Fop Hairstyles

17th century engraving of a British actor,
in character as 'Lord Foppington'.

Source: Wiki Commons

What Does Fop Mean?
The word 'fop' was used way back in the 1600s as a pejorative term for men who appeared to be overly vain, putting too much emphasis on their clothes, hair and general appearance. As a handy term for a dandified peacock, it caught on, eventually finding its way into popular culture via fictional characters such as The Scarlet  Pimpernel and Zorro.
The Rococo period
Foppishness was applied particularly to the French Court of Louis XV and the dandified and effeminate fashions which emanated from that part of the world, particularly in the eighteenth century, when French style among the male upper classes dictated such fashionable accoutrements as elaborately curled powdered wigs, skirted embroidered coats, delicately frilled cuffs, pink stockings, stick-on beauty spots and lush fabrics such as satin, silk and velvet. This was known as the 'Rococo' or 'Late Baroque' period and it was a good time to be a fop if you were that way inclined.

Doris Day Hairstyles

Doris Day -1954 covergirl

Fresh as a Daisy and Clean as a Whistle

soft and romantic...a very young Doris Day

I confess, in my callow youth I was critical of Doris Day - her appearance, manner and general aura, which seemed so pert, accommodating and just generally reeking of repressed glass-of-white-milk niceness. At that time, the 50s era hadn't yet taken on it's cool retro cachet and it seemed to my sensitive fashion palette an era of excessive bad taste mingled with blatant sexism. I was a 70s snob (yes I know, the 70's! In itself, a fashion disaster).

However, over the years, I've changed my mind about Ms Day. Whether this can be put down to to general maturity or a growing nostalgic wistfulness for the 1950s, I can't say but I'm now prepared to admit that there was more to Doris than meets the eye. She had something...a je ne sais quo, that stretched beyond the full skirted curviness of her figure, white teeth, sparkling blue eyes, the sexy, whispery, breathless....and yet, forceful way of talking and of course her, powerful singing voice. How she used to belt out those numbers, with a voice as clear and clean as rain on a tin roof.

But down to hair...

the blonde is beautiful philosophy

It seemed to me and still does, that much of Doris's fetching perkiness emanated form her crisp blonde hairstyles and the hair itself, with it's suggestive synthentic doll texture and luminous, equally manufactured colour tones. So Hollywood and yet at the same time, so housewife/good girl. Less tarty than Lana Turner's platinum poof but more oomphy than June Alyson's anal bob. How did she pull it off?

Doris Day could never have been dark. It wouldn't have worked. So much of her image relied on the clean clear purity of a golden halo. She was a kind of refined Betty Grable, with perky Ginger Rogers overtones. Never an obvious vamp in the blonde Jean Harlow sense... but rather a dangerous woman of a more subtle, complex strain - exuding part worldly, womanly vixen and part homespun, earthy domestic warmth. Wow, she was hot!

So young..so nice

Decades of Day

Day's hair went through several transmutations over the decades but it's luminous essence remained the same : always blonde, cute and fresh, with fetching waves and contrivances in the right places.

  Early Days

Doris Day, from  romance on the high seas

Born in 1922, the singer had her first big hit in 1945, with the classic melody, Sentimental Journey and from that pivotal  point, she never looked back, career-wise. that early musical success led to a lengthy movie career and she made 39 films in all, beginning with the technicolor  extravaganza, romance on the High seas, in the late 1940s. Here, Day's hair was moulded into typically 40s, stylised oomph concoction, with bushy, careful, long curls and scrolled up bangs. and of course, very blonde. It was, for the times, a young, bouncy look that perfectly suited day's vivacious personality.

