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Long or short? Straight or curly? Dye it or bleach it? Fake or natural? Since ancient times, people have struggled with these hairsplitting issues. 400s to 1400s Pop Quiz! Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, the daughters of the sea god Phorcys in Greek mythology. She was beautiful, and so was her hair. But she boasted about it to Athena, who became jealous and turned her hair into writhing snakes and made her face hideous. Medusa had the power of turning all who looked at her into stone. Early 1500s European Look England's King Henry VIII orders English men to wear short hair in imitation of French noblemen. While the rest of European women wear head coverings, Italian women go outside bare-headed. So it is no surprise that the Renaissance Period started in Italy during the early 1300s, overlapping the end of the Middle Ages elsewhere. Venetians start powdering the hair. Some women try the chignon, fashioned like a large roll at the back of the head. Others wear their hair in a braid down to the knees. The Venus style features thick strands stiffened with gold lacquer. Bangs are fashionable for men. Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa. Looking naturally beautiful, the woman wears her hair loose and parted in the center. 1550s Some decorate their hair with expensive ornaments. This becomes an invitation for crime. Wig-snatching becomes a trend; some go so far as to cut a hole in the backs of carriages to grab wigs from women seated inside. Early 1600s France's King Louis XIII goes bald in his early 20s. He wears a big white hairpiece. The French bourgeoisie help make wigs the rage. Some men wear a side curl call a lovelock; it is longer than other curls and it is tied with a ribbon. Pop Quiz! It's a minor miracle that people lived to tell how they bleached or dyed their hair. Blonding was achieved by soaking hair in alkaline pastes and sitting in the sun. Lead derivatives also seemed to do the trick. These were among the noxious ingredients for bleach job: lye or lime, ceruse (a lead derivative), warm water, saffron or turmeric. The concoction was applied to the hair overnight, then chipped off the next day. Some people blackened their hair by soaking it in a mix of elderberries and wine. A vegetable dye with radish extract helped turn the certain hair colors into auburn. Late 1600s French wigmakers introduce the periwig -- a huge mop of curls that becomes customary headdress for men. It's a fashion hit, regardless of aesthetics and size or shape of the head. Wigs are uncomfortable and hot, so heads are shaved. Early 1700s Late 1700s Eventually, hairstyles grow in height with the help of wire frames and cushions. Flowers, ribbons, pins, jewels and feathers help steady the coiffure -- sometimes as high as 2 feet. Doorways are enlarged to accommodate really big hair. After all this trouble, women hesitate to wash their hair for weeks. Hairdressers go to the homes of the rich and famous to do their hair as well as gossip. Some stylists refer to themselves by their first names only. In 1776, an English noblewoman dies of burns after her tall headdress goes up in flames from brushing the fire-lit wall sconces. In 1789, discontent sweeps through France, leading to the French Revolution. Big hair and other luxuries subside. Pop Quiz! Fancy hairdos required lots of time, so people definitely wanted to preserve them with pins, ribbons, laces and other ornaments. To help "fix" the 'do, they needed something gooey. Bear's grease and lard were particularly helpful in preserving a masterpiece. Here are ingredients for one hairdresser's pomade: Beef marrow, hazelnut oil, essence of lemon. It must be said that in those days, people did not bath frequently; some believed it was unhealthy. Imagine the smell of hair mixed with animal fat after a few days in a hot, summer sun. Fragrances, powder and flowers helped temper the odor problem. 1800s In 1890, French hairdresser Alexandre F. Godefroy invents a hair dryer. His clients wear a bonnet that is attached to the chimney pipe of a gas stove. Men dress their hair with a brand of oil called Macassar oil. It is so pervasive that protective coverings, called antimacassars, are made for chairs and sofas. In 1876, Sioux Indian Sitting Bull, wearing pigtails, leads a sun dance. He tells Indians they should learn how to fight to kill. This leads to the annihilation of Lieutenant Col. George Custer and his soldiers at the Battle of Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876. 