Hair
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#1: Hair Author: claire, Location: South Wales PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 3:10 pm

Why does EBD (and I think EJO mentions it a few times) think that having long (a lot) of hair is bad for growing girls? I presume this was just the way of thinking back then but any ideas why?

 

#2:  Author: hpdeskjette, Location: S'pore PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 3:23 pm

Hmm... possibly because thick and long hair would be very heavy and cause headaches pulling against the scalp? (don't know how true is this, have had short hair since the day I was born! Though my friends have often groused about their thick manes and the awful weight)

Also long hair must have been very hard to maintain then, given how rarely they had their hair washed, so I suppose they didn't trust growing girls to know how to groom and feared filthy and malodorous heads?

 

#3:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 4:06 pm

At the time that EBD was writing, it was considered that energy and strength went into growing the hair, and with all the fuss that EBD made about health, and girls outgrowing their strength, she probably saw it as a bad thing, which is surprising as so many of the CS girls had long hair.

 

#4:  Author: Dreaming Marianne, Location: Devon PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 6:09 pm

I agree with Jennie, this seems to have been a popular thought around this time, also before (see Emily of New Moon, when one of her aunts is trying to lop it off). I'm also sure that it was for the reasons that she mentions.

And hpdeskjette's right, I had long hair and always wore it in a bun - and always had a headache at the end of the day cos it's so heavy! Incidentallym I saw an example of "earphones" on a costume drama recently - I was immediately put in mind of Joey - but my goodness aren't they UGLY?

*blanches and retires to corner*

 

#5:  Author: Ann, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 7:08 pm

I had waist-length hair until the age of about 12 and when it was wet, it was so heavy it would pull my head back.

 

#6:  Author: LadyGuinevere, Location: Leicester PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 7:20 pm

I've had long hair since about the age of 5 (though not down to my waist - it would never grow that far) and I've never had any trouble with it being heavy. It is very fine though, so perhaps that's why.

And strangely, I've actually taken to wearing it in two tails recently, as it's so much easier to manage like that! Especially since my hair doesn't stay up in anything.

~LadyG

 

#7:  Author: shoe__gal, Location: St Andrews, Scotland PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 7:26 pm

And it would have been awfully hot for the CS girls in the summer, particularly in Tyrol or Switzerland!

 

#8:  Author: claire, Location: South Wales PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 7:47 pm

LadyGuinevere wrote:
I've had long hair since about the age of 5 (though not down to my waist - it would never grow that far) and I've never had any trouble with it being heavy. It is very fine though, so perhaps that's why.


I think that's why I wondered about it as I've always had long hair and never found it heavy. I've had it shortish a few times (shoulder length) and found it hotter then than when it's long

 

#9:  Author: Beth, Location: Sunny Isle of Man! PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 8:29 pm

I suspect LadyGuinevere has the answer; if you notice, whenever EBD talks about long hair, it's also mentioned as being thick - which is also the reason they can achieve such amazing hairstyles. My hair is extremely thick, and until about three years ago reached my hips - practicality is a bit issue, I mean, I'd reached my mid-teens, and couldn't style or even wash my hair without help. A school-full of girls with hair like that would be a logistical nightmare!
And to go back to the hairstyles, despite the fact my hair only reaches my chin now, I've got enough that for a ball a few weeks ago, I could have it in a french pleat, and enough left over for cascading curls on top of my head! I was inpressed...

 

#10:  Author: Donna, Location: Liverpool PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2004 10:04 pm

I have very similar hair to Beth by the sound of it - I used to keep it very long, and it was impossible to do anything with it. even now that it's short-ish it can't hold a style because it's too heavy. and when it was long it took ages to wash. When I had it cut the difference in weight was very noticeable, as well as the the much shorter washing time. I'd guess that short hair was felt to be better because of a mixture of practicality and health reasoning.

