Historical Haircare Part 2: 19th Century Hair Washing

Here comes the second part of the historical hair care series! Let's see how 19th century ladies dealt with oily hair.

I've delved, into a few threads on forums and blog posts lately regarding ~19th century hair care. The sources, seem to be for British/American hair care during the era, and I found some interesting tidbits! I'll summarise some points, which I personally found extra worthy of note, but I'll also link the sources for anyone interested.

Frequent Brushing

The Pragmatic Costumer explains, in a wonderful way, how ladies of the 19th century actually weren't afraid of getting oily hair. For someone like myself, born in the 1990's long after the advent of the modern shampoo, oily hair has always been avoided like the plague. And, oily hair can only be avoided through shampooing, right? Apparently, around 1918, the average seemed to be to wash your hair every three weeks (Mental Floss), and as far as I understand, just a few decades earlier during the 19th century, women didn't wash more often than that. What they instead did, according to the Pragmatic Costumer, was to detangle gently with a comb, and then brush through with a natural bristle brush. A boar bristle brush, is a good option that is easy to find in modern stores (I own two!!). The bristles, will soak up some of the sebum (technical term for "oil") and spread the rest along the hair shaft, moisturising the hair and giving it a "clean" look. The bristles, will also brush out actual dirt. Sebum is good for your hair! The hair, will look a bit more slicked than what we're used to in the voluminous schampoo-era. Fans of boar bristle brushing today, will also tell you it's important to clean the brush quite often as it soaks up some of the sebum, and will deposit it back on the hair the next time you brush, unless you give it a proper cleaning. 

Infrequent Washing

Eventually, it would be time for wash-day, even for a 19th century lady. Soap, has long been a method of cleaning hair. It still has a great following today. With my hair type, and since I live in an area with hard water, soap isn't a good option for me. That's why I quite liked what the English History Authors have to say about dealing with oily hair. Eggs, instead of modern shampoo, does the trick of cleaning oily hair. I've tried this myself, long ago before I even started reading up on 19th century hair care, and it works great! It's a bit finicky, to get it onto your scalp, and you need to give yourself a good scalp massage with it to make sure it gets all the sebum off. Also, be sure to not rinse your hair with too warm water, as you'll (literally) get scrambled eggs in your hair and that's a nightmare to get rid of! Yuck! For less oil-prone hair, a honey rinse is recommended. The original recipe, is apparently to dissolve a little honey in "spirits" (alcohol), but I'm curious to find an alcohol-free recipe for that. A third method, to deal with oily hair, is to apply powder on it at night, leave it to soak up the sebum overnight, and then brush out the powder in the morning. Interestingly, this is pretty much historical dry shampoo. Personally, I've had some success applying baby powder at night and then brushing it out in the morning, but mostly I rely on regular dry shampoo for a quick fix. 

Integrating Historical Methods in a Modern Hair Routine

Quoting Our Heritage of Health: "Cleanliness is a Matter of Perception". Today, most (including myself), see oily hair as "dirty" hair. It's gross, it's just "not socially acceptable". Back in the day, oily hair wasn't seen that way. And their hair was better off for it, too, I think. Frequent shampooing, is damaging to your hair, which isn't that much of a problem if you have bra strap length hair or shorter, but might be a problem if you have coloured hair (especially bleached), heat style a lot, or have longer hair. A problem you may face, if you clean your hair with anything but modern sulphate shampoos, is that they don't clean out silicones. Silicones, are a common ingredient in many modern hair products, and may build up over time if you don't clean them out with sulphates, leaving you with lank hair. If you don't avoid silicone products, going full on 19th century hair care might be difficult. Actually, a few modern day alternative methods for cleaning hair, such as sulphate free shampoos or conditioner-only, may not work well either. In this case, you have a few options, for example: 1) avoiding silicones all-together; 2) "clarifying" your hair with a sulphate shampoo as often as needed, alternating with e.g. egg washes or conditioner-only. Honestly, there are so many ways you can put together your own hair care routine, those are only two out of many options!

