October 11, 2011 |
FROM THE VAULT (SUMMER 2011)
Imagine this hidden in a mass of messy hair. Glinting in the light like a needle in a haystack. There’s something decadent about wearing a Cartier hairpin while popping to the shops for a pint of milk in your tracksuit bottoms. Everyone else will be in old, washed-out scrunchies, whereas your hairpin will kind of pull you together, make you sparkle, even when you feel a little less than sparkly. But, then, black onyx and blush pink opal in a shiny gold setting do have a tendency to do that. The oriental undertones add a hint of intrigue. You are not some mere customer, you are special, exotic even. People will ask if you are just visiting. Have you travelled far? Just down the road, love, you’ll reply. Image, after all, is perception. Mind you put it in securely, though. You don’t want it falling out at an inopportune moment and shattering the illusion. Yes, you say, that’s all well and good, but where do hairpins spring from exactly? Whose bright idea was it to keep hair in place with what is essentially a stick? Cavewomen? Well, allow us to shed some light on the matter. From the scared vaults of the all-knowing, all-telling Wikipedia, we present The Hairpin.
“A hair pin or hairpin is a long device used to hold a person’s hair in place.
Hairpins made of metal, ivory, bronze, carved wood, etc were used in ancient Assyria and Egypt for securing decorated hairstyles. Such hairpins suggest, as graves show, that many were luxury objects among the Egyptians and later the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. Major success came in 1901 with the invention of the spiral hairpin by New Zealand inventor Ernest Godward. This was a predecessor of the hair clip.
The hairpin may be decorative and encrusted with jewels and ornaments, or it may be utilitarian, and designed to be almost invisible while holding a hairstyle in place.
Some hairpins are a single straight pin, but modern versions are more likely to be constructed from different lengths of wire that are bent in half with a u-shaped end and a few kinks along the two opposite portions. The finished pin may vary from two to six inches in final length. The length of the wires enables placement in several styles of hairdos to hold the style in place. The kinks enable retaining the pin during normal movements.”
You’re welcome.
by Natalie Dembinska
