Hair : an illustrated history Cover Image

Book

Hair : an illustrated history / Susan J. Vincent.

Summary:

Bobs, beards, blondes and beyond, this book takes us on a lavishly illustrated journey into the world of this remarkable substance and our complicated and fascinating relationship with it. Taking the key things we do to it in turn, this book captures its importance in the past and into the present: to individuals and society, for health and hygiene, in social and political challenge, in creating ideals of masculinity and womanliness, in being a vehicle for gossip, secrets, and sex. Using art, film, personal diaries, newspapers, texts, and images, Susan J. Vincent unearths the stories we have told about hair and why they are important. From ginger jibes in the seventeenth century to bobbed-hair suicides in the 1920s, from hippies to Roundheads, from bearded women to smooth metrosexuals, the book shows the significance of the stuff we nurture, remove, style, and tend.

Record details

ISBN: 9780857851710 (Paperback)
ISBN: 0857851713 (Paperback)
Physical Description: 250 pages : illustrations (some color), portraits ; 26 cm.
Publisher: London ; Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2018.
Copyright: c2018.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-245) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction: Hair matters -- Care for your hair -- From servant to stylist -- The art of being hairless -- The practice of being hairy -- The politics of appearance -- Social challenge: the long and the short of it -- Conclusion: Histories and hair stories.