SO LET ME LEARN YOU A THING OR FOUR ABOUT HAIRSTICKS

sursumursa:

There are a few areas of life about which I know FAR MORE than a person who doesn’t get paid to know about them should know. 

One of those areas is HAIR. Or, to be more accurate, HAIR ACCESSORIES. Because I have a lot of hair:

And so, over the years, I have taken an an almost unhealthy interest in both how I do my hair:

and how people in Ye Olden Days Before Regular Haircuts Were A Thing did theirs.

Thus if you want to know about the history of, say, hairsticks…I am not a bad place to start.

First point: using actual food-use chopsticks in your hair: probably not the best plan. 

I mean, you don’t want people’s first thought when they see you to be ‘I am strongly reminded of The Little Mermaid, but I don’t know why’.

As an alternative to being an unwitting Disney princess/secret mermaid, let me tell you about the most wonderful (and probably oldest) hair accessory in the world: the hair stick. Or hair pin, if you like. 

In the modern day, when we hear ‘hair pin’ we tend to think of these:

(this image is from the Pottermore wikia, I kid you not)

But hair pins in antiquity were often more…stick-like. Because you know, longer hair requires more pin for your money.

So hang on to your hair accessories, we’re about to take a trip through time, space, and hair. 

There will be pictures. So many pictures. You have been warned.

Let’s do this.

Keep reading