The decade of the 1920’s was interesting for the significant changes that took place in the hairdressing industry.

Up until the 1920’s, long hair was preferred by most women. It was either worn long, fashioned into buns or plaits, or worn up in fancy hairstyles for special occasions. The first world war precipitated a change in attitude toward long hair, when for practical purposes, women in certain occupations had their hair cut short.

The short hair styles that became common in the 1920’s were referred to as “Bobs” or “the Bob”. Intially these hairstyles were very basic but they served a practical need. When celebrities embraced the bob and took it “upmarket” then the number of women cutting their tresses increased dramatically.

Taken to the extreme, the bob was known as the “Eton Crop” after the famous boys school. The Eton crop was a very boyish style with very short hair, and only suited a small number of women.

There were short, medium, and long versions of the Bob. The longer the bob, the more could be done to enhance it by way of styling, waving and curling, and shingling. An excellent book that teaches the techniques of haircutting for Bobs is “Haircutting and Styling Techniques of the 1920’s and 1930’s” .

As the decade progressed, women looked for ways to enhance the Bob. Hair decorations were used by some women but the techniques of finger waving and marcel waves were soon developed to add style to the bob. Hairdressing salons expanded to cater for an increasing call on their services as women abandoned dressing their own hair in preference to the more sophisticated styles available from the salons.

Initially the short hairstyles were thought by many to be a passing fad, but they proved to be enduring. What prevented the bobbed hairstyles from just being a temporary phenomenon was the continuous evolution of the style by creative hairstylists. Women loved the freedom the short hair provided, but they wanted style as well. Hairdressers the world-over developed techniques to add style to the basic bob. New cutting, waving and curling techniques kept short hair styles fresh and appealing for the best part of twenty years, so it was no passing fad as first thought.

Eventually all good things must come to an end and fashion dictates change for fashion’s sake. However fashion moves in cycles, never repeating itself exactly, but rhyming, and so we once again see short hair coming back into fashion. Not the beautifully styled bobs of the twenties, but a shallower and often punk interpretation by the early adopters this time around. Lets hope that the beautiful waves and curls reassert themselves and take over.

RESOURCES: A couple of popular books that teach the hair waving techniques of the 1920’s and early 1930’s

Marcel Wave  - Similar in style to finger waves but uses heat to set the waves

Finger Wave  - Shaping the hair while wet into “s”-shaped curved waves with the fingers and comb.

 

This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 4:58 am and is filed under 1920's, Beauty, Fashion, Hair. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments and pings are closed.

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