Hair words

Combing hair from the ends towards the roots to tangle it into a supporting cushion. The basis of 1960s bouffants and beehives.

Also: teasing, ratting

See also: Rat

Colour painted onto the hair by hand, usually lighter towards the ends, rather than applied in foils.

In use from: 2010s (in British mainstream use) (approximate)

A tall, rounded dome of backcombed and smoothed hair. Created by the Chicago hairdresser Margaret Vinci Heldt for a magazine in February 1960, according to her obituaries.

In use from: 1960 (approximate)Where: United States, Britain

See also: Backcombing

A family of short cuts, usually between ear and jaw length, cut to a clean line or graduated at the nape. Not one style but many — shingled, waved, blunt, geometric and layered.

Also: bobbed hair, bobbingIn use from: 1910s (approximate)Where: Britain, United States, France

See also: Shingle, Eton crop

Braids made from square sections of hair, often lengthened with added hair. In knotless braids, extensions are fed in gradually rather than knotted at the root.

Also: knotless braids

See also: Cornrows, Protective style

Hair gathered and coiled, knotted or rolled at the back of the head or nape.

Also: bun, knot

See also: Snood

A close-fitting linen cap, often tied under the chin, worn indoors or under a hat in early modern Europe.

Also: cap

See also: Hairnet

A permanent wave made with chemical lotions rather than heating equipment. Developed from the late 1930s, it made cheap home permanent kits common from the mid-to-late 1940s; heated home outfits had been sold earlier.

Also: home perm

See also: Permanent wave

Hair braided close to the scalp in rows, often in straight lines or curved patterns. A culturally specific form with a long history in African and diasporic communities.

Also: canerowsWhere: Caribbean, Britain, West Africa, United States

See also: Box braids, Protective style

A very short, close cut of the mid-to-late 1920s, named after the boys’ school. Among the shortest fashionable women’s cuts of the decade.

In use from: 1920s (approximate)Where: Britain

See also: Bob, Shingle

Lengths of human or synthetic hair attached to the wearer's own — by clips, bonding, sewing onto braids or braiding in — to add length or volume.

Also: clip-ins, weave, bonded extensions

See also: Switch, Box braids

A long hairpiece attached at the crown so that it "falls" over the wearer’s own hair, adding length. Popular as a fashion accessory in the 1960s.

Also: hairpieceIn use from: 1960s (approximate)

See also: Switch

A set in which wet hair is shaped with the fingers and a comb into ridges that run in an S-pattern across the head, then left to dry in place.

Also: water waveIn use from: 1920s (approximate)

See also: Marcel wave, Pin curl

Two heated plates pressed along sections of hair to straighten it temporarily. Electric ceramic versions became household objects around 2000.

Also: straighteners, hair straighteners

See also: Pressing comb

A tied headwrap of Yoruba origin, often of stiff hand-woven aso-oke cloth, worn especially for ceremonies and celebrations.

Where: Nigeria, West Africa

A fine powder, usually of starch, dusted onto dressed hair or wigs in the eighteenth century. From 1795 most people in Britain who wore it had to buy an annual certificate costing a guinea.

See also: Pomatum

Human hair woven, braided or set into jewellery and keepsakes — especially mourning, friendship and love tokens in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Also: hairwork, hair jewellery

A net holding the hair in place, from the jewelled cauls of medieval and Renaissance courts to the fine nets over Victorian chignons and the workplace nets of the twentieth century.

Also: net, caul

See also: Snood, Wimple, Chignon

A folded, sprung wire pin that clamps hair flat against the head. The name is said to come from the Birmingham makers Kirby, Beard & Co., whose “Kirbigrip” was originally a trademark (still to be checked against the OED).

Also: hair grip, bobby pin (North America)Where: Britain

See also: Pin curl

Hair that has been allowed or encouraged to mat and form rope-like strands. Worn across many cultures, with different names, methods and meanings.

Also: locks, dreadlocks

Note: “Dreadlocks” appears in historical sources and remains in use, but many wearers prefer “locs”. This site uses “locs” and quotes other terms as they appear.

