Hair combs, both practical and decorative, have been used for millennia across various civilizations and cultures. These accessories, initially simple hair flowers or ribbons, have evolved to include brooches, hairpins, headbands, and more. From barrettes and headbands to hair rings and combs, the variety of hair accessories seems endless. Each year brings new hair trends and recycles previous ones. While generally fragile, some antique hair comb and clip accessories have survived centuries and decades, providing a fascinating niche for antique exploration and collection.
Hair rings, circular devices used to confine hair, have early roots in ancient Egypt. Made of alabaster, jade, or pottery, these rings have been found in tombs and were used to secure wigs for the wealthiest and highest social classes. Hair rings have also been found from the late Bronze Age in modern-day France, Belgium, and Great Britain. Often made of gold or organic objects plated in gold, these accessories are early cousins to the modern-day hair elastic, used mainly to restrain hair but also as a sign of fashion and nobility.
Decorative hair combs also have a rich, long history. The earliest combs date back over 5,000 years. These were made of carved wood and primarily used for detangling and keeping hair tidy. As time progressed, bones, horns, and tortoiseshell were carved to create beautiful and useful combs for securing hair, serving as the perfect hair accessory for daily use. Some of these date as far back as ancient Rome!
These simple combs became more decorated and detailed, often with decoration correlating with one's social status and wealth. In Japan during the 17th century, women often used combs made of lacquer, wood, or tortoiseshell, decorated with gold embellishments and patterns. These combs, called Kushi, signified a woman’s wealth, class, and religion.
Hair combs were not always used by themselves. In Colonial America and Western Europe during the mid to late 18th century, combs could help secure larger, more ornate accessories to the head. Decorative combs found favor as mass production came to fruition in the 20th century. Combs for updo hairstyles with gemstones, pearl gems, and precious metals were popularized in the 1930s and 1940s. Movie stars and royalty alike sported combs with diamonds and jewels in their hair.
Read also: Arizona RV Sales: Bobby Combs
Initially, combs were widely made of steel, gilt metal, brass, and other types of metals. Tortoise shell has been used since ancient times. Its popularity began with the trend of the Spanish mantilla and would remain until it became scarce, being replaced by gutta-percha.
Although tortoiseshell and gutta-percha were popular, the most plentiful and popular material for hair combs throughout the 19th century was probably horn--partly because it was easy to find and cheaper than tortoiseshell. It was also extremely flexible, acting almost like plastic that could be easily cut, bent, stretched, pierced, or carved. Horn also easily lent itself to imitating the popular tortoiseshell pattern.
A beautiful piece of Japanese artistry, this Kushi, or hair comb, is both an elegant hair ornament and an exquisite work of art. Crafted from luxurious tortoiseshell, the Kushi features a delicate golden enamel scallop pattern interspersed with charming a grasshopper's motif.
This hair comb was worn by Martha Washington as part of an elaborate headdress. Infused with the personality and glamour that surrounded the first lady, the comb evokes a very personal and treasured part of Mrs. Washington's boudoir. Records indicate that Mrs. Washington ordered two hair combs and other personal items from Robert Cary and Co. in January of 1758.
Barrettes are a more modern invention in the world of hair accessories. These bar-shaped pieces often use a beaded head and guard cap to secure the hair between the two sections of the device. They can be made of metal or plastic, but the lasting, highest quality ones mostly use precious metals and gemstones. The front, of course, is usually highly decorated and reflects the style of the time. Barrettes have adapted throughout history to accommodate popular designs, too.
Read also: "Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy" Review
A cousin to barrettes, hairpins have been a popular accessory throughout history as well. Sometimes called forks or hair spikes, these tools take long hair and hold them into place once twisted into an updo or topknot.
Decorative hair combs date to the earliest of times and were created from all sorts of materials. For instance, ancient combs were made from wood, bones, ivory, feathers, and other natural type materials. Sometimes they were “studded” with gems or painted with designs.
Around the early 1800s decorative hair combs began to be fashionable and there began to be numerous patents for them. Combs at this time were created from a variety of materials such as horns, shells, ivory, bones, wood, metal, tortoiseshell, and the hoofs of cattle or horses.
