In the 19th century, the most commonly method for tying the ends of braids is to wrap the hair several ties in a string/thread or ribbon and tie it off. If you want to go earlier, there's a really neat iron age wire cone hypothesized to secure plait ends, sewing plaits together in Imperial Roman styles, and the similar hair lacing of the medieval and early modern periods.
Ribbon Versus Thread
At some point between the 16th and 18th century, functional hairpins supplant the sewing/lacing method of securing updos. But thread/laces/ribbon continues to be used to tied bunches of hair together, particularly at the end of a plait/braid. William Moore's The Art of Hairdressing (1750) refers frequently to strings--not just on braids, but also on toupees and curls. This isn't conclusive that the braids are fastened off with string (the context tends towards pinning or securing the various pieces rather than making the braids) but it is suggestive. A 1770 poem on The Art of Dressing the Hair names "braided Locks with pleated Ribbon tied". The New London Toilette (1778) describes fastening plaits with packthread--at least for tying in false hair or preparing for horseback riding.
Moving into my usual 19th century range, there are actually very few specific references to how braids are fastened. Most of the hair-styling instructions show braids without describing how they should be tied. The few that mention fastening off a braid offer little more detail about how. An 1855 Godey's article on "How to Treat the Hair" recommends that girls' hair be tied with ribbon:
"We may here mention that it is a great mistake to plait the hair of children under eleven or twelve years of age. The process of plaiting more or less strains the hairs in their roots, by pulling them tight, tends to deprive them of their requisite supply of nutriment, and checks their growth. The hair of girls should only be nipped, and allowed to curl freely. When they are about eleven or twelve, the hair should be twisted into a coil, not too tight, nor tied at the end with thin thread, but with a piece of ribbon."
[Incidentally, that paragraph was reprinted in 1859, independent of the rest of the article.] I can see two different readings of this passage. The first is that girls' hair needs to be tied with ribbons instead of thread to allow for future growth, and that by implication thread is fine/normal for tying off women's braids that will be pinned up. The second reading is that only ribbon should ever be used to tied off braids and girls are specified because women's updos don't require the braids to be tied off. I'm inclined towards the first reading, given the context of hair-cutting for girls and promoting long-term growth. However, working experimentally, I've found that it's quite possible to just braid a section of hair all the way down, and tuck the ends in when pinning it up. A bit of pomade or hair oil will help the ends stay neat. It's trickier when the hair has recently been cut, and has an abrupt edge rather than tapering down to nothing, but all of the 3+ strand braids I've tried will hold up this way in 1850s-1860s styles.
A young lady's braided updo in Elegant Arts for Ladies (1856) calls for ribbon to be wrapped around the plaits, as well as tying off the ends and flowing behind as streamers. Black velvet ribbon is used similarly in a fashionable coiffure from 1854, though the ribbon is not specified to be tying off the braids as well. Looking to literature, in Les Miserables (1862), the 15-year-old urchin Éponine ties her hair with a string or cord ("pour coiffure une ficelle" 3.8.4).
Later in the century, the fashion magazines give a little more information about tying off braids. In Harper's (1871) hairdressing instructions, the girls' styles all call for ribbons to tie the hair, though the women's styles mostly say to "fasten" without specifying. In one case, however, narrow ribbon is ordered (with a decorative bow applied on top), and in another string is used, at least temporarily (the hair is then fastened with pins).
The Homekeeper (Boston, 1872), among other interesting assertations, warns that "fastening the hair by a string near the roots injures the head by the strain on it, and causes baldness." This suggests that some people probably did tie their hair with thread, apparently to bind sections near the scalp (my guess would be for waterfalls). Campbell's Self Instructor (1867) describes making hairpieces and gives instructions for popular styles, but never specifies how to fasten and clasp the ends of braids, etc. Both ribbon and string are used in the making of the supplemental hairpieces, though.
Girls' ribbons continue to get more blatant attention than women's braids. Styles in Donahue's Magazine, in 1879 show girls' hair tied with ribbon. In February of 1886, Demorest's Monthly discusses general hair-dressing trends, noting that little girls' hair is usually braided and tied with ribbon (worn down or looped up).
Elastic and Rubber Bands
The earliest reference I can find to an elastic hair fastener is in the 1853 Goodyear catalog. It has two intriguing descriptions:
HAIR CLASP This is an ingenious little article made of gum elastic, with a clasp of polished steel or other metal, and used by ladies as a hair tie. There is also a tape made of gum elastic which is used for the same purpose....
HAIR LOOP This consists of an elastic ring or tie looped upon an artificial ivory button It is found useful for fastening ladies hair.
Unfortunately, these items are not evident in any of the plates included in the catalog. The first could be a basic round hair-tie with metal joining the edges. I've not found any other references to "rubber" or "elastic" hair clasps or loops this early, only to smooth rubber hair pins and crimping devices. [Loops of elastic are apparently favored to metal pins for setting curls overnight.]
