Hairdressing is the art of cutting, setting, arranging, and otherwise caring for the hair. Women and men style their hair to improve their appearance and for comfort. A different hairstyle can alter a person’s appearance more than almost any other physical change. Hairdressing can accent good features and hide bad ones, or draw attention away from undesirable characteristics. It provides attractive, easy-to-manage hairstyles that meet the needs and desires of the people who wear them.
Hair is the most easily changed physical feature of the human body. Since prehistoric times, people have cut, braided, and dyed their hair and changed it in other ways as well. Professional hairdressers first became common during the 1700’s. Today, most women and men depend on hairdressers for such services as cutting, coloring, straightening, and permanent waving. Hairdressers are also known as beauticians, cosmetologists, and hairstylists. Some hairdressers who work mainly with men’s hair are called barbers.
Hairdressing through the ages
People painted and tattooed their bodies during prehistoric times, and they probably also arranged their hair in various ways. Archaeologists have discovered hairpins and hair ornaments from the Neolithic (New Stone Age), which began about 8000 B.C.
Ancient times.
In ancient Egypt, both men and women shaved their heads for cleanliness and relief from the heat. However, they frequently wore long wigs made of braids or spiral curls stitched to a woven foundation. These wig styles lasted for centuries.
In ancient Greece and Rome, most people wore a narrow band called a fillet around their heads to hold their hair in place. Fashionable men frizzed their hair and powdered it with gold dust. Women braided, curled, or tied their hair into fancy styles. Many women bleached their hair blond.
Two early Germanic peoples, the Angles and the Saxons, dyed their hair blue, green, or orange. The ancient Gauls, who lived mainly in France, colored theirs red.
The Middle Ages
lasted from about the 400’s and until about the 1400’s. Hairstyles changed little during this period. Most men wore medium-length hair that reached no lower than their shoulders. Priests and monks had a shaved patch called a tonsure on the crown of the head. Girls and unmarried women wore their hair loose. Married women covered theirs with a veil or a hoodlike covering. Sometimes they plucked or shaved the hair at the hairline to make the forehead seem higher.
The Renaissance.
Women wore many hairstyles during the Renaissance, which began in Italy about 1300 and spread throughout Europe during the 1400’s and 1500’s. Some had long braids that fell to their knees. Others drew their hair back into a large roll called a chignon at the back of the head. A hairstyle called Venus’s hair featured thick strands, stiffened with gold lacquer, that seemed to flow from the head. Blond hair was extremely fashionable, and women spent long hours in the sun to bleach their hair.
Most men wore short or shoulder-length hair, and many had bangs covering the forehead. King Henry VIII of England ordered Englishmen to wear short hair in imitation of French noblemen.
The 1600’s.
Most men of the 1600’s had long, flowing curls. Many wore a side curl called a lovelock, which was longer than the other curls and tied with a ribbon. During the Civil War in England (1642-1649), the chief opponents of King Charles I were the Puritans. They were called Roundheads because they had their hair cut close to their heads. Their short haircuts distinguished them from the king’s supporters, a group called the Cavaliers, who had long hair. King Louis XIII of France started a fashion for men’s wigs after he lost his own hair. Many men wore huge, curled wigs called periwigs.
During much of this period, women wore their hair piled high on their heads. However, curls that fell to the shoulders were fashionable in the mid-1600’s.
The 1700’s.
Fancy hairstyles became popular with both women and men during the 1700’s. Women’s hairdos were extremely high and had to be supported by small cushions and wire frames. Many styles measured more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) high and had floral, operatic, or poetic themes. Women covered their hair with white or pastel powder and decorated their hairdos with feathers, jewels, tassels, or other ornaments. Sometimes they did not wash or comb their hair for several weeks because the styles were so complicated. Professional hairdressers became common to help create and care for such hairdos.
Men covered their hair with powdered wigs. The most popular wig styles were smaller than those of the 1600’s. A style called a tie wig was pulled back and tied with a short ribbon. The ends of a bag wig were covered with a silk bag.