 

#11:  Author: Lula, Location: Midlands, UK PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 1:07 pm

I used to have very long hair, but after I had chickenpox (aged about 12) and was ill for quite a while (I blame it on the heat and the fact that everyone I came into contact with had colds), my 83-year-old grandmother insisted on my hair being cut because it was "sapping my strength".

Never quite forgiven her for that, I loved my long hair!

So partly it would be because of that, and also wouldn't it be because there were no hairdryers in those days? Also, tying hair with ribbons would be a lot harder than using the bobbles of today, I'd imagine ribbons wouldn't always hold it, especially if they were silky.

 

#12:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 1:12 pm

EBD clearly never expected to have a board full of critical people picking her stories to pieces, and discussing the minutiae of the books. That's why she could write as she did.

 

#13:  Author: Rosie, Location: Huntingdonshire/Bangor PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 1:55 pm

Lula wrote:


So partly it would be because of that, and also wouldn't it be because there were no hairdryers in those days? Also, tying hair with ribbons would be a lot harder than using the bobbles of today, I'd imagine ribbons wouldn't always hold it, especially if they were silky.


I'm sure somewhere Yseult is laughed at for having silk ribbons (ie, she was the only girl stupid enough!), so presumably everyone else had ribbons made out of something else...
*flicks plaits back over shoulders - it is just TOO hot to have hair down my back!*

 

#14:  Author: Beth, Location: Sunny Isle of Man! PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 7:58 pm

Jennie wrote:
EBD clearly never expected to have a board full of critical people picking her stories to pieces, and discussing the minutiae of the books. That's why she could write as she did.


Well, that wasn't very far-sighted of her, was it? Wink

 

#15:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 9:49 am

Why should she have been?

To add to the discussion, a good half of the CS girls must have had long hair. Len Maynard's hair was supposed to have reached her waist, and so did Con's. And many of the prefects are described as having their plaits put up around their heads.

 

#16:  Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2004 10:51 am

There always seems to have more girls that had long hair than short and most of the mistresses had long hair too.

I would say that long hair was considered the norm except where they ran a high temperature for any length of time when it would be considered to be too hot around the head and therefore chopped off, to help cool the patient.

 

#17:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 3:01 pm

Yet when you consider that the girls with long hair were expected to keep it plaited for the night, that does seem a little silly.

 

#18:  Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 3:36 pm

Very silly in my opinion, but tidier than being left loose. Imagine the knots and tangles!

 

#19:  Author: LadyGuinevere, Location: Leicester PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 6:04 pm

I've started plaiting my hair at night otherwise I get obscene amounts of knots in it!

~LadyG

 

#20:  Author: Carolyn P, Location: Lancaster, England PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 9:48 pm

When I had long haor I used to have to do this, otherwise it was almost imporrible to brush it in the morning, so it would be a thick looser plait at night, the redone into a tighter one for the day every morning.

That was a long time ago, before the children were born.

 

#21:  Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2004 10:18 pm

I'll be glad when my hair grows long enough to tie it up - it''s soooo hot when it's around your neck.
I sometimes used to get headaches when my hair was long before and I had it in a pony tail, but I think that it was caused by the hair being ulled back tightly rather than the weight.

 

#22:  Author: Ciorstaidh, Location: London PostPosted: Wed Jun 30, 2004 2:19 pm

My hair's not far from the longest it's ever been (halfway down my back), and I have to say it doesn't feel heavy at all. Having said that, my hair is very thin. One ponytail is about the same width as the average person's pigtail (ie half their hair).

And because it's so fine nothing stays in......

But if I didn't wash my hair for two weeks plus (as folks who were at school in that era cite as normal), it would be Manky! More so if it were long. (Must have been why they insisted on plaits in School...hid a lot of the mankiness - s'why we do it at camp after three days).

 

#23:  Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!! PostPosted: Fri Jul 02, 2004 12:35 pm

Most of the continental girls had very long hair, which thy wore up. I've never been able to create any 'up' hairstyle myself which has lasted more than 2 hours and with the addition of many hairgrips!!

