Research - Traditional Elizabethan hairstyles - week 1

"Women's hair styles came in for as much criticism as their painting, both of which, the moralists assumed, could have only one purpose - to tempt men into immorl behaviour. "For what meaneth else," asked William Averell in 1588, "the daintie trimming of their heads, the laying out of their hayres, the painting and washing of their faces, the oppening of their breasts, and descovering them to their wastes, their bents of Whale bone to beare our their bummes, their great sleeves and bumbasted shoulders, squared in breadth to make their wastes small, their culloured hose, their variable shooes?"

Alberti was another complainer who was incensed by women's "gadding abroad with frizled lockes, embroidered garments, & other open marks of their lightnesse, onely but to procure their owne scorne and derision," and he warned his readers (whom he addressed as "deare Sisters") that neither "golde, pearles, periwigs, nor painting" would win the love that could better be achieved through a "faire & comely demeanour, humanities, gentlenesse, and modestie".

Stephen Gosson, rector of St Botolph, Bishopgate, from 1600 until his death in 1623, seems to have prepared for the job at the rectory by writing poetry in complaint to women's vanity. His Pleasant Quippes for Upstart Newfangled Gentlewomen, published in 1595, was apltly subtitled, A Glasse to view the Pride of vain-glorious Woman; containing a pleasant invective against the fantastical forreigne Toyes daylie used in Women's Apparell. Only one verse of the nine-page poem refers specifically to hair styles and cosmetics:

These flaming heads with staring haire,

these wyers turnde like hornes of ram:

These painted faces which they weare,

can any tell from whence they cam?

Dan Sathan, Lord of fayned lyes,

All these new fangles did devise.

The "flaming heads" were presumably dyed to match Elizabeth's red wigs. Hair dyes were in use at the time, and in 1602 Hugh Plat instructed his readers "How to colour the head or beard into a chestnut colour in halfe an houre:

"Take one part of lead calcined with Sulphur, and one part of quicklime: temper them somewhat thin with water: lay it upon the hair, chafing it well in, and let it dry one quarter of an hour or thereasbouts; the wash the same off with fair water divers times: and lastly with sope and water, and it will be a very natural hair-colour. The longer it lyeth upon the haire, the browner it groweth, This coloureth not the flesh at all, and yet it lasteth very long in the hair."

In the booke of Robin Conscience Robin's sister flippantly defies her brother's moral chiding:

Tush, I can dye my haire; be it never so black,

I can make it shine like golde in a little space:

Also to tire up my head I have such a knack,

That some maides will delight to follow my trace.

I can lay out my haire to set out my face:

Oh, to be faire and feate, nice and neate, is a gay thing:

To colly and kisse, my pleasure it is, for all your new learning.

These words, the author warns us, lest we inadvertendly be taken in, are the "workes of the devill". Robin, evidently speaking for the author, gives the expected response:

To dye and to fleare your haire so abroad;

Surely, sister, you doo it shamefully use:

For with the Scriptures it dooth not accord,

That maides nor wives their haire should so abuse;

Cover it for shame: it is the use of studues.

Therefore measure your pleasure by God's woord and will,

And you shall finde that your minde is whorish and ill.

And the dialogue goes on about sweet-smelling pomanders, golden chains, and stomachers; and at the end the author regretfully comes to a conclusion which, had it been reached earlier, might have saved him a great deal of trouble:

To talke well with some women dooth as much good,

As a sicke man to eate up a loade of greene wood."

Some Elizabethan women with traditional hairstyle:

1606 - Painting by Robert Peake the Elder (British, active by 1576, died 1619)

of Princess Elizabeth (1596–1662), Later Queen of Bohemia

1600 "Rainbow" portrait by Isaac Oliver - Queen Elizabeth 

Lettice Knollys as Countess of Leicester,

 c. 1585 by George Gower

Unknown lady

Anne Boleyn, by Unknown artist, 

ate 16th century (circa 1533-1536)

Mary Queen of Scots Anonymous Oil on canvas,

 c.1600-1699 UCL Art Museum 5508

1565 Eleanor Benlowes (?) attributed to Steven van der Meulen

 (St. John's College, University of Cambridge - Cambridge UK)

"Mary Cornwallis, Countess of Bath" by George Gower [1540 - 1596]

Nicholas Hilliard (1547 – 1619) "Young Woman"

Attributed to Sir William Segar Portrait of a Lady. Guesstimating c. 1585-90.

