History of Cosmetology
From St. Mary’s High School, Calgary,
Alberta, Canada
A special thanks to Judieath Chantler, cosmetology instructor at St. Mary’s High School,
and her class for sharing their
recent exhibit on the history of cosmetology. Judieath used the Hair Archives as an
instructional tool for putting together their historical display that was
presented to their high school classmates and school administration. An
excerpt from Judieath’s letter to me and pictures from the exhibit are shown
below:
“…in
the middle of this area we put up a history book on shoes and purses
as well as a photo from the Alberta archives of history of a girl about
seventeen dating back to the Klondike days with the hair done in ringlets (done
in rag ringlets to be specific) and a beautiful lace hat. Her costume
looks as if it’s from a stage play and the most interesting thing is we don’t
know who she was. On the close right of that, we had a section for men.
My senior class this year was taught how to do a man’s haircut and beard trim.
Very different than learning women’s cutting styles. At the beginning of
the year we didn’t even have male mannequins. So this area was filled with
photos and a picture that I painted last year, (a watercolor of
“Jupiter and Juno”) I painted it using an old master painters
book. I think I did a great job on the guy if I do say so myself!
The man has a big black beard and a “Fu Man Chu” mustache.
The small square pictures have a mustache style and the photo and painting then
illustrate the mustache style. Along side is information on gadgets and
instructions given to men over the centuries on how to tend to their facial hair.
On the far right was the African section and the elaborate and beautiful styles
taking sometimes many weeks to complete.
The other walls
contained a section on History’s Most Famous Blonde – Marilyn Monroe.
A section with photos of women with hair past their knees and one wall for Vidal
Sassoon – who started the revolution of the inverted bob and the wedge as well
as the asymmetrical cut. Precision cutting I pray comes back into style.
Then we had a whole family wall where we had Moms and Grammas and Dads and
Grampas showing all the pill box hats and fedoras. For a class of just 14
girls we did a pretty darn good job. Last but not least we had the
students reproduce the styles three each, and pick their best and put it
together with the fella and set it up at their station with their names above
their work.
We spent Friday doing manicures and eating cake and having
coffee and enjoying the results of our efforts – hope you enjoy the photos.
Sincerely Judieath Chantler, Cosmetology Teacher – St. Mary’s High School.”
Thanks Judieath and thank you future
cosmetologists! Best wishes to all of you!!
