historical hair care

[Abacus]

wow this video really rubbed everyone the wrong way! I imagine if you've been doing alternative haircare for a while and have been watching videos like this for a long time, or talking with others about it for a long time, a knowing tone would get pretty irritating. And for those in this forum who wash their hair frequently, you may feel you're in the minority in this crowd! I imagine it would get irritating to always be being told the secret is to stretch your washes. But if you are someone stumbling across this on youtube who has been doing curly girl method and watching the billion videos for that, this would be a totally different perspective.

My takeaways from this video weren't that it was historically accurate or even aiming to be -- it was historically inspired and worked for her. As someone coming from years of watching curly hair videos, this was actually a breath of fresh air and very different to that other side, a side which has a lot of "this is the only way!" mentality. It was a great alternative suggestion away from curly girl method stuff. I think how the tone of the video hits you depends on where you're originating from.

[Lady Stardust]

wow this video really rubbed everyone the wrong way! I imagine if you've been doing alternative haircare for a while and have been watching videos like this for a long time, or talking with others about it for a long time, a knowing tone would get pretty irritating. And for those in this forum who wash their hair frequently, you may feel you're in the minority in this crowd! I imagine it would get irritating to always be being told the secret is to stretch your washes. But if you are someone stumbling across this on youtube who has been doing curly girl method and watching the billion videos for that, this would be a totally different perspective.

My takeaways from this video weren't that it was historically accurate or even aiming to be -- it was historically inspired and worked for her. As someone coming from years of watching curly hair videos, this was actually a breath of fresh air and very different to that other side, a side which has a lot of "this is the only way!" mentality. It was a great alternative suggestion away from curly girl method stuff. I think how the tone of the video hits you depends on where you're originating from.

It was your earlier post in this thread that inspired me to watch the video I’m really glad I did because I decided to try washing in plaits, and it’s a resounding success for me. I tried it again today and although the plait had undone itself by the time I washed out the shampoo, I had no tangles at all. It’s a game changer for me.

I absolutely get where you’re coming from about curls - not that I have any - but I’ve seen people chasing perfectly uniform and frizz free curls (not here) and it’s so stressful. I can see why coming at it from a different angle is so refreshing.

[KokoroDragon]

wow this video really rubbed everyone the wrong way! I imagine if you've been doing alternative haircare for a while and have been watching videos like this for a long time, or talking with others about it for a long time, a knowing tone would get pretty irritating. And for those in this forum who wash their hair frequently, you may feel you're in the minority in this crowd! I imagine it would get irritating to always be being told the secret is to stretch your washes. But if you are someone stumbling across this on youtube who has been doing curly girl method and watching the billion videos for that, this would be a totally different perspective.

My takeaways from this video weren't that it was historically accurate or even aiming to be -- it was historically inspired and worked for her. As someone coming from years of watching curly hair videos, this was actually a breath of fresh air and very different to that other side, a side which has a lot of "this is the only way!" mentality. It was a great alternative suggestion away from curly girl method stuff. I think how the tone of the video hits you depends on where you're originating from.

Yep, I also saw it as historically inspired rather than historically accurate.

I've watched a few other historical hair care videos in the past (Abby Cox and the like) which did focus on historical accuracy and cited sources. If that's what you're expecting when you click on her video, I can see how someone would be frustrated.

I think what I liked most about this video was what people in the comments are saying regarding her clay "shampoo". It seems like this form of washing was/is very common in certain parts of the world. There are so many comments from people who are happy to see their culture mentioned. They're really fascinating to read, and it's nice to see some diversity in the historical hair care side of YouTube.

[Pouncequick]

The thing I like about this video going viral is that the aesthetics of her hair are different from a lot of mainstream hair aesthetics -- and what I mean by that is her hair is pretty oily. I like that people are celebrating kind of oily healthy hair. That shot that she shows of the back of her hair over and over again -- it looks kind of webby because it's so covered in sebum, and her curls are beautiful but not light and bouncy. I'm finding that my hair looks like that these days and seems very happy. So it was affirming to watch! Her hair definitely looks happier and thicker than when she was doing curly girl method, and I'm finding the same is true for me.

It's making me think about the whole controversy with Deva Curl products, and how people who have used them for a long time are having some negative experiences with their hair. She specifies that she wasn't using Deva Curl products, but she does mention how she thinks the long term use of the curly girl method gave the facade of healthy hair but didn't really benefit her as she grew her hair to greater lengths. And maybe that's the thing, maybe they work great for shorter lengths but don't give enough benefit over many years of use as the hair gets longer and older. Who knows, but it made me wonder.