In the 1950s Doris's hair took on a more sophisticated look, in keeping with the changing styles of a new, modern post-war era. Shorter hair was the go, but it was no less blonde. In this decade, Doris wore her hair pinned up or cut into a classically 50s short bob. It was a more mature look but no less pert than the previous decade. Doris's hair was nothing, if not assertive.

pinned up glamour with Cary grant in that touch of mink

One of Day's biggest film role in the 50s was her portrayal of singer Ruth Etting in the 1955 film love me or leave me, co-starring with legend, James Cagney and her hair radiated the jazzy, sexy appeal of a 50s gamine. The film was a critical and commercial success and further cemented Doris Day as a major talent, as well as a considerable box office draw. 

doris day, hot as hades in love me or leave me, 1955.

classic day and hudson, from pillow talk, 1959

Toward the end of the decade, Day launched into the series of profitable, light romantic comedies with hollywood gay hunks Rock Hudson and Cary Grant, for which she is perhaps best known - think pillow Talk. in these films our heroine's hair was less sexy round the edges and more cute and respectable bobsy, in keeping with the squeaky clean tone of the films. It was, after all, the twin bed era.

Doris Day, mature and stylish in a pillbox hat. from midnight lace 1960

the 60s and beyond

still a bob - but longer. Doris Day in the 60s

As the radical 60s swung into action, Doris grooved things up in the hair department, growing her still gold locks into a longer bob and later, for her tv series, the  Doris Day how, which ran from 1968 to 73 a youthful ponytail. By now in her 40s [and in the 70s] her 50s, she still looked good. throughout her career, the hugely successful singer/actress managed to project a fun and sexy, yet level-headed image that women aspired to and men admired. Ms Day was the quintessential all-round gal.

a top notch and a bob...such indecision

The Gamine Haircut

Gamine Shirley Maclaine Source

Short, pert and easy to care for, the gamine cut, popularised in the 1950s/early 60s was a radical departure from the kind of fussy, contrived hairstyles that featured in the 40s and early 50s, with their overworked rolled bangs, pins and perms.

The word gamine comes from the French gamin and means 'waif' or 'urchin' - an ideal gamine is a little bit tomboy, yet paradoxically girlish too,  with a vulnerability and  unique appeal. You don't have to have short hair to a gamine (Audrey Hepburn was one) but the 'gamine cut' was designed to conjure up that particular look.

Not quite as radically short as the pixie cut, the 50s gamine left enough hair around the face and over the top of the ears to be flattering, allowing that sly femininity to sneak into an otherwise boyish look. 

Short Perms

The Retro Perm
After the mass 1980s overdose on permed hair, there was a distinct backlash against perming and processed curls went seriously out of vogue for a decade or two. The anti-perm vibe was so strong that ultra-straight, smooth hair emerged as the fashionable style. It seems we went from one extreme to the other.

That was fine - we needed time to recover from those scary big hair perms that swamped the 80s scene. However, could it finally be time for perms to come out of the woodwork and be fashionable again? Enough permless time has gone by and super straight hair is looking a little stale.

Cleopatra Hair

Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra

Think Cleopatra, think vamp. Powerful, passionate, crusher of hearts, destroyer of men - the infamous Queen of the Nile, elevated by the force of legend and the mystique of Ancient Egypt,  is the ultimate femme fatale. At least that is the image that is firmly embedded in our cultural text, as passed through the transmutations and perversions of Hollywood mixed with history.

So strong is this image that even her hairstyle, or rather our conception of it,  has become a symbol of dangerous female seduction. Play with those lush dark locks and you play with feminine fire. The Cleopatra hairstyle is contrived, heavy and dramatic...always dark, with a thick fringe and cut along emphatic, geometric lines. Provided you have the physical assets to carry it off, it's a ring a ding ding, iconic style that turns heads.

Setting Lotion

Old fashioned rubber hair rollers have gone seriously out of vogue but years ago they were a standard items in most women's box of tricks. Many women would get their hair permed periodically and do a 'wash and set' once a week at home. The set involved dipping a comb into a gluggy pot of goo called setting lotion, which helped to hold the curls in place until the next wash.