Sources Used

This is just my personal highlights from these sources, but for anyone interested, you should definitely go have a look at the original content. There you'll find so much more that I personally don't take inspiration from at this point in time, but you might! For example, there is plenty of information on oils and pomades, and recipes for washing including ingredients such as brandy and borax.

First, LHC is where I found most of the sources! Go have a look, the LHC users are the most knowledgable people on hair care that I know of!

The Long Hair Community Forum

- Historical hair care for the modern woman: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=142979 

The rest in alphabetical order:

English History Authors

- A Victorian Lady's Guide to Hair Care: http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.se/2015/12/a-victorian-ladys-guide-to-hair-care.html

Mental Floss

- 5 Easy Tips for Better Hair (From the Early 1900's): http://mentalfloss.com/article/52720/5-easy-tips-better-hair-early-1900s

Our Heritage of Health

- Victorian Shampoo Alternatives: https://www.ourheritageofhealth.com/victorian-shampoo-alternatives/

The Pragmatic Costumer

- The Myth of a Myth: Brushing Your Hair 100 Times: https://thepragmaticcostumer.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/the-myth-of-a-myth-brushing-your-hair-100-times/

Bonus Reading!

Two Nerdy History Girls

- The Truth About the Big Hair of the 1770's: Part One: http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.se/2014/07/the-truth-about-big-hair-of-1770s-part.html

- The Truth About the Big Hair of the 1770's: Part II: How They Did It: http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.se/2014/07/the-truth-about-big-hair-of-1770s-part_24.html

- Hair care in the 1820's and 1830's: http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.se/2014/07/hair-care-in-1820s-1830s.html

Hair School Lesson 1: Surfactants and Sulfates

Surfactants

Surfactants can be found in most shampoos. They're what make the shampoo lather, and the lather makes it easier to get the shampoo through the hair and onto the scalp. Surfactants are also the main "cleaning" agent in shampoos. They dissolve dirt and sebum ("oil") and leaves your hair and scalp squeaky clean. But, they also dry out the hair, and that's why we add conditioner. The sebum's purpose is to coat the hairs and lock moisture into the hair, but if we clean it off, we need artificial sebum - i.e. conditioner - to lock moisture into the hair. Since they are so drying, surfactants can be quite damaging to the hair. Even so, I'd say that most people don't feel it's socially acceptable to not clean your hair. So what do we do?

There are several different types of surfactants, and some are harsher than others.

Anionic surfactants

These are typically the harshest, but also the most cleansing or clarifying.

Sulfates, sulfonates, phosphate esters

Examples:

• Sodium lauryl sulfate (commonly abbreviated SLS, the most common surfactant in shampoos)
• Sodium laureth sulfate (SLES)
• Ammonium lauryl sulfate

Carboxylates

Examples:

• Soaps
• Sodium stearate
• Sodium lauroyl sarcosinate

Zwitterionic or amphoteric surfactants

These are, compared to anionic surfactants, gentle but cleansing.

Examples:

• Cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine
• Cocamidopropyl betaine 

Nonionic surfactants

These are the most gentle surfactants, and are most commonly found alongside anionic or zwitterionic surfactants in a shampoo.

Examples:

• Cetyl alcohol
• Stearyl alcohol
• Decyl glucoside
• Lauryl glucoside
• Cocamide MEA

Cationic surfactants

Cationic surfactants aren't really used as cleansers, but rather as emollients to add slip and anti-static properties to haircare products.

Examples:

• Cetrimonium bromide
• Cetylpurdinium chloride
• Benzalkonium chloride
• Benzethonium chloride 

Sulfate-free shampoos

You've probably seen companies advertising "sulfate-free" shampoos, or perhaps bloggers raving about it. Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), a type of sulfate, is the most common surfactant in shampoos. It's the most "effective" but also the harshest and most damaging. Products which are sulfate-free use milder surfactants and are then, arguably, less damaging. However, have a look at the ingredient list before you buy your new sulfate-free shampoo. Some sulfate-free shampoos have e.g. sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, which is an anionic surfactant (in the same group as SLS) and still pretty harsh. Sarcosinates aren't as harsh as SLS, of course. Different ingredients in the same group can have varying levels of harshness - e.g. ammonium lauryl sulfate (ALS) is anionic, and a sulfate, but still slightly milder than SLS. 