1901 Ella Adelia Fletcher publishes a hair care guide, recommending that hair be washed once every two weeks. For shampoo, she suggests a well-beaten egg with an ounce of water rubbed thoroughly into the scalp. A good conditioner is a mixture of petroleum jelly, castor oil, Gallic acid and oil of lavender. 1906 Pop Quiz! People had been skilled in curling hair since 1500 B.C. Egyptian slaves helped nobles set their hair by using a fire-heated bar. Others tried twisting hair around metal rods and coating the roll with beeswax. In Egypt and other parts of Africa, people wound their hair on sticks and caked them with mud, hemp or clay. After drying in the sun, they would break apart the pieces, leaving hair resembling dreadlocks. 1920s "Patent-leather hair" becomes popular for men. They slick it down with oil the way the movie star Rudolph Valentino does. Parisians fall in love with Josephine Baker's hair. A French hair product company makes her its model. Silent film star Louise Brooks "liberates" women in America and Europe and embodies the Jazz Age by sporting a shiny, black bob. Men are shocked by this act of defiance. The Catholic Church is not amused -- it objects to the bob. A Chicago department store refuses to hire women wearing the bob. "Bobbed hair leads to divorce," cried newspaper headlines. The geisha tradition, which began in the early 1700s in Kyoto, Japan, is in its golden days. To look absolutely beautiful, the "perfect hostess" must undergo an ordeal to get her hair oiled, waxed and shaped into an elaborate, knotted hairstyle. To preserve the hairdo for a week, she must learn to sleep with hard cradles underneath the neck so her hair remains suspended in the air. 1930 1940 1950s Crew cuts and ducktails are popular with men. Bouffant hairdos are considered stylish in the late 1950s and early 1960s. To get good height, women teased their hair, or backcombed it toward the scalp into a knotted mess. 1963 1964 A British band known as the Beatles starts a whirlwind U.S. tour sporting cool haircuts. Young men are quick to copy their long bangs, and conservatives are quick to denounce the radical style. Late 1960s Bob Marley not only brings reggae music from Jamaica to America but also Rastafarian dreadlocks. 1970s 1980s 1990s In Japan, young people find it's cool to perm the hair to emulate African-Americans. Others go platinum. Serena Williams wins the 1999 U.S. Open in New York wearing white beads in her hair. Celebrities including Chicago Bulls' guard Michael Jordan and professional-wrestler-turned-Minnesota-governor Jesse Ventura make baldness fashionable. Future of Hair
Hair color will be made from a complex brew of natural ingredients -- ranging from concentrated vegetable dyes to lava rock -- that are good for you and the environment. The only remaining problem: getting beet juice stains out of white linen. Silicone Heads: There will be less reliance on blow-drying, with more emphasis on allowing the hair to behave naturally, using an arsenal of advanced silicone-based grooming products that will redefine and mold the hair. Hair Topiaries: Forget those baby butterfly barrettes and mall-rat banana clips. For big nights out, a variety of clamp-on hair "opiaries" will be available. Imagine a $1,950 free-form "waterfall" topiary from Tiffany & Co., or a $45.99 Mickey Mouse "ears" topiary, which, for a short time, will replace the "devil horns" topiary with the punk Goth crowd. Computer Imaging: Thanks to cyberland, clients will be able to consult a computer screen to see what they would look like before they take the fateful plunge. Salon and client each will keep a CD-ROM of the client's hair history, recording dates, procedures performed and formulas, as well as digital photos of each look. Should a client visit another salon on a trip, she could take along her disc with her computerized records. Precision Cuts, Premium Price: Fifty years from now, you'll be able to ask for a trim of 6.5 centimeters and get it to the micrometer, the result of a micro-chip-equipped comb that will accurately measure the amount of hair being pulled through it. Highly specialized laser scissors will minimize human error. But these futuristic tools come at a price -- regular alloy, top-of-the-line scissors today can run $1,000 -- that will be reflected on the client's bill. Figure a minimum of $500 (the Supercuts price) for a cut, color and blow-dry. That's not including the mandatory 25 percent tip that will be added to your bill. If you forget your wallet, not to worry -- salons will have long instituted automatic withdrawal from your bank account. Related Links Top 10 Hairdos of History Art of Barbering History of Dreadlocks Social Dimensions of Baldness Virtual Salon Hair, There, Everywhere Sources Credits Copyright
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