The 1800’s
brought simpler hairstyles. Fashionable styles for women included braids, topknots, and heavy coils of hair over each ear or at the nape of the neck. Long, smooth curls shaped like sausages were stylish during the 1840’s. In the 1870’s, a French hairdresser named Marcel Grateau invented the marcel wave, a series of deep, soft waves made with heated tongs. Another French hairdresser, Alexandre F. Godefroy, invented a hairdryer about 1890. Godefroy’s clients wore a bonnetlike covering that was attached to the chimney pipe of a gas stove. Beginning in the 1890’s, fashionable women wore their hair up in a soft style called the Gibson girl look. This style was made popular by the American artist Charles Dana Gibson.
Men wore their hair short during the 1800’s and dressed it with hair oil, particularly Macassar oil. This type of oil became so popular that protective coverings called antimacassars were made for chairs and sofas.
The 1900’s.
Hairdressers of the 1900’s developed new processes for curling the hair. Charles L. Nessler, a German-born hairdresser, invented the permanent wave about 1905. Nessler first applied a borax paste and then wound the hair on electrically heated curlers. The permanent-wave treatment took up to 12 hours and cost hundreds of dollars.
During the 1920’s, many women cut their hair into a chin-length style called the bob and had it permanent-waved. The cold wave, a permanent wave that did not require heat, was developed in the 1930’s. A cold wave took about two hours and cost only a few dollars.
During the 1940’s, many women wore the sheepdog, or Veronica Lake, style. This hairstyle was made popular by Veronica Lake, a motion-picture star who had long hair that covered one eye. In the 1950’s, large numbers of women began to color their hair or frost their hair—that is, bleach a few strands. The puffy appearance of bouffant hairdos was stylish in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. To give their hair the necessary fullness, women combed it from the ends toward the scalp in a process called backcombing or teasing.
Men wore their hair short throughout the early and mid-1900’s. During the 1920’s, many young men wore patent leather hair, which they slicked down with oil in the manner of the movie star Rudolph Valentino. During the 1950’s, some men wore a crew cut, in which the hair was cut extremely short and combed upward to resemble a brush. Other men of the same period wore a ducktail. This style left the hair long on the sides and swept it back, so that it looked somewhat like a duck’s tail. During the 1960’s, young men copied the haircuts of the Beatles, a British rock music group, who wore long bangs that covered the forehead.
A number of unisex styles, which were fashionable for both sexes, appeared during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Many people wore their hair long, either straight or curly; or in a bushy style called the Afro. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, shorter hairstyles became more popular. By the 2000’s, women wore their hair in many lengths and styles, while longer hair had again become a trend for men.
For African Americans, the natural Afro style was fashionable in the 1960’s and 1970’s. In the 1980’s, cornrows—hair braided close to the scalp, often in elaborate patterns—became popular. By the 2000’s, a variety of African American hairstyles were seen—including straightened hair, cornrows, and Afros. Dreadlocks, twisted ropes of hair, had been worn by some African Americans since the 1970’s. This style was adopted by other groups in the 2000’s. The dreadlocks were sometimes formed out of long strands of artificial hair known as extensions.
Caring for the hair
Clean, healthy hair results from regular brushing and shampooing, and a well-balanced diet. Brushing removes dirt and tangles and spreads the natural scalp oils through the hair. Dry hair should be washed about once a week. Oily hair may need a daily washing.
Most people handle the daily care of their hair at home. They visit a hairdresser only for haircuts, coloring, straightening, or permanent-waving. Many styles need no setting and can be blown dry with a hand drier or allowed to dry naturally.
Careers in hairdressing
A student who wishes to become a hairdresser may attend a professional hairdressing school or serve an apprenticeship under an established hairdresser. Most European hairdressers serve an apprenticeship. In the United States, most students take a 6- or 12-month course at a state-licensed cosmetology school. They learn to shampoo, cut, color, style, and straighten and permanent-wave hair. They also learn to give manicures, scalp and facial treatments, and advice on makeup. Many students also take courses in the treatment of disorders of the hair and scalp.
All the states require hairdressers to have a license. State boards of cosmetology establish licensing requirements, which vary from state to state.
