CLEANLINESS

SKIN CARE

COSMETICS

ORAL CARE & DENTISTRY

HAIR CARE

HAIRSTYLES

BODY HAIR

FEMININE HYGIENE

GENERAL HEALTHCARE

Hairstyles
HAIRSTYLES - BRAIDS - FALSE HAIRPIECES & WIGS
HAIRNETS - EYEBROWS & HAIRLINE

Hairstyles
Medieval movies have a great deal to answer for when it comes to the accurate portrayal of women's hair styling during the Middle Ages. Characters are usually shown with very long, flowing tresses and nothing or little more that a metal circlet around the forehead. Reality, however, was far from that. This page covers hair styling including braiding, hairnets and what to do about eyelashes and eyebrows, not to mention the hairline itself. To learn more about hats, crowns, circlets etc, please visit the HEADWARE page.

Women's hair has long been associated with sinfulness and the temptation of mankind and with the medieval life centring heavily around the church, it was the general opinion that the less it was displayed, the better. Any decent, God-fearing woman in England, France and Europe for the most part, (and they were all anxious to appear good Christian women regardless of their private beliefs), went to great pains to conceal her hair in public. Even the upper classes and royalty restrained their hair. The images shown above are dated to 1365-1380 and show Jeanne Burbonne who has a ribbon-encased hairstyle. It is interesting to note in this case the entire fold of hair is not encased, only the front section is tied before the remainder of the hair is brought up behind and then upwards again. The notable exception on this hair-covering trend is Italy, where women usually tied their braids criss-crossed over the top of the head.

Flowing tresses can be seen in some illuminations with some styles of costume, although it is more usual for only unmarried, young women to have hair unrestrained. Italian women abandoned the veil considerably earlier than her other counterparts and during the 14th and 15th centuries chose to adorn the hair with elaborate plaits, beads and wound ribbons.

Generally, during the bulk of the medieval period, a married woman would have adorned her head with veils, wimples, cloths, barbettes, hairnets, veils, hats, hoods or a combination of them to avoid her hair showing. This also gave her the opportunity to show off her taste in dress accessories and luxury fabrics for the wealthy. Broadly speaking, only a woman of very poor breeding or a prostitute left her hair out in public and even peasant women made an effort to follow the teachings of the church and appear modest and decent. Only in some exceptional circumstances, like the marriage of a royal couple, can the bride be seen depicted with her hair out. The Roman de la Rose mentions sadly the advice of Friend, which talks of how:

..women are so vain that they bring shame upon themselves by not considering themselves well rewarded by the beauty God has given them. Each one wears a crown of gold or silk flowers on her head, and thus proudly adorned, goes about town showing herself off... she is willing t put something on her head that is lower and baser than she.. thus she searches for beauty in things that God has made much baser in appearance, such as metals or flowers or other strange things.

Young and unmarried girls had the option to wear their hair down- long and flowing perhaps with a circlet or wreath of fresh flowers at special times. Adult and married women would rarely be seen in public with their hair out.

Braids
Plaited and braided hairstyles were extremely popular during the medieval period for women of all ages and all classes.

Shown here at left is a detail from a painting The Nativity dated around the 1400s. It shows a young girl with a popular medieval hair style for workers- two plaits brought from the nape of the neck and crossed over the top of her head and tied together.

Not only was this style easy to dress at home oneself without assistance, it looked pleasing to the eye, was considered modest and kept the hair tied up and clean when performing manual chores. Often these plaits were interwound with ribbon for decoration and also for securing purposes. Very often, these ribbon-encased plaits are mistaken for a padded roll of some kind with ribbon woven around it, which was not the case.

Later in the later 15th century, some padded rolls attached to heart shaped hennins did have decorative features, but they are entirely different.

The bust at right is dated between 1327 and 1341 is of Marie de France and shows one of the most popular hairstyles- that of the plaits in front of the ears. Her headband or fillet shows holes where jewels or semiprecious stones once were. This style was adopted by both the lower classes and the upper classes. The main difference in the styles here was in the richness of the fillet securing the plaits. A working class woman might have foregone the fillet altogether or have a simple white linen one to secure her veil. An upper class woman would certainly have taken the opportunity to embroider and work pearls and jewels into her headband.