At the beginning of the 1800s decorative hair combs were usually handcrafted and inexpensive. However, as the century progressed, they began to be produced by small local manufacturers so that by the mid-century they were being produced in great numbers with mechanical die-stamping.
Early nineteenth-century designs for hair combs were not necessarily creative works of art. Pieces were often plain and narrow on top. However, as the century advanced, decorative hair combs became fancier and costlier.
Read also: The Meaning Behind Luke Combs' Lyrics
“[Victorian and Edwardian] glassmaker René Lalique … made combs with Art Nouveau designs, including his famous dragonfly. René Lalique comb 1895. Although Lalique may have used a variety of materials in his decorative hair combs, tortoiseshell was a common material used.
Tortoiseshell remained a popular material until it began to be scarce. It was then replaced by gutta-percha, a sap obtained primarily from the Palaquium gutta trees found in Malaysia and scientifically classified in 1843. A year or so after Madame Tussaud’s death in April 1850, gutta-percha began being imported to Britain where it was used for many domestic and industrial purposes.
Although tortoiseshell and gutta-percha were popular materials, the most plentiful and popular material for decorative hair combs throughout much of the nineteenth century was probably horn. That was partly because it was easy to find and cheaper than tortoiseshell. Moreover, horn was extremely flexible. It acted almost like plastic in that it could be easily cut, bent, twisted, stretched, molded, pierced, or carved.
Decorative hair combs had become extremely popular with women by the Victorian Era. That was because combs were one of the key items used to adorn women’s coiffures and help them achieve the fashionable upswept hairdos popular during Victorian times.
Ivory was also used to produce decorative hair combs. One such comb comes from France and dates to 1881, the same year that Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, published his novel the Prince and the Pauper. The ivory comb shown below is a carved wedding comb with the central medallion flanked by phoenixes. Also, across the top are balls that gradually increasing in size from the outside to the center.
One particularly beautiful western European decorative hair comb that comes from the nineteenth century is shown below. It has a curved design with pearl beads and intermixed with curved gilded metal. Another comb that also has pearls is rather interesting because it has two pearls on either side at each end attached to the comb by gold cotton string. This comb dates between 1840 and 1860 and is from France.
Sometimes decorative hair combs came in pairs. This was the case with this pair of short dark tortoiseshell combs shown below. Both combs are curved, and each has numerous fine teeth to help hold the comb in place.
Unfortunately, around the early 1870s, women’s decorative hair combs began to fall out of fashion. This hurt the economies in some cities that manufactured them. Moreover, from this period forward decorative hair combs fluctuated in popularity as they were dependent upon the fads of the ever fickle and constantly changing hair fashions.
The nineteenth century (and in particular the Victorian Era) involved borrowing from other periods so that what was once trendy was often back in fashion. Moreover, decorative hair combs of the nineteenth century ranged from Gothic and Renaissance styles to Napoleonic and Oriental designs. Materials used to create combs also changed as quickly as the styles and what was popular one day was out of fashion the next.
This article describes an unprovenanced artifact: a 700-year-old beaded hair comb probably entombed with a woman who likely died between 1405 and 1446 during China's early Ming dynasty. It is intended to establish basic facts and stimulate further research.
The comb may be the first intact example of mainland Chinese beadwork to undergo radiocarbon dating as well as laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis. The lead-potash (Pb-K) composition of the comb's glass coil beads resembles that of coil beads recovered from jar burials of the 15th-17th centuries in Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains. Thus, the comb links glass coil beads ostensibly made for use within China to coil beads exported to Southeast Asia.
By the first half of the 15th century, small glass coil beads were being used to embellish small personal objects such as the comb. Coil beads might have been used on larger objects as well. That the comb’s beads belong to the lead-potash group links them to lead-potash coil beads exported to Southeast Asia.
In China, beading techniques persisted from century to century. Dating to at least 1279 of the late Southern Song dynasty, the octagon-diamond technique recurs in the Ming dynasty, the Qing dynasty, and present-day China. The complexity of the octagon-diamond technique as well as techniques on other pieces ascribed to the Ming dynasty reveals that beadwork was well advanced by that time, if not the earlier late Southern Song or Liao dynasties.
tags: #beaded #hair #combs #history #and #styles
