1920s Hair Nets

[Penny Dreadful]

I just received a comment on a blog post I wrote about clip-in bangs, and I don't have an answer. Maybe you ladies can help me out?

"I found your blog looking for clarification on something in a 1920 photo of a drugstore, and a display of hairnets. In the upper right, hairnets 2 for a quarter or a dozen for $1.35… “Cap and fringe shapes.”

I remember people using hairnets in the 1950′s, and seeing them in their tiny waxy-paper bags at stores when I was little, but I have no idea about a “fringe shape” hairnet and thought maybe you would know.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/12809?size=_original

http://www.shorpy.com/node/12809?size=_original "

 

[lframe]

When I get home, I'll open on my monitor where I do photo editing (30") and see if I can't pull it into a resolution at that size where I can get a good image. I'm out and on my laptop and can't enlarge it clearly enough here.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I don't know if this is what this is for, but I have ads in my 1920s magazines for a net-like thing you could put on your head and it would form indents into your hair -- making "waves."

 

[lframe]

I did one better and called Grandma. According to her, the fringe shape was a hair net that covered your bangs so they wouldn't get messed up, with the regular netting.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Found this answer on google:

"Cap" shaped hairnets were for bobbed hair.
"Fringe" shaped hairnets were for long hair.

"The business of making hair nets began to decline in 1923. This was due to the popular fashion of bobbed hair. When this fashion swept the country it forced forty thousand girls in Shanghai out of employment. This decline in business continued until 1929, when a modified return to long hair increased the demand for nets. By this time, however, a small, cap-shaped net for bobbed hair had entered the field and attained great popularity. Milady of fashion could now call for a 'cap' net, or, if she preferred, the 'fringe', which was made for long hair."

From a book published in 1940.

http://books.google.com/books?id=3J...wAw#v=onepage&q=fringe shape hair net&f=false

Quite possibly a fun book for us to read!!

 

[lframe]

Nice. That's even better. Grandma was going off my Great-Grandma and she was born in the late 20's. So, wasn't sure. If Grandpa had been living? Better source.
s.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

That book on that link looks really interesting! It was published in 1940. Who can resist a history of "Accessories of Dress" up to 1940?? I bookmarked it to read one of these days...lol

 

[I Adore Film Noir]

Found this answer on google:

"Cap" shaped hairnets were for bobbed hair.
"Fringe" shaped hairnets were for long hair.

"The business of making hair nets began to decline in 1923. This was due to the popular fashion of bobbed hair. When this fashion swept the country it forced forty thousand girls in Shanghai out of employment. This decline in business continued until 1929, when a modified return to long hair increased the demand for nets. By this time, however, a small, cap-shaped net for bobbed hair had entered the field and attained great popularity. Milady of fashion could now call for a 'cap' net, or, if she preferred, the 'fringe', which was made for long hair."

From a book published in 1940.

http://books.google.com/books?id=3J...wAw#v=onepage&q=fringe shape hair net&f=false

Quite possibly a fun book for us to read!!

Thank you! My library has access to this book so I placed a hold on it. I also placed holds on Katherine Lester's other two books:

Historic costume : a resumé of style and fashion from remote times to the nineteen-sixties (1961)
and
Historic costume : a résumé of the characteristic types of costume from the most remote times to the present day (c1925)