Interesting topic. Check out the photos of Bernhardt available to see first hand what variations of crimping might have meant in the 19th century. Some of the pics are theatrical and some are contemporary views of how the style was interpreted and worn on the street or the drawing room. SB as Fedora presents a hat style that was very feminine and to my mind does not approach the fedora that we can see in the early 20th C and on.Perhaps your use of fedoras would better describe net boudoir nets that would partly protect the hair while sleeping. Crimped hair was used to describe one feature (bangs) that was often referred to as "the Lunatic fringe". After about the age of 15, a big event was getting to put one's hair Up (mentioned in a James Barrie play) and thereafter, long unkempt hair, crimped or no, was suitable only in the boudoir.Even the style called "the Waterfall" had more formal arrangement and was often augmented with extensions (modern equivalent). (Prom and wedding 'do's' of the 1950s-80s) . Rag curls, or paper curls were also made with skinny leather tubes in casing wire. The hair was wrapped and kept firm by looping. (I have a handful of these in my hair-care stash)Wet-to-dry method. Kathleen Mitchell . ________________________________________ From: h-costume-boun...@indra.com <h-costume-boun...@indra.com> on behalf of Megan McHugh <me...@benchite.com> Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 6:03 AM To: Costume Historical Costume Subject: Re: [h-cost] 1880s hair-styling terms: crimps and "fedoras"
No historical knowledge here of hairstyles, but we used to "crimp" our hair without heat by braiding it into many small braids while wet, and taking down the braids when dry. Not sure if it was done historically, but it was easy to do, and I was a bit surprised to not see this method of crimping mentioned in the various videos people have posted. Is crimping with braiding a modern invention? Curious. -Megan On Jul 9, 2014, at 10:00 PM, Elena House <exst...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm writing a novella set in 1887 with three teenage girls as the main > characters, and as a result I've been doing research into the slang & pop > culture and so forth of the time period in New England. The 1880s are Not > My Era, and I've run across a term-and-a-half that confuse me. > > Here's the passage, from "The Familiar Letters of Peppermint Perkins", with > the terms and phrases ***starred***. > > -------------- > I did begin that very night by not ***doing up any crimps.*** I was going > to wear my hair like Clara's. She never wears any crimps. Runover girls > never do, though they have never advanced any sufficiently good reason to > me for not crimping it, for they all look like old fuds with it so, and > they spend just as much and more time brushing and smoothing it ***at night > than I do on my "Fedoras."*** > > Well, I was going to say I didn't do up any; but about three o'clock I woke > up and remembered that I had promised to go skating with Charlie Brood out > to Jamaica the next morning, and I knew any amount of self-improvement > wouldn't make up for the absence of crimps in his eyes, so I just snaked > out of bed and ***up with two "Fedoras;"*** but no sooner had I got them up > than my conscience began to reproach me for my weakness, and after I got > back into bed I determined that even Charlie Brood's criticisms shouldn't > influence me, and I began to take them down; but you see I was so sleepy, > getting up so suddenly (it all was like a dream), that I only got one down > before I dropped to sleep, and the next morning you ought to have seen what > a fright I looked. You know how high my forehead is, and shiny. Well, > there I was with all that shining expanse and ***one little bob on the left > temple***, and I overslept on account of getting up so, and was late, and > before I could do anything Charlie Brood was after me. > -------------- > > The crimps part I only find partially confusing; I'm familiar with crimping > as something one does to curl one's hair with hot irons, but not as an > overnight treatment. Is this a reference to putting one's hair in rags? > Leaving it in braids overnight for braid curls? Something with hairpins? > Or...? > > The one that really confuses me, though, is the "Fedoras." What on earth > are these? The context makes it seem pretty clear that this is either > another method of creating curls overnight or another name for overnight > crimps, but what is the actual method, and what does the result look like? > Or, does the name perhaps refer to the location of the resulting curls, > rather than the method? > > Any ideas? > > -E House > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
