The Hair Historian

Tripped and fell into the V&As portrait miniature archives 🙂‍↔️

Portrait Miniature of an Unknown Woman, c. 1605-1625
Portrait Miniature of An Unknown Man, c. 1600
Portrait Miniature of An Unknown Woman in Masque Costume, 1609
Unknown Woman, said to be Frances Jennings, later Duchess of Tyrconnell, 1672-1675
Portrait Miniature of an Unknown Young Man, 1590-1593
Portrait Miniature of an Unknown Man, perhaps Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury, 1666-1670
Portrait Miniature of an Unknown Girl, ca. 1785-1790
Portrait Miniature of an Unknown Youth, ca. 1585-1590
An Unknown Woman, early 19th century

Braiding her Hair, 1888, Christian Krohg

Portrait of a Woman, 1786, Jacques-Edmé Dumont

If you want to win my heart, may I suggest a Victorian human hair postcard? If you thought hairwork was restricted to the spectacular crafts championed by the likes of Hair Anthropology | Zen Hansen, think again – here’s another use for it!

The postal service boomed in the Victorian era, particularly in cities like London where you could expect delivery multiple times per day. Why would you not take advantage of the penny post and send your mates a little hairy greeting? Same outlook as when we all got MSN, or phones, or Instagram DMs – just more physical and, potentially, a bit more weird. But we like the weird stuff over here.

My favourite things about these in no particular order: the styling choices. The bows. The collaging of the models. The faces!

Some of these are for sale, or were at the time of writing and I’ll include where:

1) Brunette with blue bow, on sale on Etsy by ‘VintageGatorShop’
2) Brunette with pink bow, on sale on eBay by ‘Une Librairie Antique’
3) Brunette with no bow, London Museum
4) Brunette with purple flower, on sale on ebay by ‘victor4me’
5) Brunette with red bow, London Museum

A Blusa Azul, 1925-8, Adriano de Sousa Lopes

Female Musicians via

New Kingdom, 18th dynasty, c. 1421-1372 B.C.

Tomb of Nakht (TT52). Sheikh Abd el-Qurna. Thebes

The Spy / The Refugee (B), 1917
The Refugee (A), 1918
The Artist's Model, Yvonne, 1917

Who is this woman, and is she a spy, a refugee, or a model? All of these paintings are by the Irish war artist, William Orpen and they all feature his Yvonne Aupicq, and her fantastic hair.

Behind the paintings lies a WWI scandal. Orpen initially titled the first portrait ‘The Spy’, spinning a wild, fabricated tale that the subject was a doomed German agent who faced a firing squad dressed in a fur coat and satin slippers. In reality, Yvonne was a French nurse and Orpen’s mistress.

The ruse earned the artist a reprimand from the War Office, who were particularly sensitive about female spies following the very real deaths of Mata Hari and Edith Cavell. Orpen feared a court martial over his lies, but his diary entry about the meeting with the War Office only notes: “I was in black disgrace.”

He painted Yvonne again as The Refugee, and – a bit more truthfully – The Artist’s Model. The original painting was later renamed, The Refugee (B).

In 1929, Yvonne married Orpen’s driver – Charles Grover-Williams - but the couple remained friends until his death. Charles worked for Bugatti and ushered his wife into the stylish world of Monaco racing. She later became a courier for the French Resistance during WWII, and was ultimately arrested and imprisoned. Finally, after the war, she got into breeding, and even judged at Crufts. She never discussed Orpen, and died in 1973.

(Sources: The Gloss, Imperial War Museum, New York Times)

Frances Witts in Profile, 1935, John Downton 🎀

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According to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, where this portrait is held, Downton was inspired in composition, if not hair accessories, by this portrait of a woman, held in Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan.

Once attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci, scholars now suggest it could be by Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis, or someone else entirely.

We also don’t know the subject, who has been identified as a whole array of glamorous women.

Music 🤝 hair 🤝 fashion
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If you’re looking for inspiration from the music industry, these books are a great place to start.
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From towering hair metal moments to backwoods bouffants, these books show how hair has helped define musical movements, communities and identities around the world.
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Have you got a favourite music book with brilliant hair? I’m always looking to add to the shelf!

Snazzy handbag or men’s hair accessory?

At first glance, the wig bag looks a bit silly – a silk sack hanging from the back of a man’s head, finished with ribbons and a large decorative bow. But in the 18th century, it was seriously fashionable.

Originally designed to protect clothing from pomade and powder used to dress wigs (and natural hair), wig bags gradually became decorative objects in their own right. By the late 1700s, ribbons, rosettes, and black silk bows were part and parcel of a fashionable masculine appearance.

Today, bows and ribbons are often coded as feminine, but here they’re presented as simply another must-have accessory to showcase wealth, status and personality.

Pic credits

Wig bag, c. 1830–40, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Wig bag, c. 1760-90, my visit to the Royal Collections Trust
Wig bag, c. 1770, Germanic National Museum
George Washington, 1795, Adolph Ulrich Wertmuller, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Perruquier, barbier, baigneur-étuviste, 1765,
Les gentilshommes du duc d’Orléans dans l’habit de Saint-Cloud, 18th century, Louis Carrogis Carmontelle
Suit, c.1780, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Hair bag, c. 1785-1800, George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Wig bag, c. 1770, Germanic National Museum
Wig bag, c. 1790-1810, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
A Seated Man Seen from Behind, c. 1700-ca. 1710, Luca Carlevarijs, Victoria and Albert Museum, London