Inspired by another thread - if you are white British/Irish, did your Mum routinely wear a headscarf when you were small, and when did she stop?

[astoundedgoat]

Looking back at baby photos of me from the 70's (rural Ireland), I realise that my Mum (Catholic, born in the 1930's) nearly always wore a headscarf when she was out of the house during the day.

Being the 1970's, the scarves were often brown/orange/mustard and of course nylon, and she must have abandoned them by the time I was 3 or 4 because they were in my dressing-up collection by then. She had a small black lace mantilla and I think I remember that she sometimes wore it to Mass, probably around the time she ditched the headscarf for daily wear but was wondering how to cover her head in church, but it disappeared (into my dressing-up box too!) pretty soon.

Sometimes they were tied behind her head (summer?) and sometimes under her chin, like the Queen (winter?).

My Nanna (Dublin/Protestant/working class, born in 1910) never ever left the house without wearing a hat (usually a knitted one, with a smart one for occasions/funerals etc.).

Was this just Ireland? Common in the UK too?

My mum did in the 70s. She had a navy blue one and a red one both with white spots. She wore them like Barbara Good in The Good Life. My dad used to grow all the veg at the bottom of our huge back garden.
In the evenings if there was a Pippa Dee party she'd dress like Margot Ledbetter.
She's still incredibly stylish at 71.

well the queen did on many occasions.

My grandmother (born pre WW1) wore one tied under the chin like QE2 all the time. DM (born post WW2) didn't wear one regularly but I remember seeing a photo of her from the 60s (so prechildren and aged ~22) looking very Audrey Hepburn like with a scarf worn more like an Alice band and tied at the back of her neck.

Irish background. All the female relatives in Ireland wore these in the 70s. Especially as all of them rode bicycles to work or some shopping . Headscarves were for everyday. Church on Sunday it was hats or mantillas . Some mantillas were beautiful long Spanish style lace affairs that someone had brought back from " the Continent " . Others were just round discs that you used a kirby grip to keep it on . Some churches had a basket with these that you could buy at the entrance - I guess in case you were caught short . I have a plastic rain hood in my house that I got for a relative. They are so practical but who would wear one now ? Maybe it is time they were brought back in fashion . Could the glamorous women of Liverpool be persuaded ??

My Mum wore one in the 50s and 60s when shopping etc. She wore a proper hat to church. I used to wear a scarf from the 70's onwards to travel in our soft top cars. It's the only practical solution short of a balaclava!

I was born late 70s, my mum didn’t wear a headscarf, but both my grandmothers did in my childhood, one stopped around late 80s, other did until her death in late 90s.

however, the one who carried on wearing a headscarf was one who had her hair “set” twice a week. I think the hair scarf was to hold the style in windy weather. The other cut her hair shorter around the same time she stopped wearing a scarf and stopped curling it. I presume that’s why the scarves disappeared from every day?

My granny did when I was small. Early 80s ish. South Wales.

My mum had one for emergencies I vaguely remember her wearing. She had a perm and 2 kids under 7 so I remember her putting it on on wet/windy days picking us up from school (where she needed both hands). Same time.

My glamorous Grandma wore hats.

My grandmas both wore them every time left home one died in early 80s the other early 2000s.

love looking at old photos with scarfs they also wore nylon house coats

Yes and they are more than due a comeback imo!

My mum and her mum often wore scarves. I have lots of pics of them in the 70s and 80s wearing them, and I have a couple of silk Liberty scarves I inherited from my mum when she died. I think it was more common back then to keep your hair nice from the British weather.

My Mum did in the 70's but tied behind her head not under her chin.
She was very fashionable so I assume it was that as we aren't religious in the slightest

Born 1980, Irish and my nanna always wore a hat or headscarf

My mum didn’t but my auntie did. The late Queen used to as well.

Early 70s baby here, northern England. My Grandma used to wear a headscarf (QE2 style). I'd say she stopped around 1980ish.

I'm 43 and my mum never wore one but I do remember both my (white British) grandmothers wearing headscarves and hats to church in the 80s when I was a child. They also had those waterproof headscarf things to protect their hair even in the 90s 😂

No but I remember my grandma wearing one occasionally (she would have been born 1920’s ish).

Yes, southeast England, born early 70s. DM and DGMs wore scarves (lots of Paisley) but only in my earliest memories.

This was what I thought. Both my Nans did and always said it was to keep their hair set properly - both did have during the 80s the very in fashion set perm (like the Queen)

as they got older and the perm went it stopped

The late Queen often wore one!

I remember elderly female relatives back in the 60s always having to wear a hat of some sort when they went out - they didn’t feel ‘dressed’ without one. It was once pretty normal. In many old B&W photos taken around WW1/the 20s, of ordinary people, absolutely everyone, regardless of age or sex, is wearing a hat.

In a novel set in the 30s/40s I’ve read of women wearing their ‘gardening’ hat!

Yep she always did in the 70's, After she died I found them and saw they were vintage Jaeger..so I wear them now as neck scarves!

No. Born in the 1960s. Neither my mother, granny nor any other white English woman I knew wore a headscarf.

My mum (born 1949) would never have worn one. My gran did wear one in the 1980s when she would have been late 60s.

Yes, think this was a great solution for ‘Irish Hair’ and what any kind of dampness in the air does to it 😂

My grandma had loads, I used to steal them and play dress up with them.

Yes. I was born in the mid-sixties. She used to wear it to feed the hens, ride a horse, and as others have said, to hold her hair in place after she had her hair set every Thursday.