The question: When did women start powdering their hair?
The answer: There are so many misconceptions about hairstyles in the 18th century, namely, that the aristocracy always wore giant wigs. In fact, it seems that in the early 18th century, the setting for Beloved Surrender (coming winter 2019), women's hairstyles were fairly simple and didn't usually involve powder or wigs. Turns out women didn't wear wigs until about 1770, and they were usually hair pieces that accentuated their own hair. Men's hair was much more elaborate during the earlier part of the century.
Now, men powdering their hair became a thing in the late 16th century with Henry IV of France. Due to unsightly greys, he started powdering his hair with brown powder. The rabble followed suit using blue, pink, and lavender powder. Eventually, white became the powder of choice, likely due to white wigs being the most expensive.
Louis XIII, Henry IV's son, wore wigs to hide early onset balding. And it didn't take long for the style to make it over to England.
In 1775, Queen Maria Theresa of Austria-Hungary wrote to her daughter Marie-Antoinette,
“Likewise I cannot help but touch upon a point that many of the papers repeat to me too often: it is the hairstyle that you wear. They say that from the roots it measures 36 pouces high and with all the feathers and ribbons that hold all of that up! You know that I have always been of the opinion that one should follow fashion moderately, but never carry it to excess. A pretty young queen full of charms has no need of all these follies. Quite the contrary. A simple hairstyle suits her better and is more appropriate for a queen. She must set the tone, and everyone will hurry to follow even your smallest errors…”
Marie-Antoinette responded,
“It is true that I am a bit occupied by my hairstyle, and as for the feathers, everyone wears them, and it would look extraordinarily out of place not to”
So, hopefully if you were like me, blissfully biased by what I've seen on TV and read in other books, you now understand a little bit more about hairstyles of the 18th century.
The answer: There are so many misconceptions about hairstyles in the 18th century, namely, that the aristocracy always wore giant wigs. In fact, it seems that in the early 18th century, the setting for Beloved Surrender (coming winter 2019), women's hairstyles were fairly simple and didn't usually involve powder or wigs. Turns out women didn't wear wigs until about 1770, and they were usually hair pieces that accentuated their own hair. Men's hair was much more elaborate during the earlier part of the century.
Now, men powdering their hair became a thing in the late 16th century with Henry IV of France. Due to unsightly greys, he started powdering his hair with brown powder. The rabble followed suit using blue, pink, and lavender powder. Eventually, white became the powder of choice, likely due to white wigs being the most expensive.
Louis XIII, Henry IV's son, wore wigs to hide early onset balding. And it didn't take long for the style to make it over to England.
In 1775, Queen Maria Theresa of Austria-Hungary wrote to her daughter Marie-Antoinette,
“Likewise I cannot help but touch upon a point that many of the papers repeat to me too often: it is the hairstyle that you wear. They say that from the roots it measures 36 pouces high and with all the feathers and ribbons that hold all of that up! You know that I have always been of the opinion that one should follow fashion moderately, but never carry it to excess. A pretty young queen full of charms has no need of all these follies. Quite the contrary. A simple hairstyle suits her better and is more appropriate for a queen. She must set the tone, and everyone will hurry to follow even your smallest errors…”
“It is true that I am a bit occupied by my hairstyle, and as for the feathers, everyone wears them, and it would look extraordinarily out of place not to”
So, hopefully if you were like me, blissfully biased by what I've seen on TV and read in other books, you now understand a little bit more about hairstyles of the 18th century.
