reason. Please don't act like ANY of these practices effect, are imposed on or are directed at men to the same degree (rich or poor) that they are towards women (since birth). The poorest of men is always above the poorest woman in this Patriarchal world.
Yes, and they also sometimes cut it very short if they had a fever or other illness to help them recover. Small children also sometimes had short hair for convenience. But sometimes you see the opposite - poor girls growing their hair very long because it was free to do that and it was a way they could have one very beautiful thing.
Thank you!
Light bulb popped up for me as soon as you brought up the bleached hair trend. It's not just the stark line between the bleached hair and the natural color. Even today bleaching damages the hair, sometimes to the point where all there is to do is cut it off. I imaging the Victorian's bleaching methods weren't any better.
Yes this. Curling tongues could literally burn the hair off too. So short curly hair could simply be the result of a failed long hair curl as the only way to hide it would be by cutting the rest the same. Bleached hair probably did mix well with overly hot curling tongues either.
Yeah, a whole bunch of people must have fried their hair off.
This was my first thought too. I can't imagine how harsh hair bleaching products were at the time.
I cut my long hair short when I quit dying it because of that line - especially noticeable since my hair was growing in gray from dark brown dye. My hair grows slowly, so that meant a couple of years of non-long hair. Years before I had ended up cutting it after burning it red and frizzy when I tried to straighten it. So yeah, I do get that.
Henna was also used as well as other unknown dyes which had harsh chemicals. Henna changed my hair forever and dried it out, i had to wait until it grew out then had a big chop.
My grandmother talked about two different instances in which short hair was considered desirable. First, women (especially) would have their heads 'shorn' if they were ill with any sort of fever. Long hair was considered a 'drain' on the limited energy that fevered people experienced. Men already had shorter hair so they usually weren't mentioned. Then, when she was a young woman the flappers with their bobs became fashionable. Grandmother was right in tune. She couldn't wait to get rid of her long hair. In contrast, Great Aunt Laura, my great grandmother's sister never cut her thick dark hair which she wore wrapped around her head until her death at 105. It's notable that she had siblings who were stolen away to school where hair was forcibly cut. One other thing, short hair was also a statement that women have always made when they were protesting against their expected role as a woman. They still do. Perhaps in some of your photographs we are looking at women who did not have the vocabulary to speak about their feelings but found they could be eloquent with their hair.
Hair was forcibly cut? Please elaborate.
@@kathyp1563i also noticed “stolen away to school”, which makes me wonder if they were part of a stolen generation (happened in many countries)
@@kathyp1563 hair could be cut to fit the rules of an institution or as a punishment. Cutting hair even now holds connotations of social shame or humiliation. Shearing hair short was also used to eradicate vermin such as lice, so having short hair could be an indication of attempts to manage this and the accompanying social stigma.
That's so fascinating, thank you for sharing. 👍🤠
To avoid lice, for punishment , . Usually poor girls in charitable Christian institutions suffered this . They were sometimes run by nuns . They also brought forward the “shunning vanity argument “
my great grandmother had gorgeous LONG thick red hair. and migraines -- a LOT of migraines. her doctor finally told her she MUST cut her hair to help stop them.. SO she did & pretty much the whole family cried when she did, but the migraines pretty much stopped cold.. one of the reasons for cutting hair in those times
Good for great grandma!! Migraines are torture.
I get a migraine if I put my hair in a ponytail
Mine too!
My grandmother, who lived to be 109, cut her hair, and my grandpa said sarcastically "you sure look bright"
I've had short hair most of my life. Tried growing it out a few times. The last time... so many migraines...and it turns out occipital neuralgia setting off migraines. Shaved my head for cancer charity some years ago and the pain was gone. My hair grows fast so I have to keep it short or I have more ON/migraines. Can't help but wonder if it hadn't been the same for my mother. Short hair and less head pain? I'll take the stupid assumptions for less pain.
I present for your consideration: head lice
First haircuts I gave my boys were because of lice. Impossible to get that fine tooth comb through curly hair. After the cut, the beasties were gone in two treatments.
I imagine back then, when there weren't treatments as easy and effective as we have now, lice must have been a nightmare! Then you get a short do and whoop! there they go. What a relief!
Great video, so much great information and so many pretty pictures!
My sister was about 13 when her class got head lice. My mom and I were patient and spent a couple of weeks going through her long, very curly hair. You had to slide the nit down the entire length of the hair to remove it. She was in junior high and would have been traumatized to be forced to cut it. Until a couple of years later when she took herself to the Mall and got it cut off really short. I don't think she was really happy about it, but we all just told her it looked great.
@@argusfleibeit1165 We had the same issue one time. The kids went to New York City to the circus, and they came back with lice! We just took the boys outside and gave them buzz cuts, but my daughter had that long, curly hair and boy was it difficult. We finally asked her to get it cut short just to make sure we got everything.
@@katherinechapman1309 Well, once you do the chemical treatment, they've all supposed to be dead. It just feels and looks icky to still have the nits. I've heard of flea circuses, but that was a "lousy" result of a fun time for you all.
My great-grandmother, who was born in 1875, told the most common reasons for women/girls to cut their hair short was lice, scarlet fever, and they had recently been in prison, where they were forced to shave their heads.
They also had to burn all the bedding, especially the pillows. The sheets, possibly boiled. What a mess!!
I actually cut my hip length long hair because of men playing with it. When I would have it down in public, I would have complete strangers (men) come and put their hands in my hair from behind WITHOUT ASKING (women tended to ask), so it was a safety issue and concern for me. So I always wore it up when going outside, and decided to cut most of it off mid lockdown (as a lot of people did). I cut it to my mid shoulders, cutting off nearly 20 inches of hair. It's oddly freeing to have shorter hair. Definitely not as short as most people consider, but definitely short for me to have such near shoulder length hair.