If you want a good sulfate-free shampoo, I'd look for one with zwitterionic and nonionic surfactants. Nonionic surfactants are often so mild that they don't really "do the job" on their own, and a bit of zwitterionic surfactants can then add that little extra cleansing and lathering agency needed. One thing to think about when using sulfate-free shampoos, is that some (not all) lather a lot less than SLS-shampoos. This takes a little getting used to, and you need to really massage that shampoo onto your scalp. An idea could be to part your hair and shampoo different sections of your head systematically. Another idea is to dilute your shampoo with a bit of water in an applicator bottle, shake well, and then squirt the mixture onto your scalp before massaging. 

More reading

Point of Interest!

"Surfactants!"

<http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.se/p/surfactants.html>

Youbeauty

"The Science Behind Hair Products"

<http://www.youbeauty.com/beauty/the-science-behind-curly-hair-products/> 

r/haircarescience

"big giant super basic ELI5 guide to cleansing your hair!!!" <https://www.reddit.com/r/HaircareScience/comments/1vw6sz/big_giant_super_basic_eli5_guide_to_cleansing >

Historical Haircare Part 1: 19th Century Hair Styling

Introducing a new series! I was recently inspired by a post on Makeup Mania called "Scandinavian Hairstyle". It prompted readers to take hairstyle inspiration from cultures all over the world. Quite neat, I think! My own spin on this will be taking inspiration from different epochs of "my own" culture. I've done a bit of reading on Viking hairdos, but that whole topic is quite a labyrinth, so I'll have to put some more effort into it before I post on that topic. But, it will be on here, in the near future!

In the meantime, I've browsed through quite a few portraits of queens from days of yore (i.e the 19th century)!

First, a couple of queens with similar hairstyles. Queen Lovisa of Sweden, circa 1865 and Queen Sofia of Sweden, circa 1872.

What's going on here? Well, a nice length of those 19th century rag curls, and a poofy top with a (flower) crown! Now, I'm not about to start wearing a crown (flowers or no flowers!) and those rag curls are a bit too high maintenance for me, BUT I can appreciate the extremely styled aesthetic. Though, again, too much effort for me - and with my particular brand of hair it wouldn't hold more than an hour or two anyway. So what can I actually take from these portraits? Personally, I've somewhat wavy but mostly straight hair. With a bit of gentle combing I can get it pretty straight without any damage. So, a half-up with straight lengths down my back is entirely doable with little effort. The key, I think, would be to not leave any hair hanging in front of my ears, like a lot of contemporary stylish half-ups seem to do. Now, as for the poofy top... I think two or even three french braids are actually my solution. In my hair, french braids tend to look less like braids and more like poof on the crown on my head. My hair is kind of slippy and doesn't like to stay in place. With a bit of gentle tugging on the braids I think I could work up some good volume.

Now, the second hairstyle for this post, is a particularly interesting updo sported by Queen Josephine of Sweden & Norway, 1837. 

Why particularly interesting, you ask? I'm not sure it's particularly unique for the time period (I've no idea, actually) but I've a secret (or not so secret) love for braids. Woe is me, because my slippy hair doesn't like to be contained in braids. Numerous little braids are particularly enchanting to me, because I can't really sport it without somehow feeling like someone is going to think that I'm appropriating Afro culture. And I've no intention on starting up a debate on that topic here and now, I'm just mentioning it because this portrait gave me an idea. See, I'm not all that into this braided Princess Leia buns vibe that Queen Josephine has going on, but I'm imagining perhaps one bun, on the top of my head? First the hair is pulled into a high ponytail with a nice non-damaging hair ties - off-brand invisibobbles are my go-to - then the tail is braided into numerous little braids and secured with small elastics. Then, the braids are swirled into a bun and secured with a weapon of your choice - I like scrunchies, but I could totally imagine a regular elastic (if you're not worried about mechanical damage) or even a hair stick or hair fork. I'm not sure if hair pins would work, but perhaps someone else can come up with a trick for that? I would feel comfortable and non-appropriative in that sort of hairstyle, as it would have a different aesthetic than what I, at least, associate with Afro culture.

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