I heard somewhere that in the Roman period baldness was supposed to be a sign of virility and that derived from castrated slaves who didn't have testosterone didn't go bald.
My late grandma had really long hair in her teens - 1890s or a little later - and had rheumatic fever. All her hair fell out on her pillow and her mother picked it up and plaited it, and while her hair was growing back in, she could pin the plait over the short ends and pretend she still had long hair.
Her younger brother had lovely long blond curls until he was about four as his mother wouldn't cut them - once boys were put into trousers they were supposed to have their hair cut but the curls were so lovely she kept not cutting them off until he was getting teased.
As a former 17th century re-enactor, I was told by people who'd seriously studied the social history, that lower status women often had short hair or even cropped under their linen coifs, as a convenience or as a tactic against lice.
18th century beauties, with those enormous powdered hairdos, had to leave them up for days because they took so long to put up and were so expensive. They had silver mesh hairnets to sleep in, to stop mice making nests in it. (A book I read on 18th century fashion years ago.)
My late grandma had really long hair in her teens - 1890s or a little later - and had rheumatic fever. All her hair fell out on her pillow and her mother picked it up and plaited it, and while her hair was growing back in, she could pin the plait over the short ends and pretend she still had long hair.
Her younger brother had lovely long blond curls until he was about four as his mother wouldn't cut them - once boys were put into trousers they were supposed to have their hair cut but the curls were so lovely she kept not cutting them off until he was getting teased.
As a former 17th century re-enactor, I was told by people who'd seriously studied the social history, that lower status women often had short hair or even cropped under their linen coifs, as a convenience or as a tactic against lice.
18th century beauties, with those enormous powdered hairdos, had to leave them up for days because they took so long to put up and were so expensive. They had silver mesh hairnets to sleep in, to stop mice making nests in it. (A book I read on 18th century fashion years ago.)
