![]() ![]() The 1960s had Vidal Sassoon’s five-point geometry as a neat, architectural counterpoint to tortured beehives. The 1950s came up with the pixie as the antidote to everything that was oppressive in the previous era. Every decade finds its short cut of choice, which in turn comes to express a line of argument against whatever long style has been popular. And for all the fuss in France, Gilles, who represented the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, won the Miss France contest.Īnd that’s where fashion steps in. Evangelista has said that after French hairdresser Julien d’Ys cut her hair in a gamine Eton crop in 1988 her day rate tripled. If it’s not impecunious women selling theirs (as still happens now, to provide the flourishing trade in hair extensions), it’s more affluent women getting their hair chopped to create a lucrative career statement: Victoria Beckham, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone and Linda Evangelista.Ĭlearly challenging society’s follicular expectations can be worked to advantage. Women’s hair, whatever its length, style and condition, has always been contentious and commodified. ![]() Model Linda Evangelista has said that her era-defining haircut tripled her day rate - Images Press/Archive Photos For the truly errant – Victorian female prisoners and, later, in the 20th century, female French collaborators – having their hair forcibly shaved was a very present threat. Yet at the same time, civilised women of all classes and religions have been expected to tame their luxuriant tresses beneath wimples, bonnets and veils, lest they lead men astray. No wonder that on a basic, atavistic level, short hair on women came to be seen as less and less desirable. The heroine Fantine sells her hair (and then her teeth) to feed her child. ![]() In 1840, the writer Thomas Adolphus Trollope observed the stream of women at a fair in Brittany, France, queuing up to sell their hair to the shearers there – a source of income highlighted in Victor Hugo’s 1862 Les Misérables. Historically, the rich could amplify nature’s shortfall with wigs – generally made from hair supplied, in abundance, by the poor. It’s not just that, biologically, hair has always been a key sexual signifier, it also represents health, youth and money. Victoria Beckham was known for her pixie cut in her Spice Girls heyday - Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive The way Crawford recounted the story 30 years later was an emotive reminder of just how much power resides not just in a man’s (Samson) hair, but in a woman’s too. ![]() The bookers agreed, but once she was on the shoot and her hair had been swept back in a ponytail, she heard the unmistakable swish of slicing scissors. It was the late 1980s and Crawford, a veteran of mid-western catalogue work, really wanted the gig but staunchly insisted she would keep her hair. In Apple TV’s recent The Super Models documentary, Cindy Crawford recounted how she was tricked into having her hair lopped off on an early job with the photographer Patrick Demarchelier. She’s right that going short remains a big deal, emotionally and socially, for many women, even in 2023 – as it has done throughout history. “We’re used to seeing beautiful Misses with long hair,” she said after being crowned, “but I chose an androgynous look with short hair,” adding that every “woman is different, we’re all unique”. Gilles seems to have fanned the flames by making her hair appear to be a political choice, rather than one that enhances her cheekbones. Gilles performs on stage in the Miss France 2024 beauty pageant - Getty For the current Miss France brouhaha, short hair has become entangled with the culture wars. The “problem” with the short style worn by Gilles is that, according to some critics, it makes her look androgynous and in the new world paradigm, androgyny is an affront to those attempting to hold back the effluence of “woke”. The fact the French are still broadcasting beauty pageants on mainstream television – and drawing 7.5 million viewers for it – suggests that at heart they’re as staid and traditional as a soggy omelette.Īnd here we come to the nub of things. For thousands of years, it has symbolised everything they applaud (intellectually at least): freedom, equality and daring.Īlas, so much of what on the surface appears to be emancipated and spontaneous is just that – surface. It figures that French revolutionaries (and the majority of modern French people consider themselves to have a revolutionary streak) like short hair on women. A portrait of Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763-1814) - Getty ![]()
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