Hair & Dress in Imperial Russia

[William Ryan]

I have only just seen this, but since I have been cited I would 
recommend looking first at the 4-page entry 'volosy' in Slavianskie 
drevnosti, vol. 1, Moscow, 1995. The only problem with it is that it is 
anthropological and not historical in emphasis - but there is a great 
deal about hair and magic, and short sections on unbound and uncovered 
hair. You will find some references to hair and magic in my own history 
of Russian  magic, The Bathhouse at Midnight, PSUP, 1999, see index 
under 'hair' (or the rather better index in the Russian version: Bania v 
polnoch', NLO, Moscow, 2006). The trouble with folk beliefs is that most 
are recorded in the nineteenth century and later and it is usually 
difficult to say much about their history. Even so, many beliefs and 
practices recorded in the nineteenth century are likely to have been 
prevalent in the eighteenth century also, or even earlier.
The Pauline injunctions (1 Corinthians 11:4-16) on covering hair, and 
the Russian custom of cutting off the long hair of brides at their 
wedding, would have been significant, and indeed affect the kind of head 
covering which women wore.
Will Ryan


Allison Leigh-Perlman wrote:
> Can anyone recommend some good source material regarding the covering of 
> female hair and its 'magical' qualities in 18th-century Russia or earlier?  I'm 
> also interested in histories of costume/dress of the same time period.  Any 
> recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Allison Leigh-Perlman
>
> Graduate Assistant 
> Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum
> Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
>
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