The love affair we have with hair

The love affair that human beings have with their beloved mane is like no other. As a matter of fact, no other creature on earth cuts, styles, shapes or colours their hair simply because they want it to look different. Apart from a bit of hair or feather plucking, human beings are the only animals that purposely change the appearance or presence of body and head hair – and we have been doing it for centuries.

Since the beginning of time, African hairstyles have been many and varied due to the many tribes on this continent and in Africa hair is often used to signify status. Warriors of the Masai tribe tie the front hair into sections of tiny braids whilst the back of the hair grows to waist length. Non-warriors and women, however shave their heads. Many tribes colour the hair with red earth and grease – some even harden it with animal dung.

As far back as ancient Greece, women’s hair was grown long and pulled back into a chignon. Many coloured their hair red with henna and sprinkled it with gold dust, often decorating it with flowers or jewelled tiaras. Men’s hair was short and even shaved on occasion.

By the eighteenth century, in Europe, individuals began to wear complexe wigs, mile-high coiffures and highly decorated curls. White powdered wigs with curly long ringlets were the order of the day and were often tied back with a glossy black bow for men or decorated with feathers, flowers and garlands for women.

By the 1920’s society had very much abandoned the puritanical values and restrictions of Victorian life. The Roaring 20s saw the birth of short, bobbed and waved styles, signifying the new independent, free-spirited, free-woman philosophy of the day. Women increasingly had access to cinema / theatre and the various trends were set by the ‘superstars’ of the time – the same is true now and Hollywood still influences much in the way of fashion, hair and beauty.

Cultural styles and so-called norms have varied widely over the last several decades. In the 60s, there was a revolution with the wearing of unisex long hair as a political statement and then becoming a popular fashion trend. Into the 1970s, this trend continued and incorporated influences from various ethnic hairstyles and in the 1980s we saw a surge in ultra short ’New Wave’ hairstyles, influenced by the music industry.

Nowadays we wear our hair in thousands of various styles & combinations from up to down and from plaited to straightened.  At sites like Hair Updos you'll find many updo images which show an incredible amount of variety in the creativity we apply to our hair for special occasions.

Body hair also follows trends - men’s facial hair for instance has gone through every possible styling fashion over the centuries, from naturally grown out, to complicated moustache and beard styling, to shaved smooth.

With the rise of physical culture and the ever-present media set image, it has become popular for both men and women to remove nearly all their body hair from the neck down.

As humans evolve, they are increasingly less hairy. They appear to be adapting to the warmer climate and have invented many things to protect them from the harsh elements suchas clothing, buildings and beauty products - therefore hair is no longer functional, but purely decorative. Just the way we like it.