5 of the Most Unique Hairstyles of History
- Written by News Co
The next time that you gaze at the young man sitting next to you with a design etched into his hair or a young lady with multi-colored streaks that span the colors of the rainbow, remember that, throughout history, people have styled their hair with the goal of defining themselves and of garnering attention of the people around them.
Regardless of whether you’re thinking of styling your hair to fit in at the PlayCroco online casino, to make a statement or simply to satisfy your curiosity about some of our ancestors’ hair trends, you’ll be fascinated to read about some of the most unique hairstyles of history.
Marie Antoinette Pouf
The Marie Antoinette pouf was popularized by the French queen herself but the voluminous hairdo, created in the shape of a beehive, survived, in various forms, for centuries. The style was created by Parisian hairdresser Léonard who was so well-known in his day that he could only afford to leave his salon once a week to do the queen’s hair (on other days the role of royal hairdresser was filled by one of Leonard’s assistants).
Léonard created the pouf which was first introduced at the coronation of Louis XVI in 1774. The style, which involved piling Marie’s hair on her head in a tower that could make her almost a foot taller, involved adding flowers, precious jewels, ribbons and even figurines and miniatures to the hair.
Anyone who is thinking of imitating The Pouf might want to remember that the stress of keeping her hair styled in such a fashion was very likely the reason that Marie Antoinette’s hair started to thin while she was still young.
Flower Crown
Flower crowns, headbands of flowers, are today best known as the style that identified flower children of the ‘60s. While it’s not an “unusual” style, and is, in fact, popular today among children and young women who want to decorate their flowing tresses for special events, its history is one that few people know.
The first flower crowns were displayed on the heads of women in ancient Greece who wore them as a way to honor their gods. During that time the laurel leaf wreath also became fashionable. Laurel crowns were traditionally awarded to army victors to signify respect and honor their exploits in battle.
Orange blossom flower crowns were popular in China where they were often worn as part of a wedding to symbolize fertility. Queen Victoria liked the Chinese custom so much that she wore an orange blossom wreath in her 1840 wedding to Prince Albert.
The Bedford Crop
The Bedford Crop started with France’s Louis XIII who lived in the 17th century. Louis started to go bald while still young and to hide the baldness he started to wear a wig. His couriers followed suit and the fashion soon spread to other countries.
In England, the most desired wigs were white but those wigs were very expensive so people started to put white powder on their wigs and even their natural hair so that they would appear white. By the late 1700s the British government imposed a tax on white hair powder. Many people rejected the tax and opted to forgo the white wigs. As their natural hair started to grow out the men started to keep their hair cropped short, using wax to create a side part.
That was the Bedford Crop. As men’s hair started to grow in, many found that they preferred the shorter haircuts and that’s the era when shorter hair for men became standard.
The Ducktail
The ducktail was the ‘50s “bad boy look” – a slicked hair style in which a pomade of greased hair extends over the man’s forehead and the sides are combed back. The hair is parted centrally down the back of the head. Ducktail hair style was also called duck's ass and duck's arse or simply “DA.”
The duck's tail came to represent disaffected young males of the 1950s. The name was derived from the central parting that ran from the crown to the nape at the back of the head and, to many looked like the rear end of a duck.
The hair on the top front of the head was combed up and then curled down into an 'elephant's trunk' while the sides were styled to resemble a duck’s folded wings. Because of the hair balm used to keep everything in place, men wearing this type of hair style came to be known as “greasers.”
Society of the era labeled men who wore such a duck tail hairstyle as nonconformests. Elvis Presley wore a ducktail and that helped to make it “mainstream”, at least among the ‘50s wild youth.
Receded Forehead Look of the Middle Ages
With hairstyles, sometimes, less is more. That’s the case with the receded forehead look of the Middle Ages when a high, round forehead meant beauty throughout Europe.
To achieve the look (which appears in many of the art masterpieces of the era), women would pluck hair from around their faces in order to make their faces appear as longer and more oval.
Women would also pluck their eyebrows but not to shape them – rather to remove them entirely so that their face would seem to be pure and hairless.