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The Dressing of the Hair, Moustachios and Beard
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In the illustration given of "Ridiculous Taste, or the Lady's Absurdity," Monsieur le Friseur
is mounted on a high pair of steps, and is operating upon the smook mit of the lady's coiffure; a gentleman is taking stock, and giving
orders from below.
In the example given from " Jacquemin," the head-dress represents a ship in full sail.
In 1776 an etching appeared entitled "Bunker's Hill, or America's Head-dress." The enormous
headgear of the lady represents the battle, with tents, fortifications, cannon, and battalions. From the crests of the three hills of
the head-dress, which are duly fortified and defended with soldiery and cannon, three banners are flying, on which are figured,
respectively, a goose, a monkey, and two ladies holding arrows. The lower portion of the head-dress represents a sea fight.
In the same year appeared "The New Fashioned Phaeton," a mezzotint representing a conveyance
provided with springs, which lifts the lady and her headgear up to the first-floor window, and does away with the need for walking up
and down stairs.
Another print issued by the same publisher is a "hint to the ladies to take care of their
heads." The ladies' head-dress having caught alight from a chandelier hanging from the ceiling of a high room, and people are putting
out the fire by means of large squirts.
A charming design for a fancy head-dress is entitled "Betty the Cook maids Head drest." It is
in the form of a heart, the centre of which is occupied by a Cheshire cheese with mice, surrounded with a border of greengrocery, &c. On
the summit is a stove, with fire alight and meat cooking. A monkey sits upon the stove, wearing a fool's cap and bells, and admiring
himself in a mirror. On either side of the head-dress are two trophies composed respectively of a mop and fire-irons and a besom and
cooking utensils.
The legend runs:
"The taste at present all .may see,
But none can tell what is to be.
Who knows, when fashion's whims are spread,
But each may wear this kitchen head?
The noddle that so vastly swells,
May wear a fool's cap hung with bells."
High plumes of feathers re-appeared in 1796. Gillray produced a caricature of a fashionable
belle journeying to the Assembly Rooms at Bath in a sedan chair. The top of the conveyance is opened to accommodate the lady's
head-dress, a monstrous feather projecting yards above the sedan — a parasol is fastened to a long pole strapped on the back of the
hindermost portion and protecting the top.
During the feather period, a favourite idea was to represent attacks by ostriches, peacocks,
and other interested birds. This occurs in a number of prints of the period. The print by John Collet, 1779, of " The Feathered Fair is
a Fright; or, Restore the Borrowed Plumes," represents two girls attacked by ostriches:
"Two lassies who would like their mistresses shine,
On their heads clap'd some feathers to make them look fine;
When two ostriches suddenly came within sight,
And put the poor girls in a terrible fright.
"But how the Birds got to England's no matter,
Tho' they certainly made a most terrible clatter;
Fanny screamed as she ran, and scampering Polly,
With her Fan fought the birds in defence of her folly."
If the reader be curious in regard to the modus operandi of these astonishing creations, he
(or more probably it will be she) is referred to "Plocacosmos; or, The Whole Art of Hairdressing," by James Stewart, 1782, wherein the
mysteries of the art are set forthwith great minuteness and elaboration, far too long to be explained here. The directions for the
lady's "nightcap " may, however, be given:
"All that is required at night is to take the cap or toke off, as any other ornament, and as
you put them on, you can easily know how to take them off: with regard to the hair, nothing need be touched but the curls; you may take
the pins out of them, and, with a little soft pomatum in your hands, stroke the hairs that may have started; do them with nice long
rollers, wind them up to the roots, and turn the end of each roller firmly in to keep them tight, remembering at the same time the hair
should never be combed at night, having always so bad an effect as to give a violent headache next day.
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