These advertisements are from the turn of the twentieth century through to the approach of World War I, a period when women's hairstyles had once again ballooned in size. The lavish pompadours and the great, overall volume of these styles required much more follicular material than most ladies possessed. So most - high-born and low - arranged their tresses over a "rat", a horsehair pad or pads of varying shape and size. But then all sorts of other hairpieces - curls, chignons, plaits, puffs, twists - were often added as well. And there were those ladies who resorted to a full-on wig to attain the appearance of bounty demanded by les modes: "a woman's crowning glory", one way or another.
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| The majority of these illustrations feature a bit of cross-advertising. At the bottom one finds "Bustes en Cire, Maison P. Imans, 10 rue de Crussol, Pairs." Pierre Imans - whose celebrated work I recently featured in a post - would have supplied the wax mannequins on which these hairstyles were displayed. |
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| These are obviously meant for fancy dress or for theatrical purposes. |
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