See also: Protective style

A deep, regular wave made with heated curling tongs, named after the French hairdresser Marcel Grateau. The dates and patents behind the name still need checking.

Also: marcelling, Marcel waving

See also: Finger wave, Permanent wave

A starched cap worn as part of nursing uniform, which also kept hair contained. Its shape often signalled the wearer’s training school or grade.

See also: Hairnet

Hair colour in which colourless precursors react with an oxidiser such as hydrogen peroxide inside the hair to form colour that survives washing. Many contain PPD, a known cause of allergic reactions.

Also: permanent dye, oxidative dye

A process that changes the shape of the hair until it grows out, by chemically breaking and re-forming bonds in the hair. Early machine methods used heat as well as chemicals; “cold waves” did not.

Also: perm, permanent

See also: Cold wave, Marcel wave

A small curl wound flat against the head and held with a pin or clip while it sets.

See also: Finger wave, Roller set

A scented grease used in the eighteenth century to hold powder and shape in dressed hair.

Also: pomade

See also: Hair powder

Hair swept up and back from the face over a pad or by backcombing, forming a raised roll. Its name refers to Madame de Pompadour; the style it describes changed over time.

Note: A retrospective name. Whether an eighteenth-century wearer would have recognised the style by it needs checking.

See also: Rat

A metal comb heated and drawn through hair to straighten it temporarily. Madam C. J. Walker did not invent it, despite a recurring claim.

Also: hot comb, straightening comb

See also: Relaxer

A style that reduces manipulation, friction and moisture loss — such as braids, twists or wrapped styles — especially for curly and coily hair.

Note: A modern label. This site does not project it backwards as a timeless, universal category, and does not treat every braid or wrap as “protective”.

See also: Locs

A pad or cushion, often made from the wearer’s own saved combings, placed under the hair to give it volume or height. Used under eighteenth-century dressed hair, Victorian and Edwardian styles, and 1940s rolls.

Also: hair rat, pad, cushion

See also: Switch, Pompadour

A chemical treatment that straightens curly or coily hair by altering its internal bonds. Explanations of chemistry on this site are general history, not advice.

Also: chemical straightener, perm (in some communities)

See also: Pressing comb, Permanent wave

Hair wound on rollers while damp and dried in place — at a salon often under a hood dryer — then brushed and dressed. A weekly routine for many women in the mid-twentieth century.

Also: set, shampoo and set, wet set

See also: Pin curl

A bob cut very short and tapered at the nape so that the back lies close to the head, often with waves at the sides.

Also: shingled bobIn use from: 1920s (approximate)Where: Britain, United States

See also: Bob, Eton crop

A net or knitted bag holding hair at the back of the head. Worn in many periods; associated in Britain with wartime work and safety.

See also: Chignon

A length of real or synthetic hair, gathered at one end, added to the wearer’s own hair to make braids, coils or buns fuller.

Also: hairpiece, tail

See also: Rat

Wrapping sections of hair tightly with thread to shape them into stiff, sculptural forms — a technique recorded, among other places, in J. D. ’Okhai Ojeikere’s photographs of Nigerian hairstyles.

Also: threading, thread-braidingWhere: Nigeria, West Africa

See also: Cornrows

A section of set hair rolled back from the face into a smooth tube and pinned, usually in pairs. Strongly associated with the 1940s.

Also: victory rolls

Note: Newspapers reported the name “Victory Roll” for a London hairstyle in August 1941, during the war; we are still checking the original page. The 1941 style was a pair of rolls running from nape to forehead, not necessarily the front rolls the name usually means today.

See also: Pin curl, Roller set

A regular household session of washing, conditioning, detangling and styling hair — often weekly, often done by or with a family member, and for curly and coily hair frequently a long, skilled routine.

A cloth head covering wrapped around the neck and chin, worn with a veil in medieval Europe by many married women and by nuns. How widely it was worn, and by whom, varied by place, period and status.

See also: Hairnet