I would be absolutely terrified if a random man started touching my hair (it hasn'tgone past shoulder length since I started my gender transition though). I'm sorry you had to chop, my ex had waist length hair and it can be such an important piece of yourself
I have hair down to almost my butt now and I have little kids grab it in public transport. Probably because the ends are also green but either way I'm angry at the parents for not doing anything most of the time.
Men make creepy comments occasionally but so far nobody had tried to just grab a handful of my hair.
Women either don't say or do anything or the older ladies talk about how they wished they did this to their hair when they were younger. I always tell them they are never too old for fun colors my mom has them too at 71.
@@DieAlteistwiederda Yes. It's always public transport where kids do stuff with my hair. Either bus or train. And yeah, it gets worse when I do brightly colored hair. It might just be where I'm from... I dunno. But then again, women getting their hands in my hair has been happening since I was a child in Wisconsin, a teen in CT, and even now as an adult in PA. And the rona times didn't make it any better! Many women do apologize after but not all, usually with an "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done that but your hair is just so X" Usually X is shiny/blonde/colorful/straight/soft looking. I mean, I get having impulse control issues... I have them too (ADHD) but ugh! Maybe because people were always touching my hair as a kid (sometimes even my skin because its freaky pale & cool toned so it looks even paler) that I just never want to do that to others. And knowing that kids do it now because their parents don't discipline them makes me think adults do it because their parents didn't discipline them... so then where does the cycle end?
A guy once came up behind me in a store at the mall while I was looking at hats and started tickling me, which ended up with him taking my elbow to his ribs. I recommend this for all unwanted touching.
I'm sorry you had to do that
I find it so fascinating how humans don't really change throughout our history, but people will paint humans of the past as extremely different than how we are today, however, if you do any bit of research into it, you find that they were indeed just like us.
Very much like us
King Solomon said "there is nothing new under the sun"
People always have been just people.
Karolina has great videos demonstrating that!
I have been keeping my hair bobbed for the last 3 years. Looking back in my life the times I have been happiest my hair was bobbed. I have always loved a bob since I was a little girl (although I wasn’t allowed to cut my hair until I was 16). Anytime I see pictures of women the woman with the bob always looks prettiest 😂 to me. It’s weird how much I love a bob. I always wonder if in a past life I had an experience with a bob that’s left a permanent love for that hairstyle 😂❤!
The only reason I ever thought women had short hair in that time period would've been because they sold it. This was enlightening, thank you!
The Gift of the Magi probably has a lot to do with that. Or Little Women.
For health reasons I started to go grey earlier than I was prepared for (is any prepared for?). I first cut hiplength to shoulderlenght for easier colouring. Now I have about 5cm nearly complete grey hair and I think I gonna cut them to end the story, let them grow again in full grey and colour it, if I like, not "in need".
@Jeanne Ellison definitely Little Women lol! Also Les Miserables
Another reason could be because they had head lice. I wonder if the doctor who said cutting the hair caused baldness, kept his hair long, or insisted his sons do the same?
@annemariecronen9096 That was brought out in the famous short story by O'Henry, "The Gift of the Magi"!
Oh no, the articles about my boy Oscar having a haircut were fully justified. That hairstyle was a war crime.
Yeah, that was a, umm, Choice. Guess that's why we always see his pre-cut photos used today!
@@NicoleRudolph I remember reading that men's short hair (as in that short back and sides style) only really came in after WW1 because of men having military haircuts. Hence, I suppose, the shock at Oscar's hairstyle - either that or because it's just a bad haircut. Sorry Oscar.
I love that Viking men's hairstyle that is very short cropping in the back and long in the front. It is so aggressively ugly that it just says "Let's Vike!"
Roflmao I completely agree having seen that picture. Omg his face does not do short hair very well.
You have to remember that it this time period growing your hair as long as you can physically stand to was just a sign of General Health in adults.
You're still only just barely getting out of the big powdered poofy wig face for men. Therefore having long natural hair was considered desirable and attractive for both sexes. It really wasn't a gendered thing yet at least not in America
Was that before or after his time in prison? I know that ruined his health and he was banished from Great Britain, but could he have come to America again?
The first time I ever got a pixie...so many people asked "is your husband ok with it?!"
Which was just... so annoying.
Same! Or “he let you?”
If I even asked him he’d shrug and say “it’s your head.” Right now my hair is really long. I got 4 inches cut off and he thought I hadn’t done anything 😂 I think he was hoping for something shorter. Maybe next time 😀
Mine always says “I didn’t marry your hair”.
As someone who went from 'at the hip because I don't have a lady's maid so it can't be longer' to 'post breast cancer quasi boot camp' over the last six months, short hair is SO easy. I think I'm keeping it short for a while. It's good to know that I can still wear historical costume! Great video and your cut is very cute.
I hope you have a complete recovery.
Best wishes for a full recovery. Short hair is easier! I agree.
You look beautiful with long or short, you rock that short hair beautiful. In Jesus Christ name i pray you have a full recovery and that The Lord has His holy hand on you and your life 💕
Even if women did not have short hair until the flapper era, you could still wear historical costume. A long wig could be worn, and if you have a wardrobe of wigs they could be done in different styles.
When Jo March had her hair cut off in Little Women, she mentioned that the barber said she could have a "curly crop" once it grew out a bit. If there was an actual name for the style, cutting hair short must have been a more common practice than we realize.
Of course, when we read that she cut it off, it doesn't say how much. Maybe it wasn't such a short cut, but like ear-length short. I suppose we will never know.
That may have been the term for a men's cut, too.
You can't have a 'curly crop' if your hair is as straight as a stick, no matter how short it is!
My grandfather (born 1906) used to talk about his mother’s hair. It was so long it reached the floor. She would let it down and all her children would gather to comb and brush it every day.
You have no idea how happy this video has made me... I'm still going through what will be six months of chemotherapy, and lost all of my hair, apart from a scattering of eyebrow hairs, which stubbornly hung on!
