Hair Times

Just a little experiment* looking into the time actually required to dress one's hair in a basic style. To start, I picked three styles that I'm familiar with and which feel fairly practical.  The side bands over rats require a little fussing to look symmetric (a mirror helps), but they still go fairly quickly. 

Method: Each week, I dressed my hair in one the following styles.  I allowed the first two days to be 'warm-ups' to get the technique in my muscle memory; on the last five, I timed how long it took me to put my hair up. I started with my hair combed, a center part, and any product (pomatum or oil) already brushed in. The final time includes any additional parting, smoothing, braiding, and twisting, up until the last pin was placed. For the braids, I used a standard three-strand flat plait; the single braid was tied with thread, while the side braids and pair of back braids were plaited to the end and pinned up without being tied off. [I have a separate research project and experiment going on how braids were fastened before hair elastics.]

Two-braid coil (bun) of the back hair, with side hair in twists

Back	Side	Total
2:57	0:42	3:39
2:47	0:45	3:32
3:16	0:33	3:49
--	--	3:29
2:47	1:05	3:52

Two-braid coil, with rolls over braids on the side

Back	Side	Total
3:20	3:06	6:26
2:53	2:58	5:51
3:05	2:58	6:03
3:32	2:36	6:08
2:49	2:52	5:41

Single-braid coil, with wide side bands over rats

Back	Side	Total
2:15	1:41	3:56
2:47	0:57	3:44
2:40	1:03	3:43
2:08	1:24	3:32
2:30	0:54	3:24

Averages for different components

Type	Average time
Coil of two braids, no tie	3:03
Coil of one braid, tied with string	2:28
Side twists	0:46
Side twists into braids	2:54
Side bands	1:12

While I do have very long hair, and put up in historic styles often, I still don't have the same amount of practice as someone who has been dressing her hair thus everyday since she was a teen. It's quite likely that someone actually living in the 1850s-early 1860s would be faster still. On the other hand, the largest time sink of the styles was the braiding--which I have been doing since childhood--and so perhaps the duration isn't far off.

For the record, I did all of these styles, fully putting up my 28" long hair, with four to six 3" steel pins--two to secure the back coil, one more to attach each side to the coil, and sometimes an extra pin or two for added security.

*Ok, I maybe get frustrated with the myth that period hairstyles are too time-and-resource-intensive for ordinary use, and that some/most/all women just left their hair loose. Everything I've read suggests that dressing one's hair neatly was a social expectation of all classes, and my own personal experience is that wearing long hair down is impractical for any sort of work or movement, as well as situations like 'wind'.