Vintage wave curlers. Still available from Accessories of Old

Hitler's Hair

Hair brings one's self-image into focus; it is vanity's proving ground.  Hair is terribly personal, a tangle of mysterious prejudices.  ~Shana Alexander

 

Adolf Hitler

When I look at old black and white film clips, of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, I'm struck, not only by the intense light eyes and animated histrionics but also by his hair and moustache - features which ultimately became the defining physical characteristics of modern history's most notorious political figure. Anyone wishing to portray Hitler need only don the distinctive short, fat moustache and flickable asymmetrical dark hair and everyone will get it.

It's a very stylized look he cultivated and I can't help wondering what was behind it. Physically, Hitler was fairly unremarkable, apart from the intense eyes which hinted at disturbances beneath the surface.  Did he feel an egotistical need to develop a recognizable, designer identity through the plainness? If so, it was a look he clung to.

The whole Nazi propaganda machine was notable for its bold, Art Deco-influenced design features - the striking uniforms, boots, black leather Gestapo coats, the red and black emblems of eagles and swastikas (the latter borrowed from Indian culture) - and it wasn't merely the uniforms. Nazi architecture, which melded Neo-classicism and Art Deco, was all designed to foster a cult like worship of perverted German idealism.

The Crew Cut

50s Actor & heart throb, Tab Hunter

The crew cut - which legend has it, was named after the Yale rowing teams of the late 1900s, became the standard cut in the US armed forces during WW2. Post-war, the  crew's popularity spread into the civilian population and in the 1950s it was the most common style for men.

Traditionally, a crew cut features short or medium length back and sides and  tapered hair on the top of the head, beginning shortest at the crown and getting gradually longer toward the front.Variations include an Ivy League cut which favors longer length all over and a buzz cut, which is shorter all over.

The flat-top crew, often associated with uncompromising military types, is yet another high maintenance variation, where the hair is designed to stand-up, forming a boxy square shape -frequent cutting is required to keep the square look.

In the 80s, Grace Jones gave the flat top new, cool meaning

In the 1960s, the crew cut became deeply uncool, as it was emblematic of the establishment. The mod look, cultivated by British bands required longer hair and the general breakaway from conservative short cuts became a symbol of the youth revolution. However, as fashion has a tendency to recycle itself, in more recent times, crew cuts became fashionable again in a retro kind of way.

The Crew Cuts...were a Canadian vocal group who had a hit in the 1950s with a cover version of Sh-boom,which was originally released by The Chords.
 

Great Vintage Haircuts

6 Decades of Hair

As far as hairstyles so, there's probably only so many configurations hair designers can come up without making us look totally absurd, so inevitably the fashion gurus will seek inspiration from the past for a new take on an old concept.

It's interesting to consider that up until the 20th century, womens hair was almost universally kept long and while there may have been a variety of elaborate styles, there was really no such thing as a woman's "haircut".

It seems only in the last hundred years, when women began to shake off the style shackles of the status quo did we begin to get experimental with hair cuts. Below are a few classic cuts emblematic of particular decades and the famous women who wore then-some of these styles have been recycled frequently and others have yet to be rediscovered...

 1920s Louise Brooks
1920s bobs have been been recyled in some form or other since their inception and were particularly fashionable in the 1960s as well at various times in the decades since. Actress and trend setter Loiuse Brooks was among the first to shear off her locks and is generally credited with popularising the bob cut for her generation.

Brooks's style here features hair cut to chin level and slightly higher at the back, a straight cut Cleopatra fringe and two emphatic points which follow the line of the cheek bone. Looks particularly good with dark hair and smoldering eyes.

The geometric bob can be quite severe and thus doesn't suit every head - the dramatic lines will tend to highlight a less than perfect bone structure....but if it suits, the wow factor is high.

Lousie Brooks -dramatic hair

1930s Marion Marsh

Marion Marsh - soft and feminine

1930s hair focused on a softer, wavier, more feminine bob that flattered most features. The Marcel Wave, a type of undulating curl that softened a woman's looks, was extremely popular.

