Coiffures Francaises (or French Hairstyles)

To participate in the first ever Weekly HubMob topic All About Various Popular Hair Styles: Their history and how to create them, I thought it would be fun to explore the French Braid, in honor of my daughter who is now blogging about her efforts to earn money for a trip to France.

I learned to French Braid as a child on a horse's tail. That's right, a horse's tail. My mom taught riding lessons and had us on the 4H circuit where I tried (and mostly failed) to show Hunt Seat.

Of course Hunt Seat is an English riding style, not French, and I wondered if French Braids might be kind of like French Fries and not necessarily French at all. I didn't get much help from google, just a couple of smart alec responses on Yahoo Answers with no citations or references.

Coincidentally, I needed to call my daughter's French teacher to discuss some of the details of the upcoming trip to France, so I decided to ask her if she knew if French Braids really originated in France. She said she didn't think so. "What about a French Twist?" I asked. She still didn't think so.

In my searches of "History of French Braid" and "French Hairstyle History" and various other keyword combinations, I discovered a lot of fun information about coiffures francaises.

I learned that Marie Antoinette inspired the Beehive. And then I learned that it was a US invention. I guess it's confused with the fontage. But then the fontage is confusing, too. Some sites say it is a huge, elaborately deocrated hair style, often requiring ladders for the hair dressers. Others say it is the hair piece itself, also somewhat large, but worn with a rather closely pinned hairstyle.

And the pompadour, made popular by the likes of Johnny Cash and Elvis, was named for Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV. But apparently Madame inspired a female hairstyle. She sounds like quite the influential woman of her time, but did she really influence guys to wear that awful hairdo?

The truth is researching this article left me very confused. I'll be glad when my daughter learns a bit more French and can help me sort out the truth.

It turns out, I tend to wear somewhat French hairstyles, at least in name. According to Hairstyle, c. 1380-1410, France, "An often overlooked French style consists of very tightly curled, jaw-length hair." Mine is a bit more than jaw-length now, but I found that a curly-curly perm was the only way I could let my thick, course hair grow. I just don't have the patience for styling! After years of frustration, then more years of perming, I now have long curyl hair that I can mousse and go. Mousse. I bet that's a french word, right?

When I want my hair off of my neck, I pull it back and twist it from the nape, then clip it. I learned that my "style" is a loose French Twist. And now and then I'll French Braid my hair to get it out of my eyes.

I apologize. I was the wrong person to write this hub. I have no sense of style. I refuse to spend more than thirty seconds or so "fixiing" my hair. The French deserve better. Maybe my daughter will help me update this hub when she returns from her trip to France.

Anyone think this is a bit overly-promotional? Wait - I only used two links to that domain, so I should be okay, right?

I can use that "hair dye" tag - French chemist Eugene Schueller invented the first synthetic hair dye in 1907. Schueller was the founder of L'Oreal, the maker of not only my favorite color products, but my very favorite styling products for curls. Scrunch and Go!

I'm learning so much about hair from this HubMob! I thought I'd add this section to keep my French theme up-to-date with the latest and greatest related information from my fellow hubbers.

In The Mop Top larryfreeman notes:

"In September, 1961, Paul and John traveled to Paris to visit their friend Jurgen Vollmer whom they had met in Hamburg. The first "Beatle haircut" of Paul and John happened in Paris. George got his haircut when Paul and John returned. "

Shadesbreath notes in Hairstyles of the British Court: Whigs in Wigs:

"Wigs found cosmetic use in 1624 when the French king, Louis the XIII - known as "Louis the Bald" ("Flip Your Wig") - began wearing one to cover up his onset baldness."

By the way, the English peruke is from the French perruque, an adaptation of the Italian perruca or parrucca according to Online Encylopedia.

Rochelle Frank astutely points out that "A lot of salons seem to think that having a French name is classy, or even Klassy." in Harebrained Names for Beauty Salons. I think she is on to something, and perhaps explains the name for French Braid.

Enjoy more hairstyle articles from the HubMob.

^{Copyright Dineane Whitaker 2008 - Please do not copy and paste this article, but feel free to post a link using this url: http://hubpages.com/_ndwcopyright/hub/Coiffures-Francaises-or-French-Hairstyles}