Victorian Hair Styles

The Victorian period began when Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837 and finished with her death in 1901. During this time period the hairstyles worn by the Victorians changed. 

Starting with 1825-1835, The chignon was still worn and made with false hair pieces and adorned with hair decorations in the evening but in the day and for outings, hats were very important and decorated extravagantly. The hair underneath these hats would have a central parting with ringlets and roll curls, but arranged in a symmetrical way. These styles would have plaits looped around to meet the chignons and decorated with leaves, flowers and bows or ribbons. 

Next in 1835 - 1845 braids were very popular as decoration. From 1836 onwards curls or ringlets from the temples were brought back to form a chignon on the back of the head. Most of the styles were sleek and flat on top and then the body and volume was near the ears and covered in flowers or jewels. 

In 1845-1855 the top of the hair remained sleek, the similarities mainly coming from the ringlets that fell at the side of the face in front and over the ears. A lot of Victorians would plait instead of creating ringlets and tuck these plaits into the bun or arrangement at the back of the head. In this decade they wore bonnets but with hair poking out and arranged in a pretty and stylish way. 

In 1855-1865 the styles changed again during this decade, hair was still parted in the centre and also kept sleek. The back of the head is where the hairstyles were changing. They created plaited buns on top of the head, hair would be pulled right of the face and placed stylishly in the back with long ringlets falling down the back. 

 

In 1865-1875 long ringlets were fashionable again and adorned with ribbons, feathers or flowers. False hair pieces were used an awful lot, placed at the front and fastened at the back of the head. Hair was twisted on wire with crepe padding high on head to create a base for the chignon.

Next was 1875-1885, in this period the styles stayed the same for five years as the previous ten years. By 1880 frizzing or small curls at the front of the hair had become popular, hair swept back to form a loose chignon. Long hair pieced plaits were a main hairstyle choice, normally finished with curls.

1885-1895, hair was long and swept in different chignons, these were decorated with pins and combs. Fringes were popular, these were normally curls. Hair on top of the head was left loose to fall in place. Younger women favoured a curl to drop for evening wear. Again flowers was used for decoration. Hair became softer for 1895.

In 1895-1905, saw the end of the Victorian times with Queen Victoria passing away in 1901. The 'cloud effect' hairstyle was in, this meant very puffy looking hair normally finished with a very rounded bun. Feathers and beads were used a lot to adorn the hair. This all quickly changed when the style of clothing changed.