Wonderfully pretty early film actress Marion Marsh's hair is a partly smooth, stylised version of the Marcel Wave with its contrived curls strategically placed to emphasize the eyes and cheeks. The salient feature here is Marion's neatly curled side fringe, snipped to brow level.

On screen, Marsh specialised in 'damsels in distress'...a persona that depended upon a sweet, vulnerable female charisma, rather than a pert, assertive look.

1940s Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman's glowing Swedish looks pretty much ensured any style would look swish on her...nethertheless the thick wavy just below chin length hair cut she wore in the 1940s showed her strong and sensual features off to full advantage.

Ingrid Bergman -thick and luscious hair

By the 1940s, the Marcel Wave was pretty much dead in the water and longer, bigger hair came into vogue.

The emphasis was on hair and lips and Bergman in particular cultivated a wholesome, healthy look which departed from the Vamp style of the 20s and 30s.

Ingrid's hair style is really just a well cut longer bob, curled into thick waves and pulled back off the forehead to create a sumptuous yet classic look.

1950s Jean Simmons
As the 1950s rolled around, shorter hair made a comeback and the rich glamour of the 40s gave way to to a still glamorous but edgier look - at least for those 50s gals who were hip enough to try the new styles.

Jean Simmons - short and sexy

The style favoured by perky British actress Jean Simmons reflected a completely new look for the era. Jeans hair is short but not severely so - it has height and wave and a tousled, casual look.

Jean's hair is brushed back at he sides but with a couple of carefully selected kiss curls pulled across the forehead to soften 
the effect on the face. Highlighted kiss curls were characteristic of the 50s - often hair would be short with two curls pulled out just above the eyebrows.

1960s Natalie Wood

Natalie Wood - simply sexy

Hair got looser and freer in the 1960s and Natalie Wood's long silky  bob reflects the casualness of the era. This is a style that could easily blend in to the 21st century...

The hair has height  and the ends are gently curled under, while a low low side-parting gives a sexy sweep to the style. Simple but effective.

The 1960s was the first decade where women could  be more relaxed about their hair. There was a diverse range of styles and if you so pleased, you could just wear it long, free and wild. Strangely, letting hair totally loose probably hadn't happened since we were living in caves.


1970s Jane Fonda

Alan J. Pakula's 1971 thriller, Klute is a memorable film, not least because of Jane Fonda's funky wash and wear shag cut. The feathered cut is a style that has been much emulated, with variations,  in recent times.

Maybe it's because Fonda's character Bree Daniels, was so coolly wayward but there's something about this cut that screams sex appeal. It's chief feature is the heavy fringe and angled, wispy lengths - everything on the head is moving forward toward the face.  At the time it was an innovative cut and ushered in a whole new era of shags.

Jane Fonda as Bree Daniels- the cut that spawned a thousand shags

 Long Hairstyles of the 1950s
Five 1950s Outfits
Ten Tips for Healthy Hair

The Platinum Blonde

Sultry platinum blonde, Jean Harlow

Ever since high voltage platinum blonde Hollywood actress Jean Harlow sashayed her way across a silver screen in the 1930s, super-pale blonde hair has become a symbol of sexual energy. While Harlow may not have been the first woman to dye her hair the palest of blonde, she was the first to be publicly associated with the hair colour. An association that would provide her with a lasting notoriety.

With her luminous hair, smoldering eyes, blood lips and sensuous body movements, Jean Harlow embodied the familiar cultural myth of the golden haired princess and its implied purity with a hard to miss, sexy undertone.Worshipped by the masses, Jean's hair proved to be a fatal attraction for many fans and a new craze for platinum hair created a host of  peroxide victims..

Though her Hollywood success promised salvation from a troubled early life, Harlow was still plagued by personal problems and ill health and sadly, died from kidney failure at the age of twenty-six, forever forging a link between ultra-blondeness and tragedy - a theme that would recur two decades later in the premature death of Marilyn Monroe.

