A C Tuli
The sartorial fashions of Indian women have undergone a vast change over the years. And so have their hairstyles.If you look at an old photograph of Indian women clicked in the 30s or 40s, you find their profusely oiled tresses reflecting studio lights. The hairstyles they sport look archaic in the present-day world.
In the 1950s, most women parted their hair in the middle with tresses in overlapping waves covering their ears. Some, however, presented a rigid look by combing back their hair into a tight braid. Strangely, according to the rigid ethics of those days, there was something faintly disreputable about a woman who allowed her hair to fall loosely in waves over her ears. Dry-as-dust moralists associated these waves with a wickedly amorous disposition.
However, some liberated women of those days did not a care a cuss about what men with a constricted outlook on life said about female hairdos. They preferred sideparting to the conservative middle parting followed by the hoi polloi.
That side-parting added to their charm is amply borne out by Bollywood films of those days. The heroines of these films, such as GoharJaan, Sardar Akhtar, Mehtab, Sulochana, Khurshid, Naseem, Ramola, Rehana, and many others sported sideparting in many films of that time, and quite a few of them in real life too.
In fact, right up to the late 1960s, side parting was quite common among film actresses. For A C Tuli writes on film issues instance, Asha Parekh looked cute with her sideparting in films like ‘Dil Deke Dekho’ and ‘Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai’.Incidentally, independent India’s first Health Minister Rajkumari Amrit Kaur also took to parting her hair on the side at some stage in her life.Kamla Nehru, Vijaylakshami Pandit and Indira Gandhi also fancied this hairstyle. Ornately-designed hairclips of gold or silver were commonly used by women of those days to keep their hairdos intact. The well-heeled used gold hairclips inlaid with gems. However, the common fashion among the unmarried middle-class girls was to pleat their hair and use a long silk ‘pranda’with globule-shaped tassels at the end to make the growth look luxuriant. A newly-married woman would use a gold hairband called shingharpattion formal occasions. Wearing hair in a bun was as popular among women of yore as it is today. Though the oblong or oval bun nestling at the nape of the neck wasliked,it was the round bun secured with hairpins that enjoyed universal approval. Some women used ‘gajra’ (wreath of jasmine flowers) to lend a touch of glamour and sexiness to their buns. Jasmines are still quite common as adornment for the female hair in some southern states of India.
The top-knot or the top-bun has never gone out of fashion. It was in vogue in the 1950s and 60s. The inspiration for this hairstyle, some fashion experts say, must have come from the traditional image of Shiva’s consort Parvati. Sculpted images of Parvati that we see in old temples show her hair neatly secured in a big chignon on top of her comely head.
There was a time when the craze among unmarried girls for two braids – ‘do chotiyan’ – was at its acme. At a marriage ceremony or some other festive occasion, it was common to see young girls with one braid provocatively flung across her bosom and the other dangling at her back. But dour old uncles and grandpas of that time resented even this harmless foray into fashion by young girls.
But the times were changing fast. Young women were growing impatient of the outdated restrictions on their freedom. Different hairstyles were becoming the fashion of the day. Hindi films gave a fillip to experimentation in female coiffeur. For a while both the middle and the side partings were forgotten. Young girls sleekly combed back their hair and let their long, waist-length tresses cascade down to their hips voluptuously. Women of those days also tried a variety of ways to make their hair look luxuriant and bouncy. So ‘puffwalajoora’ was for a few years quite popular. In Hindi films of the 60s and 70s, actresses sported this type of bun.
It had certain advantages. For instance, those actresses who wanted height found it a godsend. This kind of bun added three to four inches to their height. Then, there were skirt-wearing, conventeducated, English-speaking girls who hated pleating their hair and presenting a severe spinster-like look to the world.
They liked their glossy, well-shampooed hair to loosely frame their pretty faces like a halo. Use of oils was almost discarded. Dry, fluffy hair became the fashion.
Another hairstyle among young girls was to wear their hair banged across the forehead. Sometimes one saw a profusion of ringlets covering the fair brow of a damsel.
The Sadhana-fringe, popularised by actresses Sadhana, was also a variation of this style. It was in those days popularly known as Sadhana cut. This hairstyle retained its appeal for a number of years. In the TV serial ‘Jassi Jaissa Koi Nahin’, Mona Singh sported this hairstyle.
Today, we have reached a stage where the difference between the male and female hairstyles is tending to be minimal. If actresses like sporting a pony tail or a pigtail, actors too are not far behind in this matter. Shah Rukh Khan nowadays sports a pigtail.
Luxuriant, waist-length hair is now considered by working women an encumbrance, for they have little time to lavish over their tresses. So, women now a days like wearing short hair.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