I do appreciate more oily looks becoming less gross to people. It is REALLY hard to keep my hair looking freshly washed when it isn't. Personally I have always thought that "curly girl" was more of an obsession with perfect looking short-ish curls rather than truly healthy hair. I can't imagine doing half of the post wash steps to very long hair. The only thing I liked was all of the moisture sealing ideas.

* Historical people? If she's talking about people during the Victorian era in Great Brittain, she should say so. Because what she's describing is not at all accurate for every era or country. So I find it a bit missleading. For example, the vikings and medieaval people didn't use bristle brushes. They used combs for the same thing.

* Once again. "They all had very, very long hair." No! You can't base this information just on some pictures.

* Yes fingers are great for detangling. But to say that one can't feel tangles with a comb or brush? Of course you feel it of you're careful. This is when I put the comb down, detangle it with my fingers and then keep on combing.

Summary. It's great that she's found something that works for her! But it's absolutely not for everyone. She generalises a bit too much with her "historical women". I get that she isn't a professional hair historian and neither am I, but she could have checked some facts a bit more, before trying to "sell them". My problem with videos like this is mainly that there's a bit of a "this is the way" attitude.

I watched this and then binged a few of her videos. She's actually pretty bad about telling people things about unreferenced "historical people" with a bit of an authoritative tone. A lot of the stuff she looks into is very interesting but she will almost never just say, "I was looking into how Malaysian women deal with the postpartum period and I learned about the Benkung belly wrap" or "I was reading about women's hair care in the Victorian period in England and came across this shampoo recipe". Instead it's mystical historical people with the random sources, up to the watcher to find for themselves. That's probably the thing that bothers me the most along with the "one true way" attitude.

Yep, I also saw it as historically inspired rather than historically accurate.

I've watched a few other historical hair care videos in the past (Abby Cox and the like) which did focus on historical accuracy and cited sources. If that's what you're expecting when you click on her video, I can see how someone would be frustrated.

I think what I liked most about this video was what people in the comments are saying regarding her clay "shampoo". It seems like this form of washing was/is very common in certain parts of the world. There are so many comments from people who are happy to see their culture mentioned. They're really fascinating to read, and it's nice to see some diversity in the historical hair care side of YouTube.

I knew it was just historically inspired. I think what probably rubbed people the wrong way was her tone. There were even discussions in the comment section where a couple people mentioned that this isn't the ONLY way to get long hair. It isn't even the only way historical people grew out their hair. In her most recent video she acknowledges that there are more ways than just hers to grow long hair, but she does seem to kind of come across as selling her routine as another ONE TRUE WAY(TM) ***with creator approved modifications***. I really like adding more diversity to the historical hair care discussion though. I'm always curious what basically everyone does with their hair and scalp to keep it clean.

[Amiraaa]

She does some things historically. I don't know that clay washes were as popular as egg washes in the Victorian era, but they may work better for her. I'm not sure if I agree that her routine is THE historical routine that will get everyone, everywhere long hair. When I read the classic to knee, knee length and beyond, and floor length and beyond threads I don't see anyone copying her precise routine and claiming it as the secret. When I read old hair journals it seems like long haired ladies largely did what they found worked best for themselves and the modern equivalents on this site seem to do the same. Some people wash their hair very infrequently while there was at least one user who washed her knee length hair every day.

There are a slew of other historical hair care videos if you find that sort of thing interesting though.

This video by Snappy Dragon covers long hair care in the medieval period in a large portion of Europe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JZ33WuzPHI

Then there is Pretty Shepherd who follows traditions inspired by folk hair care in Hungary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mlAuM8KW3A

Abby Cox used to do historical reenactment for the 18th century and she did a video covering pomade and powder which she used for over a year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnBniAE2wiE

V. Birchwood follows a Victorian inspired hair care routine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnBniAE2wiE

Then there are probably a million non Western channels covering historical hair care in a variety of other cultures and locations. The unifying threads seem to be find something that works well for your hair, fits in your life, uses things you can easily acquire, that is gentle enough for you while still cleansing your hair well and detangles it enough to keep it from turning into a giant nest that slowly eats you alive. I combine medieval hair combing with gently washing my hair a few times a week. I tried clay washes a long time ago and found they didn't play nicely with my hard water. ACV rinses aren't as effective for me as citric acid rinses. Finger detangling my hair misses tiny knots, but is really useful before actually combing out my hair. Boar bristle brushes seem to irritate and inflame my scalp while fine toothed combs help me remove build up. I learned these things through experimenting which it seems like she did as well. Combing her hair in the shower was damaging it so she uses her fingers. After she demonstrated brushing it with a boar bristle brush in her most recent video, I feel like I can see why she was getting damage. She is a bit rough with the brush on her hair but she was super gentle using her fingers.

i agree with you that there's no one way to grow long hair. everybody should experiment and find the best thing that works for them. what i take from the video is to be gentle with hair to minimize breakage since i have a similar hair type to hers.

