This might sound like a silly question, but what did period hairpins that the ladies used for fastening up their long locks look like?  Are there any people or places that make them and sell them, or do the ladies just use modern hairpins instead?

I find that I can't seem to keep the smooth sweep over the ears if I fasten the bun with the large hairpins I use when I need to keep my hair up at work.  The weight of my hair in the bun distorts it even when using rats.

I suppose that practice will make it better, but I'm wondering if I'm just using the wrong tools to do it.  I'd rather not go the "snood" route as it seems that isn't an accurate thing at all for the impression I wish to work into.

Thanks!  

Hi Susannah,

Great question about hairpins.  I have very thick and long hair and what I find works the best are the hairpins from Plain-n-Simple Headcoverings, which is a business that caters to the Amish and Mennonite people.  They have handmade straight hairpins though admittedly they are stainless steel.  I believe that most of the hairpins of our era were japaned (black), so what I've done in the past was paint mine black.  Otherwise they're ideal in shape, size, strength, and the ability to hold.

I can usually put my hair up in a single bun at the nape of the neck with no more than one or two of them.  Whereas in modern life it takes four or five or more full size bobby pins to do the same thing.

The trick is to wrap your hair and then take the leg (open end) of the hairpin and capture just a bit of the hair toward the inside the the bun.  Then direct the leg over the wrapped hair and tuck it under.  The pressure of the wrap helps to hold the hair in place.  The modern hairpins you can get at Wal-Mart and beauty shops are typically of some springy type material that just won't hold.  I've never had a problem with these.

You can get them by going to http://www.prayercoverings.com/catalog.php?item=38&catid=5&ret=catalog.php%3Fcategory%3D5

Hope this helps!

Linda.

Quote :

Linda Trent wrote : Hi Susannah, Great question about hairpins.  I have very thick and long hair and what I find works the best are the hairpins from Plain-n-Simple Headcoverings, which is a business that caters to the Amish and Mennonite people.   You can get them by going to http://www.prayercoverings.com/catalog.php?item=38&catid=5&ret=catalog.php%3Fcategory%3D5 Hope this helps! Linda.

Thank you!  It's the little things that can trip you up when you don't think about them.  The things folks have written on this forum about the correct type of stocking garters, for example, is something else I've not really thought about until reading here.

Those are cool looking! Since getting my hair cut I have been having a hard time getting my hair to stay up!

I have also used some pins from Walmart. They look like tortoise shell. Though they are plastic.

Those pins are the best.  My hair takes several more than Linda's, being straighter and slipperier, but I can sort of weave them into each other inside the bun and make them stay pretty well.

By the way. the hairpins recovered from the Steamboat Arabia look just like these...same size, same bend.

Trish Hasenmueller