My last chemo is on 20 Dec, and it started growing back a couple of weeks ago so I'm not even at a buzz cut stage yet... but it is so nice to know that I don't have to wait a few years for my hair to fully grow back before I can authentically do my vintage wardrobe. This brings me enormous joy.
Thank you x
Congratulations on your finishing chemo! I hope you do well from now on. I lost all my hair due to chemo for breast cancer 23 years ago, and I remember going out on New Year’s Eve after I dyed the scruffy little sprouts blonde! Sadly, due to my cowlick situation, short hair is a battle, so I grew it out, but I did enjoy trying out short hair for a while. Prayers for your quick recovery!
@@daxxydog5777 thank you for your kind words :)
I've still got surgery and radiotherapy to have, so this isn't the end of it yet. But I'll get there.
I have to wait 6 months to be able to colour my hair, which is kind of sad because I'm impatient and want funky coloured pixie hair, but also kind of cool as it us coming back white, even though I'm only 44...
You look beautiful with long or short, . In Jesus Christ name i pray you have a full recovery and that The Lord has His holy hand on you and your life 💕
Congratulations on finishing chemo! 🎉
Mine came back white and "bent" (that's the only word for it -- it couldn't be called curly) after chemo, at age 44. My first post-chemo perm, about a year later, did not take at all. But subsequent perms and highlights have been lovely.
Beatrix Potter, as a young lady with a lymph node condition, cut her hair short in this fashion. This was so fascinating, thank you for all your research and for sharing your findings!
She shows up in the video at 13:35!
Women in 19th century moved to big cities and started working full time
so there was no time for hairdresser appointments.
Also, it was hard to keep a good appearance at work,
wearing a complicated hairstyle. Cutting hair short was liberating.
My mother who was born in 1918 England told me that when she was a girl if someone had head lice, their hair would be cut very very short. She knew that this had been the case for generations. They would have their heads examined at school and would not be able to return until their hair had been cut.
I was at school in the 60's ,we used to have the nit nurse who would use a thin wooden spatula, separating the hair for eggs
@@romystumpy1197 I was in elementary school in the 80s and early 90s, and we did, too. The shitty thing is that you got inspected in front of the whole class. I never actually knew of anyone who was found to have lice that way, but I can imagine how humiliating it would be to have the entire class see you were found with lice in your hair.
the sheer cognitive dissonance i felt at seeing people in 1880s dress sporting pixie cuts truly did me in.
because, all of a sudden, their faces looked like people i would meet today. they resemble my sister and their partner; my non-binary friends; middle school girls freeing themselves from their hair for the first time; women i know that have lost their hair during chemo. i felt a kinship with the women in those pictures that i have not felt before. the young girl on the right at 13:19 looks like a young Millie Bobby Brown; the person on the left on the very first set of images reminds me of Kaz Rowe.
i love this video and i cant wait to share it with my short-haired friends.
I had a really similar heart warming experience. Getting to see faces and hair that look like my transmasc self filled my heart to the brim.
I fought to be allowed short hair, and once I finally got it, my grandmother described how every relative with my hair type got a short haircut by the time they were 18, since our hair is frizzy and has the consistency of sheep wool.
This reminds me of a classmate who was the only girl of 7 kids. Her hair was past her back jeans pockets. (I dunno, that’s just how 7-8 year olds measure, I guess?) She hated it. One day she came to school with a “boy” haircut. Her mom kept her big fat braid so Daddy could see Terri’s beautiful long hair any time he liked 😂😂 As far as I know she never regretted that hair cut.
I used to keep my hair long because i just didnt care, that was until my sister had a girlfriend that would constantly play with it. She would come up behind me and pet me and go on about how pretty it was. One day i chopped it off super short, she acted like i committed a crime against humanity.
People who do that seem to operate in a universe where people lack respect for one another. Personal space, people, personal space. 😂
I can't see having to deprive yourself of hair just because someone touches it. I would keep my hair and tell them to get lost.
Not only is this video fascinating, but with talking about short hair I *immediately* spotted your earrings, which were made by my friend! It was so cool to spot them, her stuff really suits your style!
Just bought another pair from her this last week! One of my favorite shops
you can't just not say who your friend is and where I could buy their earrings
@@funwithrandomnesable I think many things are sold out because of the holiday rush but: www.etsy.com/shop/YoshiStokes
@@funwithrandomnesable Nicole beat me to it, but there's still some other designs left! The Victorian-inspired Etruscan Revival earrings are 💯
I'm so glad you brought it up! I've literally been staring at them the whole video. They are gorgeous.
My gramma got what she called an Eton Crop in 1919 ish- she was very fashionable! This was in London England and she went to work! As a secretary! Not a role filled by many women at that time.
I wondered if anyone was going to mention the Eton Crop. My daughter had this for a while and she looked so cute in it! She has red hair
My Grandmother had the Eaton Crop too. It looked very mannish in her photos from that time. There are even photos with the haircut where she is wearing shirts and ties, and jodhpurs, as did many young women. I wonder what my grandfather felt about that. I believe they were dating at that time.
Strange fad to want to look like a young man.
When you mentioned Chicago, I immediately thought "Windy City" and then googled because something was niggling in the back of my head. The tallest skyscraper in the world was in Chicago from 1885 to 1931. Given the Great Fire was in Oct 1871, Chicago was going through a massive building boom and they were building UP. That creates wind tunnels and amplifies the wind off the lake even more. Could this have all started with one woman or a handful of women cutting their hair short out of pure frustration with up-dos being blow to bits or collapsing from the wind? All of a sudden a city of women are realizing its just so much more practical? At least one major playhouse also opened in Chicago that year... likely bringing in a bevy of dancers and stage actors. Maybe it all started because of a haircut for a part in a play.
"Windy City" was a reference to Chicago's blustery, gasbag politicians, not the weather. (Though the weather can get as bad as anywhere in the Midwest 🙂).
