Victorian Hairstyles

Due to Queen Victoria's long reign Victorian hairstyles changed significantly during her time on the throne. this is most visible from the early Victorian era to the late Victorian era.
The Victorian women didn't cut their hair and so it was very long and worn up.
When Victoria came to the throne it was in fashion to have what was known as a double parting, a V shaped parting. After a few years this moved on to a more obvious middle parting The weight of the hair was high up on the cheek bones, this could be either as ringlet, tight curls that fell onto the cheeks or a smooth sleek plait that swept back. the back of the hair would be in a middle to high bun. the hair was never low.
If women had shorter hair at the front or a fringe it had to be curled. 
These high buns were called Apollo Knots and were styled so they would fit under the ladies hats.

The allure of the bun (no date). 4 Responses to The allure of the bun. Available at: http://www.behindballet.com/the-allure-of-the-bun/ (Accessed: 24 January 2015).

As you can see in this diagram above the buns were high and the fringes were curled.

Victorian Hair Jewelry (no date). Victorian Hair Jewelry | How to Make Victorian Jewelry. Available at: http://www.victoriana.com/Jewelry/victorian-hair-jewelry.html (Accessed: 24 January 2015).

This picture depicts an early Victorian hairstyle probably around 1840. the weight is high up on the cheek bone and the centre parting is obvious.

As the years went on the curls by the side of the face moved further back towards the ear and dropped a little.

Beautiful Victorian Hairstyles (no date). Beautiful Victorian Hairstyles | Victorian Hairstyle Pictures. Available at: http://www.beauty-and-the-bath.com/beautiful-victorian-hairstyles.html (Accessed: 24 January 2015).

As the decades went on ladies attitudes to hair loosened and the styles became looser and more romantic, the curls dropped from ringlets to be loose curls and they moved further back.

The curling tong was invented in 1866 and so this made curling the hair easier and quicker making it a lot more fashionable to have a lot of the hair curled, however this tong was not like one we'd use today. It was made completely of metal and the ladies would place this in an oven like box to heat it up. It was incredibly damaging to the hair due to the temperature the tong would reach and the amount the women used this on their hair.

Its known that the women of the mid to late Victorian era used padding in their hair or would collect the hair that they lost and use this as a rat just like in the Elizabethan era. This gave for higher more elaborate hair styles. Women also would leave curls out of the bun to cover the neck. All the weight of the hair was in the back.

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