Although there had been platinum blonde bombshells in the 1940s -Betty Grable, Veronica Lake, Lana Turner and Betty Hutton, to name a few - it was the 1950s and 60s which produced a new explosion in platinum blonde sex-appeal, as well as the most recognizably iconic blonde goddess symbol of all-time ...Marilyn Monroe.

Hollywood subtlety..not. Jane Mansfield.

In the middle decades of the 20th century, few things were done by halves and the sex appeal of the blonde was represented in the most obvious way possible. Platinum blonde hair was now matched with in your face, over-sized breasts, tight-fitting clothes and  baby talk personalities suggestive of body-over- brains.

Whereas Jean Harlow had been a feisty, wisecracking, sexy but smart, if troublesome,  leading lady, blondes like Jane Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe all  too often  had their personalities almost completely submerged by stylistic Hollywood notions of blonde bombshellness.

Both died early, Mansfield via a car accident and Monroe through self-doubt and self-abuse, but both deaths reinforcing the deadly mystique of the tragic blonde. Marilyn in particular, throughout her screen career had projected a kind of vulnerability and fragility upon the platinum blonde image..

Marilyn..the ultimate vulnerable blonde

By the end of the 1960s, the platinum blonde had become a stale idea - the new motif was the natural wild child, devoid of too much artifice and sexual stereotyping. Thus for a while at least, the platinum blonde receded into the background.

Blonde decadence...Deborah Harry

In the late 70s/80s however, celebrities like Madonna and Deborah Harry of Blondie fame reinvented the blonde and wore their platinum hair in an entirely new way.  The dawn of the punk era signified a tearing down of the old motifs, yet also enabled an exploitation of them.

By not attempting to conceal the artifice and letting their dark roots show, the new generation blondes were mocking the  blonde goddess meme, yet benefiting from it at the same time - the look was gritty and sexy and designed to attract attention.

Although plenty of women still dye their hair platinum blonde, as a cultural force, in more recent times, the white blonde is once again keeping a relatively low profile...but probably not for too long.  The blonde goddess, with her ghostly pale hair lurks in the background ready to reappear... too potent a force to be ignored.

Diana Dors..the UK Marilyn
Long Hairstyles of the 1950s
Tips to Lighten Hair
How to Bleach Your Hair

The Eton Crop

Josephine Baker

Dark and Shiny

If you were a radical flapper in  the 1920s, you might have considered sporting an Eton crop, a very slick, short, dramatic haircut with a pasted down kiss curl on either side of the cheek.

Radical Eton Crop, worn by German photographer, Aenne Bierman

The Eton crop was considered a daring style as it was less feminine than the Marcel wave or conventional bob and very much a radical departure from the hairstyles of previous decades. It also exposed the ears and more of the head, so if your features were less than perfect there wasn't much left to soften them with, although it worked well with a cloche hat.

The Eton Crop looked great with boyish 20s fashions. Leatrice Joy circa 1920-22

Leatrice Joy

However, when it worked it was a sensational, highly stylized look, that required plenty of brilliantine and was worn to great effect by avant garde dancer Josephine Baker, darling of the trendy European  set and American silent film actress, Leatrice Joy.. 1930s cartoon character Betty Boop wore a kind of  softened, longer version of an Eton crop but her characteristic kiss curls are emblematic of the style.

"Eton cut' was a term coined by The Times in the UK, to draw a parallel between the boyish look of the radical flappers and the traditional hairstyle of public school boys.  The Eton cut reached it's zenith around 1927-'28 and then was swamped by the softer looks that would define hairstyles of the 30s.

Kiss curl queen, Betty Boop

Marcel Wave

The Marcel wave was a very popular hairstyle of the 1920s and worked particularly well on the new and fashionable bob hairstyle that was sweeping the world. Marcel waving was named after 19th century French hairdresser Francois Marcel, who had invented the process of creating undulating 'S' shaped waves with the hair. In the 1870s Marcel tried out his style successfully on various women, including a well known actress of the day - the word spread and the soft 'S' wave thereafter became associated with Francois Marcel and the name Marcel a generic term for the style.

