Hair History

Unmarried Chinese girls hair was usually worn long and braided whilst women combed the hair back from the face and wound into a knot at the nape. The Manchu regime of the time dictated that men shaved the front of the head and wore the back hair long and braided, tied with black silk.

In 1644, when the Manchus conquered China, they forced Chinese men to shave the tops of their heads and wear their hair in a long braid at the back, as a sign of being a conquered people. By the 1900s, when the Manchus were ousted from power, the pigtail had become a symbol of Chinese cultural identity. Chinese men kept the pigtail even when they emigrated, and Chinese immigrants to the United States were often persecuted for wearing it.

One point hair pins have been documented as being worn in China in the earliest days of the Chinese empire. The single stem hairpins from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries were elaborately adorned with flowers, animals, artistic figures or even versions of human heads made into miniature busts. The pins were worn both to help anchor hair into place as well as to add decoration.