Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family
history through old photographs.
This week’s Sepia Saturday photo prompt is a lovely girl
with Rapunzelesque hair. Old photos
passed along to me are filled with images of women with long hair; unfortunately
– at least for addressing this prompt – all that long hair was up in a
bun.
However, my grandaunt Helen Killeen Parker’s photo album
provided this charming picture of Newlyweds with the bride’s hair blowing in
the breeze at Ocean View in Virginia.
As a child, Helen had long hair too, but it was no competition for that of the Bride.
In keeping with the fashion of the times – the 1920s, Helen bobbed her hair.
The hairstyle was quite controversial, scandalous even. Men divorced their wives over bobbed hair. Businesses fired employees who had bobbed their hair. College dress codes forbad bobbed hair.
So I wonder if Helen’s mother (my great-grandmother)
approved. Had local beauticians embraced
the Bob by then or did Helen go to a barbershop? Or did she ask her sister Mae to cut her hair
with kitchen shears?
Let your hair down at Sepia Saturday!
©
2014, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.
What year was "The Newlyweds" taken, Wendy? It almost looks timeless. I had forgotten about the controversy over bobbed hair. My mom, born in 1915, had short (or relatively short) hair her whole life. In fact, I don't think I have a single photograph of an ancestor with her long hair down. Now I'll have to go look to be sure.
ReplyDeleteBased on the few photos that are dated, I think the picture was from sometime between 1918 and 1921.
DeleteI always thought in this picture Helen's hair was rolled up and pinned to look like a bob! ha!
ReplyDeleteWho knows -- but it was certainly neatly done, if so.
DeleteHelen's hair does look rolled up and not bobbed. I have photos of my mother with her long hair down but nobody else, although both of my grandmother's also had long hair.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmothers didn't have long hair, but I bet my great-grandmothers did.
DeleteAs I mentioned on ScotSue's post, when my grandmother's father refused to let her cut her long hair in the 20s, she burned it one night by deliberately getting too close to the fire in the fireplace in front of which she was drying it, so it HAD to be cut.
ReplyDeleteWow -- that's one way to have your way.
DeleteLong hair must have been a nuisance on the beach. I suppose back then the women didn't really put their heads in the water.
ReplyDeleteI would think too long hair filled with sand and salt water would be gross and hard to clean. Imagine combing that hair in the days before cream rinse.
DeleteWhen I first saw you post I wondered what I'd done to be headlined here. What a relief to find it wasn't me, but then with all that hair there is no chance of that.
ReplyDeleteHA -- funny you should say that because I wrote this post well in advance and scheduled it for publication while I was away on a short vacation. When I went into the dashboard to upload the Sepia prompt image, I didn't recognize the title. I thought, "Hello Bob??? What's that??"
DeleteThese are such great photos! Imagine how much time it must have taken for that newlywed to care for her hair.
ReplyDeleteYeah -- and no de-tangler products back then, I bet!
DeleteThe first photo makes a super match for the theme. Perhaps one Saturday we will have a theme for Bob too.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea!
DeleteSteady on there!
DeleteAh the craze for bobbed hair had a lot to answer for. Those early pictures of Helen are very striking.
ReplyDeleteI imagine today it's much harder to fire an employee over their hairstyle.
DeleteThe newlywed photo is awesome...it could be a card for Hallmark!
ReplyDeleteFunny about hair...when I was little, in the late 60's my dad made me cut my hair so I wouldn't look like a "hippie!." I guess hair has been controversial for ever!
That Newlyweds photo was probably rather "sexy" with her hair actually down and blowing like that.
DeleteI've always like longer hair, yet I was the only one in my extended family to grow mine. Well, except for my brother during a stint in the 70's which, looking back, doesn't look all that long and scandalous. Bet he wishes for even an inch of it back ;)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school, boys' sideburns were always in question. As controversial as the Beatles' hairstyle was, it's laughable to look back at their early photos and recall what a to-do they caused.
DeleteDon't you just hate the stupidity of fashion and all of its rules? One year it's this, the next year it's that. Of course I can remember in high school boys being sent home if their hair touched their collar. Rules meant to be broken.
ReplyDeleteChoose your battles! I had a student with an Afro sooooooooo big that I had to make him sit at the back of the classroom because other students couldn't see the board. Now there's a case when fashion was disruptive. LOL
DeleteI never thought much about the hair of my ancestors but I'm sure going to pay attention now! :-)
ReplyDeleteI really don't pay that much attention myself!
DeleteOh I am so amazed by the long hair in these photos! Reading your post and thinking of how others perceived the bobbed hair during that time, it makes me wonder about Helen and what she was like? Do you know much about her?
ReplyDeleteI know LOTS about Helen because I have a couple photo albums passed down to me. I knew her in her "old age" and visited her often as she lived nearby. Sweet and loving lady -- it's fun seeing her as a young girl with lots of friends.
DeleteI adore older photos and the stories entwined with them. I love the newlyweds photo. Great information about the bob cut. I never knew any of that. Ah, now the short hair cuts on women would have people shocked from that era.
ReplyDeleteImagine if women back then shaved part of their head and let the other side grow long!
DeleteThe first photo is so...mermaidish!
ReplyDeleteHmm, yes, you're right.
Delete