An early photograph of actress Claudette Colbert sporting a stylish  Marcel wave

However, although the wavy style had been used pre-1920s on long hair using hot irons heated on a stove,  the invention of electric waving irons in the early 20s made it so much easier to achieve - the stove method could be perilous, with burns and over heating a frequent problem.  There was also a Marcel perming machine used in the 20s but it was expensive and the results variable. Although there were women who had their hair permed in the 20s, It wouldn't be until the next decade that the perming process became widespread and trustworthy.

It's not hard to see why Marcel waving would have been so popular in the 20s, enduring into the 30s, as it was a romantic style which emulated natural waves and softened the severity of short hair, framing the face in flattering, uplifting waves. Marcel waves meant a 20s woman could keep in step with the new radicalism in fashion yet still retain a very feminine look.

Hollywood too, went a long way toward popularizing the style, as many leading actresses had their hair professionally coiffed in the Marcel style and together with the dark eye-makeup and  thin, penciled eyebrows of the era, made a dramatic statement on screen. For a retro change of style, these days it's easy enough to get the look with a purpose designed curling iron.

Short Hairstyles of the 1950s

50s icon, Doris Day

During the 1940s, short hair went out of vogue, probably as a reaction to the boyish look of the 20s and 30s that had been so popular during those decades. However the 50s ushered in a new wave of hairstyles and short hair was back on the agenda.

The 50s look was crisp and pert, with full skirts, cotton shirts, knitted tops, short jackets and chunky jewellery - short hair meant exposed ears could highlight big earrings and scarves and accented collars (winged and rolled) could be shown off to full effect.

50s hair wasn't tumbled and free but rather stylised and immaculate, with plenty of pins, sticky setting lotion and spray employed to keep those strategic kiss curls in place. As most women were stay at home housewives there was plenty of time to concentrate on cute coiffure, thus although there were a variety of short styles, they all had one thing in common - they were neat. The 60s era, where hair broke loose, was just around the corner but it hadn't happened yet.

It was fashionable to wear hair shorter on the sides and fuller at the top, with either a roll-like fringe/bangs or off the forehead but with a couple of carefully placed kiss curls framing the face. Most women had perms and/or used curlers to provide wave, oomph and body and it was common to hear the phrase "I can't tonight. ..I'm washing my hair", meaning they'd be home doing a shampoo and set.

Mitzi Gaynor

In the main, short styles of the 1950s were very flattering to the face in an uplifting kind of way and tended to make the neck looked elongated and thus more elegant. They also complimented all kinds of jewellery, from strings of pears to hoop earrings and bulky gemstone pieces. It was an era of glamour and sophistication but also a little funkier than the previous decade. Even though it was the decade of the Stay-at-Home Housewife, the short hair gave off a a perky, assertive aura rather than a  classically ultra-feminine one. 

Jean Simmons

1940s Hairstyles

Long Hairstyles of the 1950s

 Hot Hairstyles of the 1960s

The Platinum Blonde

1940s Hairstyles

Natural 40s beauty

1940s hairstyles concentrated on glamour and height. It was a highly stylised 'oomph' period and to achieve the perfect look required considerable time and effort. Barely anyone wore dead straight hair so if you lacked bounce in the curl department, you would have needed a perm and/or a set with rollers. Often the hair was worn wavy and loose,  to chin or shoulder length, either with the top pulled back very loosely from the forehead to provide bouncy height and secured with pins or with an elaborate rolled fringe (bangs) to give a smoother, sleeker stylistic effect.

Betty Grable with ionic pincurls

Stylistic influence?

Fringes were never left flat and straight and in some cases the bouffy bangs emulated the decorative features of an ancient Greek column - note Betty Grables ionic-style forehead curls.

