Hair Care and Styles in the 1900s

Beauty History

We are slowly moving out of the Victorian era and some things were changing while some things were holding on with a vengeance.

A woman's hair was something that she treasured, whether it was in good condition or not.

The hairstyles consisted of masses of ringlets, which complimented the pale complexions that were so popular thanks to the outbreak of TB.

Women were brewing up their own hair products from some very unusual ingredients. Consider what petroleum jelly, castor oil, Gallic acid must have done for your hair. Actually, I have found present day conditioning recipes using castor oil, so I guess it had its merits.

Charles Nestle invented the first permanent wave machine in 1905.

French chemist, Eugene Schueller creates Aureole, one of the first hair colors on the market. The company was later named L'Oreal. While coloring their hair was frowned upon, many women did use them. If you could not afford a professionaly formulated hair dye, women often made their own from herbs, rust and other nasty ingredients. From what I have read, the fragrance left much to be desired.

As far as the L'Oreal connection, in a different source, I found that it had once been called, "The French Harmless Hair Coloring Company."

In the U.S. the Gibson Girl hairstyle still very in vogue during this decade.