What they said about women cutting their hair short leading to baldness is so dumb and it reminded me of how people tell kids not to make faces or their face will stick like that. Can't tell if the Victorians really believed that or if it was just another way to control women by infantilizing them.
The passing of generations usually involves some degree of astonishment at what past people did and believed I often wonder what people are going to find horrifying about us 100 years from now.
@@VeretenoVidsA lot , actually.
@@thebrookealyson Oh I'm sure of it!
What is funny is if you believe it then it will develope. I have seen women who cut their hair and it grew right back just as thick as ever, then I know women who cut it as a "rebellion" and it never grew back the way it was before. Whatever you do, do with a clear conscience and you will not stray far.
I used to make faces a lot by crossing my eyes , but then when I went to the eye doctor, the eye doctor told me I was slightly cross-eyed. So I stopped doing that.
Interesting that women were accused of trying to look younger by cutting hair short, and that shorter hair was seen as more childlike", when these days people generally have the opposite association.
I keep my hair cut short because of my chronic migraines. Also, keeping my hair short makes my life SLIGHTLY easier with many of the rest of my chronic illnesses with many of them being chronic pain.
Yes I went through that too. The smell of my hair during a migraine just drove me nuts and heaving into a bucket. The weight bothered my neck which could trigger things. A complete hysterectomy solved the migraine problem. Estrogen was my worst trigger.
Chronic shoulder and upper back pain really makes things like blow-drying difficult. Having short hair is a life-saver.
Me 2. I broke my shoulder in 3 places & couldn't put my hair in a ponytail or scrunchie. My Mr tried to do it for me. but just couldn't get it. I had broken my arm, wrist so I figured out to prop my hair dryer on the hand towel rack. I could style it with 1 hand. ✌️
Those 1880s pictures of the women with short cuts are so surprising! It makes them look so modern in a way because I’m so used to seeing women in the past with long hair. So interesting! ❤
I love the Victorian era aesthetic but I have lupus and it badly affects my hair. I'm no good with wigs either so I always felt like I was missing out on experimenting with modern takes on their hairstyles. Then I found your video! I'm now down the rabbit hole of cute hair styles to try and I'm so excited 😊
Fascinating look at a little-known subject. Love the part about short hair not being associated with masculinity in 1880s because men were still wearing it longer. Good research explained well!
okay but when you said that having short hair stunts growth for the brain. DAMN SON!! The dude who wrote that had a major self call out post. Callin himself and other men out.
😅
We do in fact have tiny muscles on our follicles, namely the Arrector Pili muscle, which is what makes our hairs stand when we are cold or get shivers. Just wanted to point that out. :P
It doesn't do that on our heads does it?🤔
@@adamdaichendt3838maybe…like when we say the hairs on the back of our neck stood up. I haven’t researched it but I wouldn’t be surprised if the hair on our head is usually too long to feel the effect?
At 13:39 I noticed that the lady's "brooch" in the right picture is actually a traditional piece of silver used in the Norwegian folk dress "bunad", it's specifically a belt clasp. Maybe she immigrated to the USA and didn't get to bring her entire dress, so she just had that small piece of her heritage with her and wanted to incorporate it into more modern clothes. Anyway that's just a little thought...
As someone who has to keep their hair short for their health Thank You so much for this. It's so nice to know that at least by the 1880's some women where using short hair. I've fought with wanting long hair so that it would look right in vintage fashion this has given me so freedom from that. I can't tell you how freeing this was for me so again thank you so much for sharing this.
What a difference to schools these days in which lice become endemic because teachers and school nurses are not allowed to search through the children’s hair. By the time the lice are obvious the child’s head is full of them and have infested most of their class.
9:15 "Are millenials killing the hairpiece industry?"
Lol my thoughts exactly.
My grandmother said she cut her hair in the early 1920s in Appalachia, and she said it created a controversy at school
Your video inspired me to do some research on Trove, a free resource of scanned newspapers at the National Library of Australia. I discovered that there was also a fashion for short hair in 1877. According to one 1877 article I read, the demand for false hair outstripped supply, so some women who couldn't buy false hair just cut their hair short instead. This created its own trend. It was described as 'cut quite short to the head all round, except in front, where it is left long enough to form round ring-curls ... It is young-looking, pretty, becoming and advantageous to the hair.' I agree with you that the Victorians defy our stereotypes of them. They were much more interesting, individualistic and unpredictable than we tend to assume.
I’m currently growing out a buzz cut and trying my best with the awkward stages, this is giving me all kinds of inspiration for better do’s!! Thank you Nicole!
Morgan Donner has several videos about growing out a buzz cut. She also has a video of when she cut her hair off.
I was just about to send you to Morgan'as channel but someone beat me to be it!
Thank you both! I’ve already watched those as well and Morgan has already been saving me tons!
Thank you for answering that question. I wondered something similar after watching the BBC Miniseries Wives and Daughters and seeing the character "Lady Hawiott" with VERY short hair. I thought she looked simply elegant. It's nice to know that the costume and hair department must've done their research too. I love short hair on women and I think yours looks beautiful.
"There is no fun in gently stroking a head that has nothing but stubble" - au contraire. Is there anything nicer than stroking a freshly buzzed head?
Eewwwww no
Men need hair too as much as women
Long hair for all!
I go through various variations on short cropped hair, (most recently I've been sporting a look inspired by the French Revolution styles) and my hairstylist commented that she loves how I always come in with interesting short hair requests and how she loves getting to do very short cuts on women.
The rather weird article that goes on about there being no pleasure in stroking short hair reminds me of a quote from Maurice, the Edwardian gay novel by E.M Forster. Maurice is being hypnotised to try and cure him of being gay (it doesn't work obviously) and the hypnotist is convincing him there's a painting of a beautiful woman called Miss Edna May. "And look at her lovely long hair." "I like short hair best," says Maurice. "Why?" says the hypnotist. "Because I can stroke it." So there you go, short hair, way more stroke-able according to Maurice (of course in this case it's because he's thinking of men).
