This photo Friday is brought to you by a sale a couple months back that I don't think I ever mentioned in weekend finds...believe it or not, I buy EVEN MORE STUFF than I manage to post on the blog (God help me). This sale was in the Cloisters, a detached-homes Catholic retirement community practically adjacent to a Catholic church out in West Meade. Now, as you veteran estate salers know, retirement community sales are hit and miss. They don't have the scavenger aspect of suburban homes with a single-owner over many years, where things have a chance to accumulate throughout the house (sometimes to an alarming degree)...older people who move into retirement apartments or condos or communities have to sometimes drastically downsize to fit the floor plan of their new accommodations. This means a lot of the novelty barware or children's clothes from the sixties' have already been passed on throughout the family or given to Goodwill years before the final estate sale takes place. However! What the people generally take to retirement are the things they most value and the things they can use... after all those old college football team seat cushions and 101 Strings records have gone to the rummage sale, and the dust settles, what you have left is either good-quality stuff, or sentimental stuff, neither of which could be relegated to the junk pile just yet.
In this case, there was a whole table full of pre-1940 pictures either in old photographer's studio folders or in the frames. Now, I came on the third day, so there wasn't "first pickin's" left to be had, but I did find two treasures (one of which I'll have to show you at a later date) and lots of 1920's handmade doll clothes (which, again, begs its own post for the full effect). This one is kind of fun because it was a "Wait, what?!" moment when I opened the two little folders:
Picture number one shows us a no doubt blue-eyed, patrician-nosed girl of the late teens, early twenties? The bangs and waves near the crown of her head seem to indicate that during the day, she pins her voluminous hair up in a shorter style more befitting the tonsorial vogue of the time, but has let her locks loose to sit for this picture. And who wouldn't! One of my mom's last threats to both my sister and I as we walked out the door for our respective senior picture days in high school was "Pull your hair down out of that ponytail or I'm not buying any of those pictures!" (I complied; Sus didn't...Mom still bought both sets). In general, I think ladies look better with longer hair styles, though they can be less practical than their briefer counterparts.
When I opened the second envelope (again, out of scattering of a dozen or so, I came across not one but TWO copies of this second one, so someone reading out there may well have the other!), I saw the "full extent" of what we're talking about here. Hotchi motchi, people! THAT IS SOME HAIR.
That is a LOT. OF. HAIR! I keep trying to take note of her simple, shift-like linen dress, the ring on her third finger, left hand, and her impeccably white satin shoes, but I can't, in good conscience, get over how long her hair is! Mine, right now, is a little past my elbows, and being naturally thick, takes forever to wash and dry. The time it takes to get it from shampooed to ready-to-wear-out is one of the major arguments I have for cutting it...I'm too chicken at present, but it might have to happen eventually. This woman, in having hair down to her actual knees, must have never cut it for y-e-e-e-ears...maybe her whole life! I wish there'd been another picture of her with her hair done up in whatever style she wore it in on a daily basis, because I could use the inspiration...even though mine must be a third of her length and took me four and a half years to grow out from a Mia Farrow cut. Wow, right? I just keeping looking at it and thinking of those Japanese long-haired woman horror stories (in the style of The Ring).
Have you ever had hair so long you could sit on it? Or has anyone you know? I think I remember a friend's mom in early grade school having hair so long it was actually impressive, but just barely. Given the time, would you ever grow yours out this long? Do you have any 1910's, XL hairdressing tips from your vintage travels and travails? Let a girl know!
That's all for this week, hope you guys had fun reading! I'm gonna hit some sales in a minute, and then I'll see you on Monday. Have a great weekend!
wow! what a great pair of pictures. i had hair past my butt until i was about `4 and i HATED IT. it took almost two hours just to blow dry! my mom wouldn't let me cut it.
ReplyDeleteMine was always in this dutch bob until early high school...then I let it grow out until it was the length it is now, about halfway down my back. The day before graduation, I cut it back into a Dutch bob. THE VICIOUS CYCLE...haha
DeleteWow! My hair is long but it isn't THAT long! That is really rather impressive. I'm currently letting my hair grow just to see how long it can get (i.e. I've been too lazy to get it cut...) but at the moment is a little shorter than tailbone length. I can't actually sit on it... yet. I wear it pinned up or braided most days.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I do with mine, too. It's too heavy to take a curl well like it would if I had any layers (or the sense to get any layers), but is plenty long to look pretty braided and pinned. Still, when I think of the trouble it takes us to keep our long hair neat, just think about the woman in the photographs!
DeleteI had hair down to my butt until a year ago when I donated it. It was terrible. I have never been great at maintaining things and I felt like it always looked ratty. Long hair is definitely a lifestyle choice.
ReplyDeleteGood for you for donating it! I agree with your "lifestyle choice" verdict...it's hard to keep up with so much hair (as I argue with myself, butwhataboutwantingtobestevienicks?).
DeleteI've had hair that long, and that frizzley, too. I always wore it up in a bun. Once the social worker at the hospital asked me to help out with an older patient that had long hair. She wore it in what we called a "monument." This is a giant, teased ball of hair, firmly fixed with hairspray. She had been there a few, so the hairball was a little flat. I had a bottle of Redken Glass in my bag, and I went to work. It took about an hour or so. I was very careful, and the result was gorgeous silver hair about as long as in the picture. I braided her hair in the old style crown of braids. Man, she looked great. Her boyfriend came to visit her, and he stopped cold in the doorway. "Oh, Bernice! he said. You look beautiful!" She posed and preened like a Queen.
ReplyDeleteNext day when I came back to work,the hairdresser had been to visit, and the Monument was back.
She should have left well enough alone and kept the braids! Old hair habits die hard. I love the part about the boyfriend. I bet he was disappointed to see "Old Faithful" back atop her head.
DeleteI have seen other "hair" pictures like that, some with even longer hair...it's difficult to imagine that it wouldn't be awfully heavy! My hair is fine and because of the time involved in washing and blow-drying it daily, several inches past my shoulders is all the length I can manage.
ReplyDeleteThe thing with super-long hair is that if you accidently pair it with a long skirt and clunky shoes? People are going to think you belong to that church that Duggar family goes to. Also, the line between a cute/sassy bun and a grandma bun is pretty easy to cross. I'm not sure I always get that one right, myself...
That's what I'm saying! Sometimes, when I'm wearing a prim, long dress and trying to go for a Mary Pickford, nineteen teens' look, I get worried that I look more like a member of a religious cult. It's a fine line!
DeleteWow!
ReplyDelete