Woman During The 1920’s
1920s Hairstyles History
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ROARING 20S
1920s Hairstyles History
Make no mistakes. In the 1920s, a woman deciding to cut her hair was serious business. Long hair was considered feminine, short hair was not.
In the 1920s, after centuries of wearing constricting corsets to achieve an hourglass figure, women started to wear clothes that produced a boyish silhouette. The flappers who wore these dresses were telling the world that they were sick of wearing constricting clothing, and they wanted to be free.
LONG HAIR THAT LOOKS SHORTS
In the late teens and early 20s long curly hair was worn by Silent Movie stars and bathing beauties on the beach. Actress Lillian Gish, Mary Crawford, and Maude Feely each had a turn sporting very long ringlet curls. Sometimes they were gathered up into a loose all over pile or curls pinned to the head and other times they were worn half up half down with a headscarf or all down but swept away from the doe-eyes. Long hair was quick to leave fashion in 1920 but the all over curls remained.
Initially the fad for short hair was not to cut but to restyle long tresses into short bobs. Long hair was neatly arranged around the base of the neck or pulled into a bun or chignon at the back with the sides full of curl or neat waves.
Frizzy curls and waves on the side of the face were the preference in the early ’20s, followed by smoother, sculpted waves in the mid-twenties. Hair covered ears sometimes into flat buns on either side to look like she was wearing earphones, called cootie garages.
In the evenings, long hair was arranged up high and slightly protruded looking a lot like the styles of Greek goddesses. If a woman didn’t have enough hair of her own hair pieces were added. Using wads of a woman’s own hair pulled from her own brush, was another way to add volume and padding to her hair arrangements.
When women started to bob their hair they couldn’t go to the neighborhood salon– they didn’t exist yet! Bobbing was done at home in the hands of a trustworthy friend or an obliging men’s barber. What a shock it must have been for men’s sacred place to be invaded by a woman who wanted to look like men. Barbers had to quickly learn to cut women’s hair following all the latest styles the movies were showing. By the end of the twenties women’s only salon industry exploded. Keeping short hair neat and curly was too much for most women to do at home regular trips to the salon were necessary.
Once a woman cut her hair, she was at the mercy of her community’s criticism. The reactions to short hair were mixed from both women and men. Some do-it-yourselfers tried to cut their own hair, which only made it look ridiculous. Many women kept their heads covered in scarfs, kitchen bonnets and hats until hair grew out.
Others who opted for professional cuts may have had a better haircut but not necessarily a better reaction. The shock of less hair and the disapproving comments from older family members were enough to make many women feel like a “hussy”. While some husbands and fathers liked the short looks, most did not.
Bob cuts came in different styles with funny names, such as Orchid bob, Coconut bob, Egyptian bob, Charleston cut, or the Shingle, but there were only two main styles. Short and curly or short and straight. Bopbs hovered around the earlobe length with a center or deep off-center part.
The straight bob was the perfect option for women who struggled to curl their hair. Straight hair bangs were either cut straight across covering the eyebrows or heart-shaped with the middle shorter than the sides. The sides of the bang curled into points resting on the cheekbones.
Billie Dove took the pointed ends to shorter heights with her classic “split curls” made extra-pointy with green gel (like petroleum jelly). Spit curls were also called kiss curls. The number of kiss curls a young woman wore was sometimes thought to be the same number of men she had been kissed by.
They curled up on her forehead and cheeks giving that very baby doe-eyed look she was famous for. Josephine Baker was another iconic black woman who sported the spit curls during here Vaudville shows and personal life. Many women copied the spit curls or softer whispy curls when wearing a tight cloche hat. The curls created light bangs or framed the face around the cheeks and neck.
Josephine Baker with a spit curl on the cheek
MARCEL WAVING
By the late ’20s, most women were turning away from fluffy curly hairand instead took to the art of Marcel waving. Not a new invention, Marcel waving required finger wave sculpting wet hair or a Marcel iron.
Marcel irons made the job easier, although more dangerous if the iron was overheated on the stove. Electric models came into play in the mid-1920s, making it much safer and easier to wave hair at home.
Waves required more daily care and attention to a woman’s hair. The waved look was so popular that it lasted all of the 1930s and into the 1940s as well. Sculpted waves, soft at first and angular patterns later, took on the geometric shapes common in Art Deco art.
AFRICAN AMERICAN HAIR
It is interesting to note that while white women were going to a lot of trouble to curl their hair, many African American women were going to the same trouble to straighten their hair. Both home hairstyling and commercial salons offered women bi-monthly servicing to “grease and press” hair int the latest modern hairstyles. The process involved heating up a “Hot comb” with a wooden handle to comb the hair straight. Hot iron curlers were then applied to wave the hair, create curls or add a few spit curls.
The Eton crop and shingle was especially popular with women who had naturally short hair. Working with whatever texture she had, women of color, mimicking the same styles that white women sported. The same can be said for Asian and other minority hairstyles.
Untitled Slide
ASIAN HAIR – JAPANESE AND CHINESE
Anna May Wong straight hair pulled back in a bun with bangs
LATINA HAIR
Fluffy curls with deep side part
