Hats and Hairstyles in 1912

Hats were not just an accessory but an adornment in 1912. They were still a year away from Mary Crosby’s invention of the bra and three years from a tube of lip stick being sold for the first time.

If you’ve seen the movie Titanic, you’ve seen the beautiful hats of the time. They had the wide brim and were large and covered the face.

The short bob was introduced in Paris in 1909 and quickly spread. Actress Irene Castle was a trendsetter for short hair in America. Hair was frequently supplemented with pastiches. These were false curls, buns or small wigs that were easily able to be incorporated into the hairstyle for extra volume.

Women curled their hair with heated curlers. The permanent wave was just being invented and took twelve hours to complete and hair coloring was only five years old. Mainly actresses and models wore makeup, but if a woman did wear makeup in 1912 she would place dark eye liner around the outside of her eye, powder her face lighter than her natural skin color and emphasis her lips.

Another hairstyle you might see would be curtain hair. This was when short hair was parted down the middle and worn with an elaborate headband underneath. Often these headbands were extensively beaded, had feathers or jewels incorporated, especially for an evening outing. This technique allowed the hair to hang naturally.

For my last two post on women’s fashion and men’s fashion