And with ALL THAT HAIR one must wonder WHEN did hair salons and parlors come into fashion? Well...THAT is a great question. Ill tell ya...^_^ Ancient Greek writers Aristophanes and Homer both mention hairdressing in their writings & in ancient Egypt, hairdressers cherished their ornately decorated cases which held their styling tools, BUT it was Monsieur Champagne who became the first male hair coiffeur [he also coined that term] in France in 1640s when he opened his own shop in Paris to fix the wigs & tresses of wealthy women. By 1777 there were approximately 1,200 hairdressers...however, according to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, The profession of hairdressing was launched as a genuine profession when Legros de Rumigny was declared the first official ladies hairdresser of the French court. In 1765 de Rumigny published his book Art de la Coiffure des Dames, which discussed hairdressing and included pictures of hairstyles designed by him. The book was a best seller, and four years later de Rumigny opened a school for hairdressers: Academie de Coiffure. Upon his death in 1770, other hairdressers gained in popularity, specifically three Frenchmen: Frederic, Larseueur, and Léonard. Leonard and Larseueur were the stylists for Marie Antoinette. By 1850, Queen Victoria publicly declared that wearing makeup was vulgar and only for use by actors. Natural beauty was IN. Thus, hairstylists flourished as hair became THE beauty standard alongside perfumers to help cover odors of the day. And sometimes these were in the same establishment, though patronage of such salons were done on the sly as Victorians were loathe to admit they needed help to look & smell their best. In fact, so much so, that they entered salons through the back door. LOL. Silly women! And, btw, speakin of perfumes, Queen Victoria was a devotee of British perfume house Creed, founded in 1760, after being introduced to it by Empress Eugénie of France. Creed responded by presenting Victoria with Fleurs de Bulgarie in 1845, a heady scent which she wore exclusively til the day she died]. In 1890, in a Paris salon, a hairdresser named Alexandre Godefroy invented the hair dryer which consisted of a metal bonnet hood attached to a chimney pipe of his gas stove. The hot air from the stove was directed to blow over the clients head. Voila!! But, we can thank Canadian hairdresser, Martha Matilda Harper for the modern concept of beauty salons we know today cause she invented the reclining shampoo chair & the franchising concept n the world of hair design. In 1882, she opened her Harpers Salon for women in Rochester, NY and sold her own hair tonic she created from natural ingredients. She became an overnite sensation! Others wanted to copy her style, so she established rules for her every expanding operations. At the end of the century, there were 200 Harper Salons in the U.S. & by 1928, the number had grown to over 500 beauty salons. So, there you have it...Whether here OR there, for that wily Victorian woman it truly was ALL about the hair! ;)
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 19:01:52 +0000
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