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Hair is both fibre and language. It is shaped by tools and chemistry — combs, pins, heat, water, electricity, chemical lotions — but it is read through culture. A plait, a bob or an Afro can signal youth or age, faith or rebellion, belonging or exclusion, labour or leisure. This site studies technique, representation and lived experience together.

What we cover

We look at how women and girls have cut, dressed, covered, coloured, curled, straightened, braided and protected their hair, from antiquity to the present, with Britain and Ireland at the centre and the global and diasporic history that is essential to understanding them.

We try to show:

what people actually wore, not only elite ideals;
the differences between girls, teenagers, younger adults, midlife and older women;
how texture, length, density, disability, hair loss and available resources affect practice;
how skills pass between family members, friends, barbers, hairdressers and online communities;
the difference between a cut, a dressed style, a protective style, a chemical process, an accessory and a temporary trend;
the social power of being permitted — or compelled — to wear hair in a particular way.

The questions we ask

How did age and life stage affect acceptable or fashionable hair?
Who created, passed on and profited from hairstyling knowledge?
How did tools, products, plumbing, electricity, chemistry and salon training widen or narrow what was possible?
How did cinema, music, magazines, television, celebrity culture and social platforms spread trends?
How have colonialism, migration and racialised beauty standards shaped hair practices?
When did hair signal conformity, rebellion, profession, faith, sexuality, status or political identity?
What can photographs and portraits prove — and what remains invisible?
Why do styles recur, and what changes when a historical form is revived?

Ways to browse

Timeline — from ancient wigs to pandemic haircuts, in overlapping periods.
By age — early childhood, school age, teenagers, young adults, midlife and older age.
Styles — the bob, braids, the bun, the Afro and more, each traced across time.
Techniques — how was it made? From finished style back to tools and hands.
Style strands — choose a period, age, technique or theme and see what crosses.
Hair words — changing, regional and culturally specific names.
Research — how to read a photograph, where the archives are, and what we cite.

A note on this prototype

This site is at an early stage. The structure is in place and a first set of records is written, but many pages are still being researched, and some sources still need their details checked. We mark this openly: look for the Research labels, and for “details to check” in source lists. Our planned feature, A history of hair in 15 objects, will join this page once the objects and images are cleared.

Last updated 12 November 2026.