My hair is very long and thick and always has been so, so Im used to the weight, and wouldn't noticed any extra heat. Actually it can be a blessing in sunny weather, as it can protect my neck and shoulders.

 

#24:  Author: Monika, Location: Melbourne PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2004 1:57 pm

My hair is extremely thick (is commented on by hairdressers EVERY time I get it cut - very monotonous!) and I spend my life growing it until it is just too heavy to wear up any more, and needs to be tied back to sleep and then I cut it all off. When it's long, after I wash it, if I put it up to wear to work all day, when I come home it wouldstill be damp in the middle. If I then wore it tied back over night , there would still be slight dampness!! I wouldn't have wanted to face Matey after such a night, I would have been whacked into the San with a fire and and a basin of bread and milk! - oh and CASTOR OIL!!!
I always imagined Ilonka's and Suzanne Mercier's hair to have been similar.

 

#25:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2004 2:08 pm

I wouldn't mind the fire, not in winter, but I do draw the line at bread and milk!

 

#26:  Author: Emma, Location: Lichfield PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2004 6:23 pm

I had most of my hair cut off about a month ago and after the initial shocks of waking up with no hair I love it. Its great when Im washing it as it takes seconds!!

 

#27:  Author: claire, Location: South Wales PostPosted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 7:32 pm

When I did have mine chopped (from nearly my waist to my shoulders - it's back now) I used to get confused when brushing my hair and keep brushing past where my hair stopped - I must have looked so weird!

 

#28:  Author: Emma, Location: Lichfield PostPosted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:05 pm

Im glad its not just me...another trick of mine is to go to brush my hair really hard and ending up brushing the back of my neck!!!

 

#29:  Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination PostPosted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:10 pm

My trick is breaking brushes in my hair!! For those at the Gathering, if you saw my picture, I have very curly (ringletted) hair.

Two new CS hair questions:

1) A couple of times, curly haired people are considered luckily, because they just have to quickly brush their hair to make it neat. I cannot brush my hair except just after the shower when it is wet. Brushing at any other time turns the curls into frizz (assuming that I don't break the brush).

2) Did they have different bathing caps then. Mary Lou says that hers is no longer any good because her hair got damp. Even with a bathing cap, my hair gets very wet (though maybe slightly less wet). I asked other girls at swimming yesterday, and none of them end up with dry hair either.

 

#30:  Author: LadyGuinevere, Location: Leicester PostPosted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:25 pm

Back when I did synchronised swimming I had to wear a swimming hat (one was a very horrible bright pink) and while it did mostly fail to keep it dry, I did on a few occassions emerge with bone dry hair. And I have a lot of hair.

I think it usually failed because I never got it on properly, so it would gradually slip. Or I'd start off with wet hair because it went on easier then.

~LadyG

 

#31:  Author: Pat, Location: Doncaster PostPosted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:31 pm

in the 50s there were heavy rubber caps that fitted right over your head and fastened under the chin with a rubber strap!!!! Very fetching indeed!!! They did a reasonable job of keeping hair dry, but the stank of rubber!!!!

 

#32:  Author: PatMac, Location: Yorkshire England PostPosted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:38 pm

Thee was certainly a belief that long hair sapped your strength. When I was 12, I had a bone disease in my leg and the first thing they did when I was admitted to hospital was to cut off my long hair!

 

#33:  Author: claire, Location: South Wales PostPosted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 11:16 am

Chelsea wrote:
1) A couple of times, curly haired people are considered luckily, because they just have to quickly brush their hair to make it neat. I cannot brush my hair except just after the shower when it is wet. Brushing at any other time turns the curls into frizz (assuming that I don't break the brush).



Very good point, my husband and our eldest daughter both have curly hair, he will wet his before he brushes it otherwise it looks a mess, with Alicia whatever you do to it within 15 minutes it has gone back to how it was before and looks messy (can look sweet but not exactly neat)

 

#34:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 11:29 am

I think a lot of it depends on whether your hair is long or short. The girls whom EBD considers to be lucky have short curly hair.

 

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