This was a great video! I've had short hair for a long time and one of the reasons why I didn't think I'd ever get into historical reenactment in any way is because I don't want to wear a wig or grow my hair out. I could always dress as a man which would be totally fine but it is nice to know that the mid 1880s would also work. And yes, people still have Opinions about women cutting their hair short. The good news is, the vast majority of the people I know have never met me while I had long hair, so they don't have anything to compare it to and can't go "you looked better with long hair wahh why did you cut it." If people wonder why I cut my hair short, here are the short reasons. a) Matches my gender presentation better as I lean more butch, b) I never learned how to style long hair so I just wore it in a ponytail all the time and what's the point, c) the ponytails were giving me a headache and d) didn't enjoy the wind blowing hair into my mouth. Short answer is just because I like it.
I'm happy at least one other person was reminded of this very specific reference! That scene always stuck in my mind.
it is funny bc I grew out my hair since I wanted to be able to braid it and wear claw clips, but I also wish I could do that while having it shorter since I think it's much nicer to pet when it's like that
As someone with long hair, I get it. Any time I'm getting intimate with someone, they try to stroke my hair. They end up finding every damn knot in it.
I love that scene with the hypnotist. “What an ungallant remark.” I agree with what Maurice is saying.
I definitely don’t think long hair is easy to stroke. Mine is up all the time and if my husband tries to stroke it it gets tangled 😂
I love how these 19th Century writers had zero self-awareness about this. Women's own desires for themselves doesn't seem to enter into their calculus. "Women should wear their hair long because I prefer it" seems to be the crux of the matter.
Back then you couldn’t divorce your wife if she would become a short haired and unattractive so it kinda makes sense men viewed it as a problem. Now you can just swipe left and move on to a pretty girl with long hair 😂
if I met a man like that I'd say "Eff off!"
You are well spoken! It's nice to watch a youtuber who doesnt have a crazy number of clips when they've edited their video.
I cut off my bsl hair to a bob because chronic pain made me tenderheaded. I went from high pony, all day every day to not being able to find a hairstyle that didn't hurt. I'm starting to grow it back now that nerve blocks every four months are helping, but I doubt I'll ever be able to comfortably wear it that length, so I am loving the hairstyle inspiration.
Oh my goodness a high ponytail every day sounds painful to me and I don’t have a tender head! 😮 I’ve got done gentle updo styles on my channel if it helps. There’s even a video talking about avoiding headaches when wearing long hair up ❤
You had me at "Men love to play with it!" They like to play with so many things. :-)) Kidding aside, my great -grandma told me that in late victorian era women cut their hair to get rid of lice, for high fever or to sell, never for personal comfort or to antagonize anybody.
Interesting. Another curiousity: Has the media always portrayed its minority opinions as belonging to the majority of the people?
We can’t know if it was the same for everyone outside of her social circles. I’ve seen women of older generations use hair in a vindictive way
My Granny's mom kept all her girls hair short because it was easier and less time consuming: She had 8 kids and a farm to help run. "Worry about your hair some other time, we've got chores to do!"
Yes, in the old pictures, the little girls often have short hair. I figured that was why.
I have a pastel drawing from 1820 of an aristocratic girl of about 6 with cropped hair.
@l frmella the movie Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken set in the depression era (?) The girl cuts off all her hair in an effort to try and look like one of the women in a fashion magazine. Her mother freaked out and made her wear a bag on her head as punishment.
This is fascinating, I was always told women in the. Victorian & Edwardian era never cut their hair. Thank you for this it's very interesting. 💇♀️
Most of them didn't cut it if they could help it. But there were various circumstances that made them do it. Except for that period she mentions, when short hair was in fashion. But it's an isolated phenomenon.
Your haircut is absolutely darling! And fabulously done, wonderful content, as usual, Ms. Rudolph. I always wish I could give two thumbs up. 👍👍
Disease can cause hair loss - the high fever and stress messes up the usual follicle cycle and throws many of them into the shedding stage simultaneously. I lost about half my hair after typhoid fever - it fell out in handfuls a couple of weeks after I was "well". Having half long hair and half stubble doesn't style well, so I had it cut into a pixie cut and grew it out again.
Also, for periods of convalescence - and the aftermath of typhoid or whooping cough could be months of bed rest and recovery - short hair mats and tangles less than long hair. So cropping the hair of the invalid was seen as necessary.
Lady Caroline Lamb's hair was cropped because of a fever. She decided she liked it that way and kept it short for at least several years.
I cut my hair pixie short 6 years ago and have never looked back. It is sooooo easy (I also stopped dyeing it at the same time and am greying). I have felt more feminine with my short hair too which I was not expecting and had spent years being very attached to my long curls. Don’t think I’d ever go back - and super interested that I could go for a Victorian silhouette if I wanted and it still be accurate!
I always love your research. And as a short hair fan, this is wonderful.
Over the years (I'm now 60) I've lost count of the number of times women of all ages have said they wished they had short hair but their husband/partner liked it long; the whole 'sexy' argument. Oh my.
Also 60, single by choice. I tend to chop all my hair off every 5 years or so. I am lucky as I have fantastic hair & it looks good either short or long. And, it tends to grow fast.
Who wants a partner that tells you how to live ???? To heck with that. Rather be alone than with a controlling jerk. It's an option ladies ! Lol !
I think it is HILARIOUS when people tell me that older women should cut their hair short. Like I would listen to them, lol ! I am rocking my gray "racing stripes" & I don't give a damn about others opinions! (THIS is the good part of aging. Ya just don't CARE after you hit 50! Care even less when you hit 60 ! Lol )
Be you. It's all you have. And, it's fantastic !
Great video, by the way !