[Amiraaa]

It depends on a few factors. I follow medieval hair routines and most are just SO and headscarfs It varies on culture, hairtypes, materials, class, and eras. Classes are a big thing, wealthier people who generally put many things in their hair in later eras (1600s-1900s) had a lot of free time to mess with it and see what works, while lower classed people often went pure SO with WO twice a year, eggs masks, clay, combing, and other things that required little effort and money. Won't say too much here unless asked, but in a nutshell, do what works for your hair.

i'm so interested in medieval hair routines right now so thank you so much for your information and i would like to know more.

[Amiraaa]

I was really excited about this video when I saw it a few days ago, because I realized I have independently started doing a lot of the things she talks about. I've been doing mostly WO but my washes are getting stretched further and further apart. I'm not really paying attention or planning, it's all by feel and by gut instinct about what's working for my hair. I also started doing that dry finger-detangling process, and I thought I made it up! Like kind of taking my hair strand by strand and isolating the little clumps. So it was nice to see another curly-haired person doing those things that just felt intuitive, and to see what was also working for her.

The thing I like about this video going viral is that the aesthetics of her hair are different from a lot of mainstream hair aesthetics -- and what I mean by that is her hair is pretty oily. I like that people are celebrating kind of oily healthy hair. That shot that she shows of the back of her hair over and over again -- it looks kind of webby because it's so covered in sebum, and her curls are beautiful but not light and bouncy. I'm finding that my hair looks like that these days and seems very happy. So it was affirming to watch! Her hair definitely looks happier and thicker than when she was doing curly girl method, and I'm finding the same is true for me.

It's making me think about the whole controversy with Deva Curl products, and how people who have used them for a long time are having some negative experiences with their hair. She specifies that she wasn't using Deva Curl products, but she does mention how she thinks the long term use of the curly girl method gave the facade of healthy hair but didn't really benefit her as she grew her hair to greater lengths. And maybe that's the thing, maybe they work great for shorter lengths but don't give enough benefit over many years of use as the hair gets longer and older. Who knows, but it made me wonder.

i have curly hair too and i am so happy that someone talked about the CGM not working for everyone. while my hair was still growing following cgm, it actually reached my butt. i still noticed so much breakage and had clumps of hair fall every time i showered.

[Amiraaa]

I agree about the generalisations.

One thing I did take away from the video was the idea of washing in plaits/braids. I’d never thought of doing that on my own hair because my hair is only a bit wavy and not very thick, so I’ve never felt the need to section it during a wash. However I have been wondering recently why my hair tangles so much when I wash I it - I’m careful to only manipulate the scalp, I don’t pile my hair up when I wash it, but it can still get very tangled during the wash.

On a whim, I decided to plait my hair before I washed it today, and it worked really well. I didn’t tie off the plait, and it mostly undid itself during the wash. My hair is MBL-ish. But, it hardly tangled at all so the washing process was much quicker than usual, with far less manipulation.

My hair is at the lower end of ii so I just did one loose plait. I had pre-oiled with babassu oil and the plait was still in place when I added conditioner. The plait had pretty much undone itself by the time I rinsed the conditioner out and applied leave in.

I’m quite enamoured with this method of washing (plaited) however I did worry part way through if I was going to create one huge plaited tangle. The opposite happened though, and the reduced manipulation has got to be good for my hair.

For anyone who hasn’t watched the video, the idea for plaiting came from LHC in the first place

i agree with this a 100%, the part concerning the finger detangling and washing hair in 4 plaits is the best. I plaited my slightly oiled hair before showering and then undid the braids after shampooing, applied some hair mask and rinsed. I didn't use any leave in or combed my hair after shower, my hair had zero tangles. i will continue doing this from now on. the washing process took around 10 minutes total and much less water was used.

[Amiraaa]

I watched this video the other week, I was fascinated by it. Bought some of that clay, ACV and jojoba oil to try it.

The clay wash was actually really good. Can't say my hair enjoyed the jojoba oil and I have no idea what the ACV did if anything.

My hair became static as anything, couldn't brush through with my wooden comb without static. Missed my conditioner. Went back to it.

All in all I liked the clay wash but I'd only use it with leave in conditioner afterwards personally.

i'm glad the clay wash worked for you!
she did mention using conditioner from the brand Calia

[Amiraaa]

i'm so interested in medieval hair routines right now so thank you so much for your information and i would like to know more.

also, hair washing methods specifically differ from one culture to another. in my culture, people washed their hair with sidr powder mixed with water and a little bit of oil. I don't see many people talking about this method of washing but i use at times when i don't feel like using shampoo and it works well for me