Victorian Hairstyling 1860-1890

Owen, P (1965). 'Fashions in Hair: The First Five Thousand Years'. London: Peter Owen Publications. p530-544.
Sherrow, V (2006). 'Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History'. London: Greenwood Publishing Group. p156-157.

During the later years of Victoria's reign hairstyling had become heavily influenced by the fashions coming in from France. Although classic elements such as the middle parting had remained popular it became far more fashionable for the hair to be styled into tightly curled fringes or pulled fully back away from the face.

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In the words of Owen by 1864 "Chignons" of false hair had become the most desirable fashion accessory for hair styling, these "Chignons" were essentially the first hair extensions and allowed the wearer to create far more elaborate hair styles than previously attainable. These hair pieces could be styled and curled prior to being placed into the wearers own hair, this allowed for more elaborate yet quicker hair dressing. Smaller false curls were also used to insert additional texture where it was required. By the end of the 1860's hairstyling had developed even further with a popular style being that of the 'Marcell Wave', this style was created by French hairdresser Marcell Gateau to achieve this style hot curling wands were used to wrap the hair around, this is a contrast to the previous creation of ringlets as the style created more of a wave of hair as opposed to a direct curling ringlet. As the years progressed the use of the ringlet directly framing the face had become significantly less popular and instead the curls were focused more towards the back of the head with soft waves nearer the face. By 1870 the style had progressed even further with the introduction of short, tightly ringleted fringes that sat high above the natural fall of the brow bone. These fringes however were never cut into the hair but rather styled so to give the illusion of short length as it was considered in proper for a lady to cut her hair.
Hair was the most treasured of all beauty aspects during the Victorian period and therefore a woman was often judged upon the styling and upkeep of her hair. Due to this however there became an immense amount of pressure to keep hair pristine. As a result of the constant requirement for curl, straight hair was considered by many to be highly unattractive and strange, hair had become heavily damaged often being so dry that it would break away. In an attempt to prevent this the use of hair oil was introduced. Often these oils were made from vegetables or even a formula called 'bear grease'.
Another significant development between the period of 1860 onwards was that of hair colouring, Sherrow writes that the discovery of PPD (Paraphenylenediamine) that was used to dye materials and textiles and research into the development of coal based dyes lead inevitably to the development of hair colorants. The first of these was developed in France during the early 1900's by a chemist by the name of Eugene Schueller who developed and sold the hair colourant under the name "Aureole'. By 1910 the product had become successful and beta to become distributed under the new company the 'French Harmless Hair Company', later to become L'Oreal. Unfortunately due to the coal substance of this hair dye the only pigment available was that of a dark brown or black, therefore often the only method of covering grey was available to women of natural darker hair tones or those willing to completely alter their hair pigment. It was not until late 1917 that the concept of bleaching hair blonde became a fashionable concept marking the second step into hair maintenance.