@@m.maclellan7147 I recognise the privilege of having a husband (38yrs together) who respects me and recognises I'm my best self with short hair and he puts no demands on me 'looking' a particular way.
@@m.maclellan7147 I'm 60 & short-haired (I love the ease & convenience of it), and I also had purple hair last year. First time in my life it had ever been dyed. I let it go back to my natural colour to see if I'd gone grey underneath it - not yet - and in the New Year I'll be going back to purple hair.
I cut my hip-length hair without telling anyone. Pixie cut short. Asked my boyfriend what he thought afterwards. He said he didn't mind, as long as I liked it. That was three years ago, and I'm never growing it out again. Short hair suits me.
My best friend has been thinking about cutting her hair short since I did, but her husband doesn't like short hair on women. She cut it shoulder-length recently, and she said she won't go any shorter because her current length "broke his heart". To each their own, but I don't think I'd be able to deal with a guy like that. I'm too rebellious, and I'd cut my hair just to spite him. 😅 So lucky my guy doesn't care.
@@VaryaEQ It is your hair, not his. Apparently you are better at setting boundaries then your friend is !
I would tell your friend's man to "piss up a rope" personally! Lol !
I love the photos you found - it is endlessly fascinating to look at these photos with your guidance as what we need to look for.
There is a link between fever and hair loss - it's called telogen effluvium. Basically, for some people a fever will cause the normal hair follicle's growth and fallout cycle to reset. I know after having a vicious flu a few years ago, with a fever, I lost handfuls a few months later.
I had major surgery several years ago and my hairdresser at the time explained this to me, and commented about how much hair it seemed I had lost. He told me hair often responds to health.
I lost a lot of hair after having had COVID early in 2020. Turns out it's not uncommon.
I grew up in a VERY Pentecostal area...a whole community full of women with hair so long is sweeps the floor... growing up as a child...it was always so majestic to me....but short hair is so chic and convenient.
I used to have hair all the way down my back, and it was honestly really pretty, but it was constantly tangled and matted (just because of what the strands are like), so I was constantly putting it up in ponytails and braids.
My hair is also very thick, so if I washed it, it would take hours to dry. It was beautiful when I'd take an hour of my time to slather it in oil and work all the hundreds of tangles out, but eventually, I was like, "What's the point of having long hair if it's too frustrating to keep down?"
So, over the course of the next couple months, I got it cut three times. The first time by my mom (she cut it to about two inches below my shoulders), then when it started to grow out again, I got it cut by a hairstylist to above my shoulders, then when that grew out, I got it cut again by a stylist to my current style, which is sort of a "feminine Beatle cut" as I like to call it. (Not a bowl-cut, btw. It looks like the Beatles' 1964/65 hairstyles)
This is the first time that I've ever had my hair any shorter than a bob, and I adore it. It's so easy to take care of, and it looks decent 99% of the time (which was not the case with my long hair, lol). It still takes at least 2 or 3 hours to dry if I don't put it up in a towel or blow-dry it, but since it doesn't really touch my clothes, I don't mind too much. I've been trimming it myself at home, too, since it's not an elaborate pixie style. I've also been surprised at all the compliments i've gotten because of it! People say it really suits me, and I think so too. I sometimes feel like I was just meant to have this style my whole life.
There is a picture of my great-great-grandmother with short hair in the mid 1800s. I’ll have to take another look at it now
Huh, fancy that! Didn't expect there's a brief trend of short hair in the 1880s! Always love how you go about such historical topics, Nicole 😺
(...also that photo of Oscar Wilde with bowl cut hair sure gave me emotional damage 😩🤪🙃🥲💀🔥)
I love the short hair with these Victorian dresses. I myself have short hair and love historical dress. Now that I'm aware that this was actually a thing...well then!
Very thoughtfully researched! Loved the many newspaper clips and photographs from the period. Well done!
Thank you Nicole. Now we can associate short hair in XIX c with Suffragette movement and free thinking women like painters or novelist. Not only with convalescent, mental hospital patient or circus troupe member.
Also hair piece ( like bun on back of head) can be pin to short hair and with hat of this era your hair will look more traditional.
Men and complaining about women expressing themselves through fashion, name a more historically consistent duo
My hair goes all the way down to past my butt now but I have also had it cut short just to my ears… it’s amazing the difference just changing the length of your makes on a day to day. I imagine that’s why that’s one of the things people change the most often. Thank you for sharing
i think they shaved their hair for hair loss treatment because hair lost due to stress usually grows back after a couple of months. So when someone shaves their thinner hair and about maybe 3-4 months later their hair starts to be fuller again it might apper like what fixed the issue was cutting the hair.
Having had alopecia, I can tell you that shorter hair hides the thin patches better than long hair. Mine was almost waistlength at the start. A shoulder length Bob worked for a time before going for chin length and rough cut layers.
loved all the pictures, it's so cool to see how women of the time fit short hair into their aesthetic!
This was a fascinating look on the subject! Thank you for sharing!
Actually regularly cutting the hair can stave off balding to some extent because it reduces pulling on the scalp caused by weight and combing through stubborn tangles. Also if you shave it 😮 (which seems harsh for most people but if you can get over the initial shock it’s not that bad) it reminds the hair to grow sufficiently dense to make up for the lack of coverage that you normally have with longer hair.
In the book, "Little Women", Jo has her hair cut off so that she can make some money to send to her sick father. Since "Little Women" was a very popular book, I wonder if maybe that helped to make short hairstyles among women more popular? Also, some women probably had short hair because they sold their long hair to wig makers, so that they could make a bit of extra money if they needed to for some reason!
Gift of the Magi
I love seeing all the old pictures with the mullets and pixie cuts!
