Historic hair: Securing braid ends before elastic?

[dezibela]

How did they do it? I assume with sewing thread around the tail, but maybe not? Did different cultures use different methods?

Does anyone here sew their braid ends? Details & pictures appreciated!

[bunzfan]

I don't know but i have often wondered this, i'm guessing with ribbon maybe.

[StellaKatherine]

I've noticed, that the longer my hair becomes the better the braid stays braided without using any elastics! But yes, ribbons were very popular !

[curlylocks85]

This is a great question. I am just guessing that they had their own versions of hair toys or ribbons of some kind that were hidden underneath. I will keep checking this thread to see what others have to say. :)

[Anje]

Strings and ribbons work very well on my hair IF I braid them in for several inches first. They'll slip right off the ends otherwise. (Similarly, my hair's too slick to hold itself in a braid for long.)

[SunnyIC]

There is a youtube channel by a lady named Janet Stephens who is a hairdresser and amateur archaeologist, she specialises in historic hair tutorials, mainly Ancient Roman. She has a couple of videos about braiding in which she explains that they would use needle and thread to sew the braids (to the scalp, together, "closed", etc.) and many other hairstyles we often see in sculptures, because it was easier to hide in the hair. Her videos are very well researched and quite interesting for people who like historical hairstyles (if you would like the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/jntvstp/videos). This is what I know, but maybe there are other ways.

[LipstickGirl]

In relatively recent times, girls who wore their hair in one or two plaits (braids) certainly used ribbons, I have a book where a girl talks about her ribbons for school and her nicer ribbons that she wears to church. (It's the Herons of Pikeys Steep, if anyone knows it.)

[tokugawa.miyako]

Woah, that YouTube channel is really cool! I'm a huge history nerd, so I have a feeling I'll be watching through all those videos in the next few days. Thanks for the post! :eek:

[SunnyIC]

Woah, that YouTube channel is really cool! I'm a huge history nerd, so I have a feeling I'll be watching through all those videos in the next few days. Thanks for the post! :eek:
When I first found the channel I watched almost all the videos in one day, I was so excited! Love History too and I've always wondered how people used to do their hair with such limited resources, so finding this lady was like a match made in hair heaven :D

[dezibela]

It seems like ribbons would fall right out.

[meteor]

Yes, I love that channel too! :D

What really surprised me was that according to Janet Stephens' videos, bodkins were used just to hold hair before sewing updos in place... but they didn't use bodkins as finishing hairsticks/forks, strangely.

As for holding braids, it's really easy to weave a ribbon or scarf or paranda into braid (the more high up you do it, the more securely it holds) and tie it off at the end. I think it's gentle on hair. I find it holds better when the braid is longer.

[pinchbeck]

This is a question I wondered about when a couple of weeks ago on a windy day when I lost my hair elastic that secured my braid. While at the park I looked around hoping to find anything to secure my hair with and then asked myself this question. There were no elastics lost in the grass so my only options were to either twist my hair and tuck in in my top or to rip off a long piece of a plastic bag that I had and tie that around the end of my braid. I chose the latter and laughed at how tacky it looked. Hey...I was desperate!

Now I am going to watch the videos mentioned above.

[Stellaaa]

I was once an extra in a Discovery Channel movie where I played an ice-age woman. The end of my braid was secured with a strip of leather.

[RoseofCimarron]

Seconding the leather strip and ribbons. I remember seeing Native American dancing demonstrations (aka, most of my grade-school assemblies) and they all wore braids tied with strips of leather. I have a few of my mother's feather and leather extensions from the 70's and to tie them onto my hair I first have to put the braid through a small loop at the end and then slide a bead up to tighten the loop (like a bolo tie).

I'm thinking of a possibility of using a piece of spun wool yarn? For places like Scotland and Ireland (where almost everything was wool) that might be easier to get than leather. I know back in some years of Medieval times women would wear their hair in two long braids, and tie the ends off with little silk caps that had more human hair or silk threads hanging down (think braid extensions) because long, thick braids were a status symbol. So could it be a special wrapping technique that kept the leather/yarn/string/silk cord from falling off?

[Chiaroscuro]

Thank you for the video channel, sunnyIC! I'll try adapting some for myself. I love vintage styles.

[Knifegill]

Glad somebody already brought this up. Would leather break hair? I'd like to use leather for most non-wood hair securing, but only if it's not going to break my hair.

