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Historical costume movies and TV series are legendary for forgetting that hairpins exist. It’s a known problem. But worse than that is when the actors are depicted with ratty, snarly, just-woke-up hair when there is zero plot-based reason for it. Did historical people ever have messy hair? I’m sure they did! But did they walk around with literally tangled, uncombed hair (let alone unstyled)? NOT GENERALLY.
I’m not talking about situations like this, where you’ve used your allotted two bobby pins but your main character is doing actual farm work and her hair has gotten messy as a result:
Hell, I don’t love it when you use messy hair to demonstrate that a character is a rebel or mentally ill, but I get what you’re doing here:
And if you’re running from villagers who want to burn you as a witch, okay, I understand you have bigger fish to fry:
Are you a colonialist asshole who’s focused on conquering indigenous people and trekking through jungles? Alright, you may not have your mirror and comb handy:
But if you’re a soldier? One who’s ROMANCING THE QUEEN OF FRANCE? You take 1 minute to run a comb through your hair before said romancing:
If you’re the king of France and you’re wearing silk and you have a governess who takes care of you? She combs your hair before you wander the palace:
Are you a hot violinist who every woman in mid-19th-century Europe wants to shag? Not believable with that snarl fiesta:
Been traveling across the country? Sure, your hair might get mussed, but you wouldn’t have slept in it for four days without ANY touchups:
Are you the first Westerners trying to carve out an existence in indigenous Australia? Sounds tough, but if you’re the preacher’s wife, you probably try to look neat and tidy:
Are you a convict who’s been transported to Australia and you’re cooking for a bunch of soldiers? Okay, you might accidentally drop some hair in their soup, but I doubt you’re actually cooking with hair all over the place:
Are you SINGING IN CHURCH FOR GOD at the Tudor court?? YOU COMB YOUR DAMN HAIR BEFORE A PERFORMANCE:
Are you an otherwise well-dressed-by-the-standards-of-the-low-budget-17th-century web series you’re the heartthrob in? YOU CAN COMB YOUR HAIR:
Ditto if you’re in a French feature film doing a bad aging Valmont interpretation. Comb your hair!!
Is it the New Zealand gold rush of 1860s, and you’re hanging out in a mining town? YOU COMB YOUR HAIR.
Are you LITERALLY THE EMBODIMENT OF FEMALE SEDUCTION/REVENGE??? COMB YOUR HAIR!!!!
If you can explain why comb + hair = rocket science, please do.
“We’ve been over this, hair pins are a historical myth refuted by Science -“
“Fringe science!”
“- and hair combs are clearly archaeologically-questionable for this period. I haven’t found any, clearly they never existed!”
The combs went the way of the razors?
FRINGE SCIENTIST: “Razors? What razors? Don’t you know people in the past used broken sea shells or actual hand weapons until the invention of Gilette?”
Sure, that still from THE DEVIL’S VIOLINIST (2013) looks like they’re trying for the “He was the rock star of his day!” approach (GAG).
But contemporary portraits of Niccolò Paganini frequently (but not always) depict him with messy and uncombed-looking hair, with wisps and curls sticking out all over. And not just caricatures– even formal portraits, where you’d think he would’ve smoothed things out a little and not looked so ratty.
It’s consistent enough that it appears to have been part of his public persona, so maybe films about Paganini should get a pass on this trope?
The way Tallis was portrayed in “The Tudors” infuriated me Do I recall correctly that in his first court performance, T.T. is prancing about with a non-authentic instrument, while miming ecstasy like one of those violinists in Celtic Woman?
To be fair, I seem to remember Cassandra’s hair in the BBC Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida” being immaculate. She was still a princess with attendants to care for her.
I mean, it’s not as if combs are one of the more commonly found items in archaeological sites all round the world and going back a loooong way in pre-history…
(My ancestors believed the head was sacred so combs were treasured, and when they became too broken to be used were disposed of in one special place, often a swamp which preserves wooden items so that landowners & archaeologists have run across deposits of hundreds of them. My ‘uncivilised’ great-great-great-grandparents knew from hairdressing)