I always learn valuable information from your videos! I did not know about short hair in the mid 1880s and I'm so excited about it. Some of those hairstyles were very cute and some were downright sultry. I had long hair for quite a few years because I vend at Ren fairs dressed as a viking. However, during the pandemic I cut it all off, close cropped to my skull and I LOVED IT!! All that weight off my neck! All that heat it absorbed, gone at last! And I discovered I had curly hair. Now it's grown out to just hit my shoulder and I think I'm going to crop it off again.
Wow, the lady on the left at 13:10 had the perfect mod sixties hair style! If she was wearing a poor boy sweater, mini skirt, and high boots, she would have fit right in dancing to the Beatles music. Nobody would have guessed she was from 80 years back in time!
I cut my hair very short when I was 16, I have thick curly hair and it took a lot of convincing to my mom over the years to let me cut it. When I eventually did it was incredible! the feeling of the lightness, the wind on my neck, and the maintenance freedom! It is incredibly liberating. I've never been able to successfully commit to long hair after that.
When my grandmother was a little girl around 1905, a neighbor's daughter got scarlet fever, and her hair fell out (hmmm, maybe they cut it) and came back red and curly. My grandmother said she wanted to get scarlet fever, too, so her hair would come back so wonderfully.
Cutting hair to sell reminds me of "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry in 1905.
My other grandmother, born in 1912, despised long hair on anyone--kids, men, women, dogs. From old photographs we could see she had very curly hair as a child, but it was always short.
Jeezzzz. Good to know the Daily Mail was alive and kicking in the nineteenth century. A little puzzled that they disposed of the crazy hair-weight but kept the fabric tonnage.
Hi from Australia, l love your shows and looking forward to watching more video next year. Have a great Christmas and a safe New Year.
My great-grandmother cut off her long ponytail and kept it in a covered glass bowl on her dresser. I have that bowl on my dresser. Every morning, she would gather the rest into a tiny ponytail in the back and wrap her ponytail around it to make it look like she had long hair. Wondering if this was going on more than we thought. She was not fashionable. Although others wouldn’t see it, I’m sure all of the extended family had seen her very short hair regularly.
In former times, women saved the hair from their brushes every night and put it in a "hair receiver". This was a china box with a lid that sat on their dresser or vanity. When it was filled, the hair was sent off to a factory where they made braids, buns, rats and switches to augment the lady's natural hair. They even provided illustrated catalogs with many styles for the customer to choose from. (Rats were large puffs of hair that made the Gibson girl pompadours possible.). It sounds like your relative was well acquainted with the practice.
Weird.
AH this is wonderful! I'm currently grown my hair out from a buzz cut and now I'll have a bench of historical styles to try out while it grows!
Thank you for acknowledging Indigenous practices and how some of us as groups do prefer long hair on every gender for many reasons. My Dad's hair is nearly as long as mine. I used to like wearing my hair in an almost masculine short cut, but I haven't cut it properly since march 2020, and Culture is one reason I am leaving it long these days. I also do Medieval reenacting so it's fun to have natural Lonnnng hair for that, but when I had super short hair I'd wear a big false braid and/or a veil anyway, so it's true you can make any hair length look historical if you know your history (and sometimes use hairpieces! Very Historical)
also that she put this at the start of her video, not as a little after bit at the end!
Hi Lorraine,I too am a reenactor.What periods do you cover?I love history & doing archaeology is a great field(often literally)to explore.
I remember seeing photos of my great grandmother with very short hair around 1900. My grandmother told me she was delighted to have her hair cut as soon as she could. Hair was heavy and very hot.
Holy fry fish, I am astounded that the various stylings of the antique pixie are nearly identical to any modern interpretation. It makes every one of these women look instantly modern and relatable… takes off some of the. Intake patina we’re accustomed to. Fascinating.
Your new haircut looks gorgeous on you, Nicole!
Oh wow, I was looking for a video for hairstyle inspo for a party tomorrow and you uploaded just in time!
Beatrix Potter had her hair cut off after a bout of rheumatic fever caused it to fall out in clumps. She hated it because her hat wouldnt stay on in the wind and once blew off into a fountain,and she and her father had to stand there while the park keeper fished it out.
Probably what those Victorian ladies fell out of love with about short hair was that you have to cut it regularly or it sticks out at crazy angles by your ears. That's why I keep growing my hair out. Ain't nobody got time for that constant trimming. But washing and doing your hair is much easier.
Btw. Those Victorian ladies look pretty good. I never really considered, though, how women's short haircuts are so sculpted today compared to some of those 1880s cuts.
It's the same for me. Funnily enough, I just read the exact opposite here, someone who said they cut it short because they hate the high maintenance of long hair.
I love having my hair short, but the crazy angle thing is so true! I hate the flippies that I get behind my ears!
I cut my own hair at 19 VERY short. Thought I'd do the spiky pixie thing. Took 3 days to say eff that. And growing it back out was a nightmare. Never, ever doing that again!
I ditched the blowdrying and started cutting my own hair several years ago after my hairdresser had a stroke and could no longer dress/cut hair. The bangs/fringe gets cut every three or four weeks, the rest every three or four months. I love it.
1:45 the reason cutting hair helps prevent later hair loss is because of the weight. If one is sick and hair becomes fragile, long heavy hair can pull it out. Especially with washing, because wet hair is heavy. Also when a person is sick their hair get tangled. Removing those tangled causes manual damage and boom 💥 more hair loss.
" I need to get my roots done." Was a common phrase back inthe 50-60's and maybe even befor then.
Now women intentionally pay $300 to have their colourist leave two months’ worth of roots with their platinum colour.
well done and thank you! This is very interesting - I would also love to know about shaved heads for women, from nun's to convicts to collaborators to punks - will it ever be "normalised"?' And Nicole, please would you think about making a video on the history of dressing vintage. When and how and why did this start? Thank you so much for all the information you give!
In some places, some governments have shaved women's heads for humiliation purposes signaling them as no good.
Example: the winners of the civil war in Spain on women relatives of the defeated democratic republic defenders.