As by far the vast majority of women wore hats in the 1940s, the crown part of the head, behind the 'pompadour' front was left smoothish. As an alternative to a hat, sometimes all the loose hair was gathered into a snood.

Although short hair had been the hot fashion choice of the preceding decade (the 30s), in the 1940s women's hair got distinctly longer, partly because there was a move back to voluptuous femininity and away from the boyish figures and styles that had so dominated the 20s and 30s.

Stylistic influence?

An alternative style was to pile everything on top of the head in a mass of heavy curls - the hair was stretched up at the back and sides and secured with clasps and pins in a top-notch toward the front of the head. It was an uplifting, glitzy style but gave the wearer a bit of a top-heavy look.

1940s Poster Girls

Lucille Ball Stylised Hollywood beauty

Vintage Hair Accessories

Since humanity first dragged itself from the prehistoric caves, women have probably been adorning their hair with trinkets to highlight their 'crowning glory' and draw attention to their facial features. As civilization developed, at different times hair accessories became symbols of social standing (for both sexes), had religious significance and/or were an indication of age, fashion awareness and social status.

In the 20th century Western culture, adorning the hair has become less significant in terms of the above, yet hair accessories still remain a popular fashion item - from casual clips, bands and ties to sparkling barrettes and tiaras for special occasions. Interestingly, apart from the 20th century, there have been very few periods in human history when loose, flowing hair was considered acceptable -prior to the modern era, hair was always restrained via some sort of hair accessory..


Ribbons and Bows
Ribbons and bows have never completely gone out of style, although as a widespread, cultural fashion item, they were probably at their most popular during the 17th and 18th centuries. In France in particular in the 1600s ribbons were worn by women of all ages, as well as men. In the Edwardian period a popular style for girls and young women was a long ponytail, worn low with a huge bow at the back and in the 1940s and 50s bows for children were very popular, either on the end of plaits or worn on one side of the forehead. Bows had a resurgence in popularity in the 1980's when they were teamed with the big hairstyles of the era.

Cutesy bows in vintage fabrics from kisforkani's etsy shop

Headbands

Headbands date back a long way and were one of the very first types of hair ornament. The Mesopotamians were using them around 3500 BC to hold their hair in place. The style continued in various forms throughout the centuries - in the middle ages fashionable women wore metal ringed bands on their heads with veils attached and in the 1800s, the metal band gave way to fabrics,  the veils were dropped and they were worn Greek style. As hats and bonnets grew in popularity, headbands lost favour and didn't really return again until the 1920s when they were often ornately decorated with beads, jewels, feathers and art deco motifs, especially for evenings. Headbands have remained relatively popular ever since, perhaps because hats and bonnets haven't made a popular comeback yet.

1920s inspired headband from Alofashion's etsy shop

Vintage Headressses
Vintage Headresses specialises in tiara-style headbands in vintage designs. these are very glamorous and glitzy and I would imagine, strictly for special occasions.

Barrettes

Barrettes (a rectangular, metal spring-loaded clip) have been around since the mid-19th century and have decorated with an infinite variety of styles and materials, including tortoiseshell, wood, plastic, mother of pearl and bakelite. .In the 20s, 30s and even 40s, they were influenced by the art deco style- geometric shapes and in colours of green, black, orange and cream. In the 50s  shapes got more experimental, with interesting curves and glittery decorations.

1920s/30s bobby pins. Images from Accessories of Old

Accessories of Old  has a terrific range of old hair accessories, including fancy clips and barrettes, as well as plain pins -some miraculously still on their original cards from the 1930's.The classic Marcel Wave hairstyle of the 20s and 30s looked great with a glittering side clip or an art deco pin.

They also have some great clips from the 50s, including the glamorous, stylised ones below. I could easily spend an hour or so wading through the catalogue.

Great Vintage haircuts

French barrette  circa 1950s.

Vintage French barrette still on its original card.