The hair historian hijack: what is marie antoinette hair?

When it comes to big hair, nobody did it quite like the ladies of 18th century France – most notably, Marie Antoinette. Towering coiffures were the height of fashion – quite literally – as women created hairstyles up to four foot high. The Queen’s hairdresser, Léonard Autié, was the man responsible for the birth of the trend. When his regal client asked for an elaborately dressed style one evening, he created a voluminous look which became known as Le Pouf. Her response? According to legend, she glanced in the mirror and was delighted, telling Léonard: “My hairstyle is perfect, and it is admirably planned, but it is remarkably bold… Oh, it must be over a yard high!” As the leading trend-setter of the era, it’s no surprise that within days fashionable women across Paris were attempting to recreate Marie Antoinette’s style themselves, using hair padding and wigs to build up their own voluminous poufs.

There was no end to the creativity, with urns of ashes, vases of flowers and even live birds in cages being added to styles

People even got imaginative, adding ribbons, bows and braids to top off their styles. This is despite the fact that they routinely risked setting their towering updos alight when they brushed past candles, which were the only source of light, and couldn’t sit comfortably in their horse-drawn carriages – instead, sitting with their head out of the window or kneeling on the floor. The style also caused outrage because of the massive and very obvious expense involved in creating it – and in an era when Marie Antoinette was already alienating the general population with her frivolous approach to spending, it wasn’t considered quite so appealing by the wider inhabitants of rural France. Nevertheless, the trend went from strength to strength and suddenly the challenge became not just who could make their hair biggest – but who could add the most elaborate accessories. Well-dressed women and their hairdressers created remarkable looks, decorating their coiffures with birds, butterflies, bows and all manner of other topical and seasonal accessories. When the French warship, La Belle-Poule went to war in 1778, high society ladies found no better way to show their support than wearing model boats in their hair. There was no end to the creativity, with urns of ashes, vases of flowers and even live birds in cages being added to styles. All of a sudden, today’s trend for piling on hair accessories looks rather tame… Follow The Hair Historian on Instagram