Hair in England and The Renaissance.

Artist Sandro Botticelli.
"A young women"

 Here is a image that I found interesting purely because it focuses on the hair more than anything. It gives me an insight of the different texture and plaits, & twists that were used. It is also refreshing to see an image that is not soo neat and tight. This is loose and a it messy looking. This hairstyle was from the renaissance period so although it was the same period as Elizabethan you can see how the style differed yet were similar. "it was usually straight and combed smoothly into a center parting,the long ends formed into braids,twists,curls,rolls, or chignons..and frequently interwoven with ribbons"(Fashions in hair Richard Corson pg 171). As you can see by the description of how women wore their hair at the beginning of this period you can see how the hair developed into neater hair styles that still used these elements like the braids and plaits.





However the hair then developed in England the hair was still styled in a center parting but began to have more texture and not be so flat. This hair style was worn in Italy and France before England; we can even see this from the image above. "instead of smooth flat hair at the temples, tended to be a fluffing out or frizzing"(Fashions in hair Richard Corson pg 171). Queen Elizabeth often wore this look ; since she had a huge impact of fashion and trends many upper class women wore their hair frizzed like hers. Lower class people often braided their hair.

Fashions in hair
Richard Corson.

 You can see how the hair differed depending on nationality, age, class and influences such as the Queen "no single individual has ever exerted such an influence on fashions and beauty of a period." (The Artificial face Fenja Gunn) Even poets were influenced by her her locks of hair "her haire threads of finest Gold"(Sir Phillip Sidney, Arcodia).