Portrait of Jennet Parkinson, wife of Cuthbert Hesketh of Whitehill, Lancashire. By George Gower, 1580. The Weiss Gallery, London.

Portrait of an Unknown Lady Wearing the White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lancaster

Dorothy, Lady Dormer by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, c. 1596 (detail)

Unknown Lady, aged 21. Artist unknown. 1595-1600. 

After looking at the portraits shown above, I've noticed that historical accurate Elizabethan hairstyles were most of the times heart shaped or round, padded or frizzy, and the hairline of the ladies was shaven to look like they had a larger forehead. They often incorporated adornments into the hair, such as pearls, precious stones, feathers, ribbons, emboidered hats etc. They liked to style their hair with plaits and to have buns at the back.

Also, I have researched some drawings just to have a more detailed image of the hairstyles only. This helps me to determine which kind of texture it was used back then to style the hair and how they actually styled it.

Queen Elizabeth I

Here is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth which I really liked, because her hairstyle was simple but still had a powerful meaning behind it. The coronation portrait is actually one of my favourites, because of the nice ermine fur and the stunning golden dress. Also, I think that Elizabeth's choice to wear simple hair at her coronation reflects her interest in emphasizing more the crown than herself, which, in my oppinion, it suggests that from now on, the country is more important than her personal needs. This can be proven by the fact that she did not marry, even when she was in love, because she wanted to give all her attention to the needs of England. She also states that she is "married to England", which can only mean that her commitment to the people is beyond her personl interests.

"Elizabeth wears her hair long  and loose, it's golden hue contrasting with the white of the ermine and merging with the gold of her cloak. She wears it so simply because this was the way in which a bride wore her hair at her marriage; likewise a queen at her coronation as she commits herself to her country."

When the queen got older, she embellished her hair with lots of jewelry and she used wigs so she can carry and show more in her hair. This was a symbol of wealth and power and it was the statement of the era.

"It is a benefit for being neither rich nor famous that, if painted at all, you are generally only depicted when your most youthful and beautiful. Not so with a great queen. We see Elizabeth again in middle age, with her hair up and her forehead plucked. With jewels swen into her hair, it's complexity rivals that of her lace ruff. It is almost as if it is an article of clothing - in other words a wig - rather than her own hair. In all probabilty this is the case, because she did have a great number of wigs."

"The queen in middle age with her forehead plucked beneath what was probably a wig, used as a vehicle for impressive jewellery. Elizabeth I. Engraving by Anthony Gucho after More (author's collection).




The Ermine Portrait, William Segar, 1585. Elizabeth as Pax.



"The Sieve Portrait", c. 1580-1583. Attr. to Cornelius Ketel. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena.


"Elizabeth's appearance in these portraits was modelled on a pattern derived from the Petrarchan ideal of womanhood: her golden hair, her fair complexion, the red and white roses in her cheeks, the emblems of the sieve and the ermine, were all typical"

Sources:

1. Corson, R. (2004) Fashions in makeup: From ancient to modern times. London: Peter Owen Publishers.
2. Bryer, R. (2000) The history of hair: Fashion and fantasy down the ages. London.
3. Williams, P. (1998) The later Tudors: England 1547-1603. 1st edn. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
4. Movieclips (2011) Elizabeth (11/11) movie CLIP - the virgin queen (1998) HD. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mnLbhHR6-g (Accessed: 1 October 2015).
5. Voluspa / Asatru (2013) Queen Elizabeth I Coronation (greatness) HD. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uapvgwQpgM (Accessed: 1 October 2015).
6. Portraiture of Elizabeth I of England (2015) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portraiture_of_Elizabeth_I_of_England (Accessed: 1 October 2015).
7. Portraits of Queen Elizabeth the First, part 2: Portraits 1573-1587 (no date) Available at: http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/elizface2.htm .
8. Elizabethan make-up and hairstryle insp (2015) Available at: https://ro.pinterest.com/isimonagabriela/elizabethan-make-up-and-hairstryle-insp/ .
9. Corson, R. (2004) Fashions in makeup: From ancient to modern times. London: Peter Owen Publishers.