Lately I've been thinking a heck of a lot about Regency hairstyles. (This will be a thread. And probably a blog post eventually ...)
We all know what it looks like. A high bun, with curls around the face. But is that what we're seeing in all those portraits? 
Those big late 18th century hairstyles usually have what the French fashion plates called a "chignon" - basically a braid or ponytail that's looped back up behind the main business.
(You can actually see a tighter version of this in earlier art, like this ca. 1750 bust of Mme de Pompadour at the Met. It's hard to find, though, because most portraits just show the front of the head!)
A while ago, I set my work desktop background to Boilly's "Entrance to the Jardin Turc" (1812), a busy genre scene. And what did I notice, eventually?
A couple of good views of hair that basically show the 18th century chignon!
We have a lot of profile portraits at FAM like this one of Sarah Anne Emery by Joseph Davis (1834) that seem to show something similar - the hair is pulled up in back and the comb is just put through it. Not a bun! collections.fenimoreartmuseum.org/joseph-and-sar…
But it really looks like a bun from the front, high on the head with a wide comb inexplicably underneath it.
Or sometimes, it just looks like a comb kind of floating there - but it probably is filling that same function of holding up a big hank of hair. collections.fenimoreartmuseum.org/laura-hall
There are plenty of fashion plates, and some paintings/drawings, that do show actual, defined buns as well. I'm not saying that nobody wore them. But this is good news for those of us who cannot do hair and like to wear 1790s-1830s outfits!
Except that, since everyone believes early 19thc hair must = a bun, people will probably think we're lazy and inaccurate. :/ But *we'll* know we're right.
Adding some more examples from the FAM's online collections. This fraktur, made in 1829, depicts Eva and George Doctor of Muncycreek, PA (technically when their son was born in 1807). collections.fenimoreartmuseum.org/james-b-doctor…
"Separate Tables" by Joseph Davis, 1835. She seems to have quite a bit of hair coiled and held by the comb, don't you think? collections.fenimoreartmuseum.org/separate-tables
The chignons are very clearly depicted in Eunice Griswold Penney's 1810 portrait of two women and a baby, as well as the distinction between the long back hair and front curls! collections.fenimoreartmuseum.org/two-women
And from the Met: while the other women who've turned up in the thread may have been fairly humble, this is Elisa Baciocchi, Princess of Lucca and Piombino and Grand Duchess of Tuscany! Done in wax by Giovanni Santorelli. metmuseum.org/art/collection…
And this may be Emma, Lady Hamilton, painted by Adam Buck in 1804. metmuseum.org/art/collection…
It's hard to make out the details in Boilly's painting of "The Public Viewing David’s "Coronation" at the Louvre" (1810), but there is clearly some vertical action in the hairstyle of this lady in the foreground: metmuseum.org/art/collection…
This watercolor of a drawing room features three women, one of whom very clearly has a comb holding up her hair in something between a bun and a chignon. metmuseum.org/art/collection…
Blerg, this one ended up outside the thread:
The Met has several silhouettes like this one of Pearley Rose ca. 1824, showing a swoop up the back held in place with an angular comb. metmuseum.org/art/collection…
Now HERE'S a very interesting hairstyle. (Silhouette of Maria Gracia London by Auguste Edouart,1837 - metmuseum.org/art/collection…) I initially thought that the large hair-bows must be based on a bun anchored to the top of the head, but I've changed my mind.
This medallion of Adèle Hugo shows a defined twist at the back of the head, meaning that this is based on the chignon rather than a bun. metmuseum.org/art/collection…
There's also a three-dimensional bust of Anne Buchan Robinson from 1831 that shows the same hairstyle! The twist behind her head is fairly clear, although I would love a top view. metmuseum.org/art/collection…
So anyway, I hope I've raised awareness of the fact that hairstyles in the first few decades of the 19thc were often very unstructured, and that ones like this may well have just been pulled up and held with a comb rather than artfully arranged. metmuseum.org/art/collection…
(Even tidier ones may well be comb-based, with a couple of hairpins for control.) metmuseum.org/art/collection…