This detail at left is taken from a brass memorial of Elizabeth de Northwood from 1335. She is modestly wimpled, as is expected of a married woman, but still shows a little of her hairstyle. It is important to note that although we can see some of her hair, it is dressed and not out or flowing in any way.

False Hairpieces & Wigs
In a time where modesty and virtue were embraced and desired, it seems unlikely that additional follicular adornments would be called for, but it appears that not only were wigs and false tresses in vogue but the makers of such items were regulated and had a guild of their own. Hair extensions have been found in archaeological digs dating from early times although only one or two examples date to the medieval period specifically. A plaited silk hairpiece attached to a silk fillet which was probably jewelled, was found in London and dates to second quarter of the 14th century.

None to surprisingly, the clergy tried to discourage the wearing of false hair by women by denouncing false hair as the sin of vanity. Gilles d'Orleans, a preacher from Paris in the 13th century reminded his parishioners that the wigs they wore were likely to be made from the shorn heads of those now suffering in hell or purgatory. False tresses were known to be made of flax, wool, cotton and silk. The Old Woman from the Roman de la Rose offers this advice for a woman whos hair is lacking:

And if she sees that her beautiful blond hair is falling out (a most mournful sight), or if it has to be cropped as a reslut of a serious illness and her beauty spoiled too soon, or if some angry roister should happen to tear it out so that there is no way in which she can regain her thick tresses, she should have the hair of some dead woman brought to her, or pads of light coloured silk, and stuff it all into false hairpieces. She should wear such horns above her ears that no stag or goat or unicorn could surpass them, not though their head were to busrt with the effort..

Hairnets
Hairnets were known and extensively used in medieval times as the principle way of restraining a woman's hair. The clergy urged women of good breeding to cover their hair lest they lure a man into temptation and as was sinful for the hair of a married woman to be seen, the hairnet was used in conjunction with many of the beautiful and strange medieval headpieces to do exactly that.

Hairnets were almost always worn under a veil of some kind during the medieval period. During the renaissance the hairnet known as the snood was worn alone. The snood tended to be less fine and often set with jewels.

Shown at right is a hairnet found at a London dig dated in the 1300s which looks like the type that is available today. Four examples of hairnets have been discovered in London excavations- one made of silk from the late 13th century and three knotted silk ones from the 14th century. These are all the finer kind, hand knotted and with fingerloop braid around the edges which were popularly worn before the heavier mesh cauls became sturdier and jewels were attached.

Eyebrows & hairlines
During a large portion of the medieval period, the beautiful woman emphasisd her high, round forehead. The detail shown above of Elizabeth de Northwood from 1335 and also shows the plucked high forehead along with the plaited hairstyle which was fashionable at the time. The painting at right Portrait of Margareta Van Eyck from 1433 by Van Eyck shows not only the high forehead and plucked eyebrows of a fashionable women, but the horns of hair which were also fashionable at that time.

If a woman was unfortunate to have been naturally cursed with a low hairline, the correct and fashionable look was artificially enhanced by the plucking of the hairline back up towards the crown of the head. This look was accentuated by plucking the eyebrows to a barely-there line.

Even though plucking the eyebrows and hairline at the top of the forehead was commonplace for many women, the church was extremely unhappy about this. In Confessionale, clergymen are encouraged to ask those who came to confession:

If she has plucked hair from her neck, or brows or beard for lavisciousness or to please men... This is a mortal sin unless she does so to remedy severe disfigurement or so as not to be looked down on by her husband.

Many books cite small tweezers made from copper alloy or silver as part of medieval toiletry sets. The tweezers at left are dated from the 15th century and feature brass tweezers, an earscoop and a nail pick, all hinged to fold away when not in use.

Copyright © Rosalie Gilbert
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