While rubber bands made of vulcanized elastic date to c.1845, the earliest I can find that technology applied to hair is an 1882 patent. This hair-fastener (a piece of elastic with a metal catch), describes the old method for fastening the hair as ' winding a string several times about the hair and then tying in a knot', and claims that 'fastening the hair with a string is found by most ladies to be a very uncomfortable operation.' It makes no allusion to the vulcanized rubber bands being applied to the hair, nor to the Goodyear clasps/loops.
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| 1882 elastic hair fastener patent |
A series of designs with straight pieces of elastic closed with metal clasps followed this--a hook and ring style was patented were patented in 1897 in Great Britain, and 1898 in the US. A similar design again appeared in the UK in 1900.
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| Patent drawing from 1898 showing an elastic hair-holder with hook and loop closure. |
A similar arrangement (now adjustable) with elastic joining a halves of a metal clasp and/or ring was patented in 1921-22:
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| Adjustable hair clasp with elastic-joined metal fittings. US Patent 1424654A, 1921. |
The use of elastic was not universal in hair clasps at this time. Metal devices for fastening braids were proposed using 'spiral wire' (1901), pivoting clamps (1902), and a clamp with a wire loop (1903). A 1909 patent describes a rubber, celluloid or metal ring with teeth, used to hold the hair in a "pony-tail" shape as a foundation for styling.
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| 1903 Hair fastener with clamp. |
Anton Nagelschmidt filed a patent for 'hair ties' (1901) and a 'magic circle' (1902) hair fastener, though I can't find an image or description of either. They caught my eye for possibly referring to elastic hair bands of modern use, but might just as easily be a metal or hybrid metal/elastic like so many other hair-fastening patents of the time. A 1924 French patent for a "hair tie elastic", likewise with no further information, sounds rather like the modern elastic hair tie; an even more obscure "fastening device" from 1921 does not reference shape or material, though it's function is to tie off plaits or braids. These 1953 patents for a ponytail hair holders and 1955 improved hair tie have intriguing names, but no descriptions or diagrams are available.
It's worth noting, however, that neither "elastic" nor "tie" necessarily means a modern thread-covered elastic loop. From the same time period, there's a 1921 British patent for a "hair clasp" includes an elastic section with a pin and buckle, while an American "hair tie" patent from 1923-4 describes a wire device:
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| 1923-1924 wire "hair tie" patent. |
The elastic loop could be too simple to warrant patenting, though the metal closure (or not) and techniques for covering the rubber with thread would seem fertile ground for refinement. The first such patent I found was an 1967 one for a double loop-with-beads fastener, which refers to rubber bands succeeding ribbons as the common way to tie off hair. It appears to describe the prevailing device as a closed loop of elastic with a probably-metal clasp joining the ends ('sharp-corners' being a problem with them)*. A similar two-loop-with-beads design patented in 1972 looks identical to the hairties that were the bane of my childhood.
The most clear mention of rubber bands I've found comes from this 1942 hair braid fastener. It itself is a decorative two piece clasp joined by 'elastic cord or rubber band', though I didn't find clarification on whether the rubber is to be covered with thread/fabric to protect the hair. Referring to the use of rubber bands and development of hair-specific bands, it says:
One type of retainer, replacing the ribbon type has been a common rubber band which has been utilized by stretching it and wrapping it over upon itself several times around a point on the hair body. The rubber band type holder has been found to be generally satisfactory insofar as retaining the desired hair arrangement is concerned, however, two disadvantageous features have somewhat limited its usage...Various easily dissociable hair holders have been proposed to alleviate some of the dis-advantages of ordinary contractile bands as noted above, but in general they have had too high a unit cost to be widely usable and have necessarily included sharp-cornered contractile band end retaining means into which subjects hairs can become wedged during ordinary usage of the devices with the attendant painful removal of the device as noted hereinbefore with respect to ordinary contractile bands.
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| Elastic braid fastener with decorative clasp, 1942. |
Conclusion
From the dates I've been able to find, it is possible that bare elastic rubber bands could have been used by later Victorians to fasten off plaits. However, the literature so far examined does not offer any positive support for this occurring. The reference to rubber bands in an 1940s hair elastic patent, and omission of rubber bands from similar patents of the 1880s-1920s, suggests that rubber bands did not achieve widespread use for fastening hair until approximately the second quarter of the 20th century. Writers of the mid-19th century mention ribbon and thread being used to tie off braids, with the ribbon being particularly recommended for young girls' hair. It is also possible that braids were pinned up in some cases without being tied off first. Further research onto this topic, particularly into the development of thread-covered rubber hair bands, is warranted.
Thank you.
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