Good Breeding in Hair Fashions

The woman who is about to make a radical change in the style of dressing her hair should bear in mind that her coiffure betrays good sense, good taste and good breeding – or the reverse. Before giving final instructions to the hair dresser, or her maid, she should diligently consider her years, the shape of her face and the prevailing modes in coiffures, in exactly the order named. – From left to right: Grand-Mother’s Comb, Rose Garniture of Ribbons, Choux of White Tulle, Langtry Knot and Ribbon Garniture, Ribbon Choux and Tea Rose Buds

Hair Dressing Index… Good Sense, Good Taste and Good Breeding

IN NO way does the average American woman show more clearly that she is an extremist than in the blind manner in which she follows the decrees of Madame La Mode.

Madame La Mode lays down general rules. The feminine world applies them individually. Madame La Mode says that the pompadour is the thing, and straightway her idolatrous followers of twenty or twenty-five years of age, whom social duties have aged a bit, achieve a pompadour and look like grande dames, when they should still possess many of the gentle characteristics of the young girl.

Now that Madame La Mode has announced her preference for hair dressed low on the neck, with “sweetly girlish” coiffure garnitures, the woman of fifty, who should look the grande dame, appears in public with the girlish knot at the nape of her neck, and ribbon violets trailing amid locks where touches of gray begin to show.

The woman who is about to make a radical change in the style of dressing her hair should bear in mind that her coiffure betrays good sense, good taste and good breeding – or the reverse. Before giving final instructions to the hair dresser, or her maid, she should diligently consider her years, the shape of her face and the prevailing modes in coiffures, in exactly the order named.

No young girl should make the contour of her face harder by dressing her hair severely, and no middle-aged woman should imagine that girlish hair dressing will remove the finger-marks of time. Both should study the happy medium, not the extremes. 

The extreme pompadour is doomed, for which let us be properly grateful; but this is no sign that the soft, loosely arranged pompadour, so becoming to the long, oval face, should be eschewed by the woman in the flush of maturity. The latest style dictates that the pompadour extends full over the ears, giving the face a rounder look. 

The hair is no longer brushed slick and tight, but is softly waved in three large waves, which encircle the head. This coiffure, known in the sixties as Le Grande Dame, is extremely becoming to the elderly woman with silvery or white hair. The waves may be kept in place by side and back combs of tortoise or encircle the head.

The Langtry knot is once more enjoying a vogue. This involves the parting of the hair above the forehead, back, to the crown, of the head, and softly, waving it on either side. The hair is then combed straight back, twisted firmly and coiled into three knots. The center knot comes directly on the nape of the neck, and the lower one should not extend more than half an inch below the bottom of the collar.

For horseback riding, and even for walking, some women, who aim to copy their smart English sisters, use the net for keeping the knot in place, but the average American woman does not consider the hair net a chic accessory. 

For evening wear, young girls adopt a compromise. The hair in the front is made into a soft, waved pompadour, and in the back it is knotted à la Langtry. This involves much care in smoothing the hair between pompadour and knot, and in the arrangement of the garnitures and ornaments. 

Garlands, wreaths of flowers made from satin and liberty silk, daintiest of artificial blooms, maiden-hair ferns, and knots of soft ribhon or tulle are appropriate for young girls. Even in the selection of flowers for dressing the hair a woman considers her age. A young girl should have forget-me- nots, tiny rose buds, almond blossoms.

A middle-aged woman will find the exquisite tints of the orchid particularly suited to her coiffure. The best-dressed, women of middle age avoid hair ornaments, such rhinestone, pearl or turquoise stud: combs and clasps on the street simplest of tortoise side and back combs are preferred. 

For evening or house wear, a beautiful style of dressing the hair necessitates the use of the enormous tortoise-shell combs, which have been packed in attics since grandmother’s days. The pompadour is parted in the center, to show the gleaming tortoise shell above it and no flowers should worn with this style of comb. The woman of thirty-five or forty will find the gauzy floral arrangement youthful in their effects, yet giving dignity to her carriage. – San Diego Union and Daily Bee, 1904

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