Victorian Hair Receiver

by Kristin Holt,

USA Today Bestselling Author

of Sweet Romance set in the Victorian Era American West

What is a hair receiver?

As with all "Dressing Table" accoutrements, Victorians gave family members and close friends items like hair receivers or brush-and-comb sets for their morning toilette.

Hair Receivers Advertised in The Boston Globe (of Boston, Mass.), Dec 3, 1899.

Quick Price Comparison:  

49c in 1889 is approximately $15 in 2019 (latest date available).

24c in 1889 is approximately $7.50 in 2019 (latest date available).

Our nineteenth century ancestors had their own ideas about a lady’s toilette. (All the “getting pretty” one does in the morning.) You might be familiar with the old-fashioned “one-hundred strokes” of a hairbrush through one’s ankle-length, excruciatingly long 19th century hair. You might know all about the intricate hairstyles Victorian-American ladies twisted and braided and pinned. Oh, and curled. With 19th century curling irons. And augmented with hair that was never theirs to begin with. Let's just say Victorian ladies augmented and padded all sorts of things.

But what to do with the loose hairs in the hairbrush, comb, and clinging like a pestilence to one’s bustle? (If you have long hair like many of our 19th century ancestors before us, you know much HAIR is found by the vacuum and broom... it’s everywhere!)

Hence, ladies needed a place to stash all those loose hairs. Under the carpet won’t count, not even for lazy housekeepers or rich upper-crust Missus who have hired help to sweep up the mess later, Yes, including beneath the boudoir carpet. A lady requires a hair receiver.

Make Your Own, Like a 19th Century Gal

Hair Receiver Craft Instructions from Perrysburg Journal, July 7, 1876.

If that style doesn’t appeal to you, here’s another! The writer’s descriptive words makes it possible to visualize the craft without requiring a photograph.

Why stash hair (of all things)?

To use it, of course.

Important 19th century uses of saved human hair:

1.      To fill a hair net (or twenty) [known in the day as a ratt or a rat], sewn closed, to fill out one’s own upd0. “It’s mine, naturally. All that luxurious fullness, all mine.”

2.    Specifically to stuff pin cushions—why? Because the oils on the hairs within would lubricate the pins each time they’re stored in the cushion, thus helping the pin slide through fabric.

3.    To stuff pillows, furniture upholstery, and padded clothing (like football pants)—as human hair was infinitely softer than other substances like straw. More importantly, hair is FREE. And it’s everywhere.

4.    Treasured artwork – Hair Embroidery is 3D in appearance and is often framed in a shadow box. Many Victorian fanciful artists won the equivalent of a blue ribbon (then known as PREMIUMS).

5.     Hair is so intimate, so personal, that women embroidered handkerchiefs for their soldier sweethearts or husbands to carry over their hearts. (I’m not kidding.) The embroidery would be in his lady’s hair—not ribbon, not dyed thread, but her hair. No matter the shade.

6.    When desperate, a beautiful head of hair could be sold. A market for human hair was alive and well throughout the Victorian era, around the world.

7.     To stuff mattresses, quilts, sugans, and anything else life might require.

A Unique Occupation

Do you recall the blog article I shared with you about the surprisingly LONG list of occupations in the Old American West? Let's add Gray Hair Puller.

 

Invitation

Surprised? Do you know more about this fascinating subject?

Please scroll down and comment.

Related Articles

Kristin Holt writes articles about everything nineteenth century American West, and adores inter-connected ideas. This post scratches the surface of Victorian Hair and nineteenth-century grooming practices. Come explore!

Copyright © 2020 Kristin Holt LC

Victorian Hair Care by Abagail Eldan

As I previously mentioned in "Coming Clean," people in the 1800s took this Bible verse seriously: But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering (I Corinthians 11:15). Thus, most women never cut their hair. Some had hair over six feet in length. 

Hair down to there...

Or even to the floor! (Pics from Pinterest)

Even today, with our modern conveniences, caring for such long hair is difficult. Imagine what it must have been like in the 1800s. So, again, washing hair was not something done lightly. Brushing was the way hair was cleaned. Thus, hairbrushes were important to the ladies of the Victorian era.

Here are a few examples (again, from Pinterest):

The comb and brush are […] agents of the toilet by which the hair is kept clean, vigorous, and healthy.’ (Scientific American Supplement Volumes, 1883) ‘Much washing of the hair with water is bad […] it is possible by much brushing to avoid any excessive use of water.’ (Every Woman’s Encyclopaedia, 1910-2) 

A brush consists ‘of a collection of hairs or bristles, fastened in a frame of wood, bone, or ivory; with, or without a handle’ (Domestic Encyclopedia Or A Dictionary Of Facts, And Useful Knowledge, 1802)

Hairbrushes in the Victorian and Edwardian era were often made of ivory, ebony, silver, or alpacca (German silver). Usually horsehair bristles were used for softer, and boar bristles for stiffer brushes. White and yellow boar bristles were imported from Russia and Siberia, whereas dark grey and black were imported from India and China (The Brushmaker, And The Secrets Of His Craft And Romance, 1870s). Hairbrushes were handmade: A wooden brush-back was drilled, bristles ‘drawn’ through each hole with thin wire and secured with a knot.

Interestingly enough, today many hair experts now agree that excessive washing strips hair of its natural oils and can be damaging. Many women brushed their hair for 100 strokes in the morning and before retiring at night. This helped distribute the natural oils to the ends of the hair. All that brushing dirtied the brushes. Some women washed brushes daily while others washed them at least once a week. And yes, there was a correct way to do so.

‘Never use soap. Take a piece of soda, dissolve it in warm water, stand the brush in it, taking care that the water only covers the bristles; it will almost immediately become white and clean; stand it to dry in the open air with the bristles downwards, and it will be found to be as firm as a new brush.’ (The Corner Cupboard; Or, Facts For Everybody, 1859)

‘The best mode is to use soda, dissolved in cold water, instead of soap and hot water; the latter very soon softens the hairs of the brush, and the rubbing completes their destruction. Soda having an affinity for grease, cleans the brush with very little friction.’ (The Workwoman’s Guide, 1840)

Caring for such long hair was a long, tiring business and yet a glorious one.

Darlin', give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair

Shining, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen

Give me down to there hair, shoulder length or longer

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it. 

(Lyric to the song, Hair)

Abagail Eldan received a B.S. in Education from Troy University, with a major in biology and a minor in psychology. She continued her graduate work at Columbus State University, Troy University, and Auburn University, becoming certified to teach English, all mathematics, and all sciences. After teaching for nineteen years, she retired and lives in south Alabama with her husband. Look for her next book, Brokken Promises, coming soon.