I was interested that one writer said all kinds of women were cutting their hair short. Where I live now, it's rural, and windy, and sandy. Most people don't have that much money, and many women are ranchers and farmers, and care more about practicality than style, except for a few young women and teens who go for short hair and various colors. It's not common away from cities and larger towns. This is true for Anglo, Mexican and Indian women. Most grown women around here let it grow longer, and clip it up out of the way, make a bun, or wear it in a single braid, and some just wear it long, if they don't have crazy hair. Mine is curly and crazy, so it gets the braid or clips. Some women cut their hair shorter, but just a practical sort of short. Women often do dye their hair here, but that's a cheap and easy bit of vanity to manage. It seems to be both a practical and cultural preference. I thought it might be like that for country women then, too.
My long hair was lovely in my youth. I stopped slaving over the blowdryer several years ago. I keep my hair around shoulder length and spend ten minutes or so setting it in pincurls before bed. It is easier to style in the morning, needs washing less, and looks nicer.
My knowledge of U.S. history is deficient. I knew about mistreatment of indigenous people, but forcibly trying to make everyone look "standardized" is horrific. While my hair has thinned in recent years, it still looks fine long (midway down my back). I tried short hair and bangs once as a child...still have PTSD whenever I get my hair professionally cut.😂
But through social coercion we still aim to make those around us similar to ourselves. You don't like someone's choice of music, art, or whatever and then they will not be in your circle of friends or people to be admired. We like to feel free and easy and if that means ejecting a sibling from our social circle but at the same time we will allow a 'dangerous' person in on the edge of our group. Normality is not a uniform concept your normality is vastly different to the average Chinese. Listen to the Russian's on the TV and you get a different opinion about the war. Do you rate people who live in your street or apartment block even if you don't know them?
Once I left home for University I never had my hair cut. My son didn’t have his cut much until a trim at 6 and kept it long until his profession did not give him a weekly 1.5 hours for wash and dry at the hairdressers. I don’t like short hair. Mine is pearlescent pale no longer charcoal or coloured golden blonde, and thick and past my ribs
We would be interested in your 2023 video idea🌿have a nice holiday!🎄
I was always taught that in my mikmaq culture we would cut our and mourning and some ppl would paint their body black the colour or mourning ,I went my whole life as a two spirited person with short hair to please my family and I grew it out and my French grandmother told me to never cut my hair she sees the strength in hair but I do see her with shirt cut or buzz cut and she has no Greg hairs but always bleached her hair idk y she did but I love her
Is that woman in the thumbnail on the left wearing a short mullet?!? I LOVE it! 😂 Also…she looks A LOT like Kristen Wiig.
ETA 13:30 Yes!!! Cornwallis West DEFINITELY had a mullet!!! Apparently this was Lady Patsy Cornwallis-West who was King Edward’s the 8th of England mistress.
Also…to read the info you included about cutting hair being a punishment is so interesting! Here in New Orleans they didn’t make Creole women cut our hair but since we “caught the eye” of many French, Spanish and white men…the Tignon Laws of 1786 (an effort to stop placage unions in Louisiana) were passed and made it illegal to wear our hair exposed. Very interesting!
The arguments are so familiar to me it's both funny and sad. I had mid back length and went to pixie, and I was told I looked like I was sick and I wouldn't be sen as beautiful by men. Let me tell you, whatever compliments men don't give to my hair is definnitely leveraed by all the compliments women do give me
How rude of people to tell you that. We have a family friend and every so often she will wear her hair in a pixie cut. I have know her to wear her hair to her shoulders, or around her ears, and now in a pixie she is a lovely as she has always been.
This makes so much senseee!! Like whenever I research Late 1880s early 1890s pics I would always think "Wow this updos really do look like trendy 2016ish men".
And viceversa, I would scroll down instagram and think "all this guys look just like they are wearing late victorian ladies updos"
So in a sense, I always though, Why have that luscious beautiful long hair to wear it in such a tight updo? haha
I wish people would have had freedom to wear things as they pleased always... even today
Thanks for this incredibly informative video! I´ll definitely implement this short hair trend in my victorian illustrations!
You have an extinguished sense of fashion and I love that I’m jealous how you described the videos and I loved the videos you have shared. Thank you so much for sharing. ❤❤❤❤
1:30 - can attest that having even shoulder length thick hair during COVID last year my hair was actually hurting me at the roots. I had to wash it every or every other day, when normally I can go a few days between shampooing. My hair felt horrible, weird, strawlike, heavy, hurting, got so snarly from reclining in a chair all day and fever sweats day and night for a few days in a row. I was ready to shave it off. Glad I hadn't seen this video and your gorgeous hair then cuz I would have def gone for a pixie cute, you pull it off so well!
I always enjoy your videos 💜 You are forever teaching me something new. Thank you for your hard work
When I decided to stop trying to be a redhead, I cut my hair very short. It made growing it out so much easier. That was also when I embraced my grays. I go through phases where I grow it out (it's below my shoulders now) and then cut it short. I have very fine, straight, hair so it doesn't style well so long hair works best for me.
Yes! I don't have hair so much as feathers! I also spent decades as a chemical redhead. Letting that go while out of circulation for a few months and cutting it all off to be undyed led to quite short hair for me for another couple of decades! I loved being a redhead with oooddles of hair. Now I love being silver-tinsel haired with long unrully curls. It is all about the joy of the day!
when I shaved my head a few years ago, my grandmother made it a point to tell me daily that I looked like a convict and cancer patient. I don't talk to her anymore.
The truth hurts! Very few people can pull off the shaved head and look attractive.
I see a lot of "grow your hair long" videos talk about massaging the scalp to increase blood flow for hair growth. Since massaging your scalp is easy, free and you can do it right now (and it actually feels nice) I do it, but I'm not sure I'm actually doing anything for my hair length so much as having a little "me" moment at the end of the day.