[Marika]

I think it depends on how historic are we talking about and what social background. I have some photographs of my grandmother's (poor) family from 1900-1920s. Young girls usually wore double English braids with ribbons but that was only for photographs (such a rare occation back then). My grandmother said years ago that they wore just wool yarn or whatever string in everyday life. Certainly didn't have time to sew hair because even kids worked very long hours on top of going to school. My great-grandmother (born in 1882) was very religious and wore a tight bun all the time. She must have had some kinds of pins. Never had a chance to ask her because she died in early 1930s.

[AnqeIicDemise]

I've managed to tie my own braid with a strand of shed hair. Its surprisingly sturdy....

[RoseofCimarron]

Glad somebody already brought this up. Would leather break hair? I'd like to use leather for most non-wood hair securing, but only if it's not going to break my hair.

I think it would depend on the leather you use. If I was using a strip of leather to tie my hair back I would probably use suede leather lace (https://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/suede-deerskin-lace.aspx) because it is really soft (you can also find it at craft stores such as Michaels). If you are good with leatherwork, you could make yourself a little hair tie of a folded piece of soft leather sewn or glued shut. The only problem I can see would be the rough back side of the leather, but I have a leather slide barrette with a very rough back and I have never had a problem with it.

[SunnyIC]

Yes, I love that channel too! :D

What really surprised me was that according to Janet Stephens' videos, bodkins were used just to hold hair before sewing updos in place... but they didn't use bodkins as finishing hairsticks/forks, strangely.

As for holding braids, it's really easy to weave a ribbon or scarf or paranda into braid (the more high up you do it, the more securely it holds) and tie it off at the end. I think it's gentle on hair. I find it holds better when the braid is longer.
I found that interesting too. When she mentioned they would keep the "spare" hair secure with bodkins I thought why not just use them to keep the hair secure too, the buns could probably work with them. But, I guess they had a different way of thinking :) (maybe they would wear the same hair style for many days and having to readjust the bodkins would take more time that necessary?)


Thank you for the video channel, sunnyIC! I'll try adapting some for myself. I love vintage styles.
You're welcome! :D I love seeing her videos so much I figured this question would be the perfect to share her knowledge, read an article (thesis more like it) she wrote a couple of years ago debunking archaeologists ideas of how women would style their hair and it amazes me how much research she puts into her videos.

[dezibela]

That channel is wonderful! I wonder if, in 600 years, women will be asking how we styled our hair in the 21st Century.

[meteor]

That channel is wonderful! I wonder if, in 600 years, women will be asking how we styled our hair in the 21st Century.

I doubt it: we've left way too much information all over Pinterest/YouTube/Instagram and everywhere else, as it is! :lol: My guess is that future anthropologists will be more concerned about sifting through tons of repeated noise in order to zero in on important data.

[dezibela]

Meteor, you're assuming a zombie apocalypse hasn't wiped out all our technology. Optimist.

[brickworld13]

Meteor, you're assuming a zombie apocalypse hasn't wiped out all our technology. Optimist.

And this is why I'm considered a weirdo in my book circles. I want a real book I can actually hold. I have some ebooks, but if I really like them I always get a hard copy. Technology is finicky, and I've had too many drive crashes to trust that the data will always be available.

[meteor]

That's so true, dezibela! :D I rely way too much on digital data!

[sumidha]

When I was a kid growing up at renaissance faires we used to tie off the ends of our braids with small strips of scrap fabric that I believe came from a cheap thrift store sheet... Basically a ribbon, but we were dressing peasant, so no fancy ribbons. ;)

I think having the ragged unfinished edges and textured fabric helped to keep it in place, as did wrapping it around the braid three or four times very tightly, if that makes sense. Just making one pass around didn't give enough surface area for it to stay. For middle class we used grosgrain ribbon, the kind with ribbing. Never anything satiny.

[Vrindi]

Strings and ribbons work very well on my hair IF I braid them in for several inches first. They'll slip right off the ends otherwise. (Similarly, my hair's too slick to hold itself in a braid for long.)

^^ This. Ribbons and strings are a fail unless I braid them in if only for a few turns paranda-style.

[skeletonous]

And this is why I'm considered a weirdo in my book circles. I want a real book I can actually hold. I have some ebooks, but if I really like them I always get a hard copy. Technology is finicky, and I've had too many drive crashes to trust that the data will always be available.

Agreed! :D There's nothing like holding a real book and flipping through the pages. I also like to have the CD of music albums that I really like rather than buying it off of Amazon/Itunes. Same goes for DVDs.