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?

In the early 1970s my friend and I made long skirts out of charity shop headscarves. That's the only time I wore one (several).

My mum (who was born in 1933) died when I was 7 in 1974 but I remember she always wore a headscarf outdoors in winter but not in summer.
My grandmother (born in 1911, died 1997) always wore a hat and coat outdoors throughout her entire life whether summer or winter. She was furious (a nasty and bizarre woman) that I did not want to wear a coat all year round.

My mum wore a headscarf tied under her chin, like the Queen, when leaving the house. So did all of her friends. This was sixties/seventies in England.

She must have gradually stopped wearing one at some point in the mid-seventies. By the 1979 it was a thing of the past.

London in the 70s - many women wore them. Think it was because they only washed their hair once a week and it was a big deal to set it - so it had to be carefully managed. It wasnt all, but a sizable number - perhaps more older women.

Mum always did esp when it was raining even with an umbrella but very useful when it was drizzly rain save putting up an umbrella. i remember the chiffon scarves as well see through and light she also had this scarf with had a padded ridged front bit then a loose light nylon drape at the back not sure but think the padded bit was just to give a bit of height. i think that she stopped wearing them late 70s or early 80s.
in the 1970s i had the cotton square scarves which i tied under the back of my hair gipsy style great for greasy teen hair

Born 1960s Irish, my mum didn't wear one but an aunt did, and so did lots of other women. I think it died out during the 1970s sometime?

Oh No!
I've had a flashback to my friends at school making fun of me because they had seen my mum wearing a headscarf as she walked me into school.

This would have been late 1980, early 1981.
She would have been protecting her curled hair style. She wasn't an older mum but perhaps not the most up to date style wise perhaps.
I remember telling her off about it. My poor Mum!

Yes, my Mum and her mum (my grandmother) both wore scarves in the1970s, as did many of their female friends. I remember being tiny and out with my Mum, bumping into her friends who were shopping and who almost all had scarves on. They were patterned, shiny material scarves. Not huge, just the right size to fold in half and make a triangle. Sometimes my Mum would do a fancier kind of tie, but usually she just tied it under her chin.

I don’t know when she stopped. It kind of gradually petered out. She didn’t replace her scarves and eventually stopped wearing them sometime in the 80s, I’d guess.

I like them. My Polish friends wear them and put them on their daughters, tied at the back in a different style. Those are cotton scarves. I think they look nice.

There are pics of my mum in the 60's when she would've been in her thirties and had her hair done in a London salon every Friday after work.

By the 70's she only wore them when it was raining.

No. My mother was born into 1930s working class Ireland, and she never had any money, but she always liked to look stylish and fashionable. (I know headscarves can be stylish and fashionable but mostly ..... they aren't). You can always tell exactly what era it was in photographs of my mother. Her hair was always set, make-up was always on and shoes were only flat for dog-walking. Her mother was born at the turn of the century and was all fur coats and jewellery. They were both the kind of women to regard headscarves and those zip-up boots as 'letting yourself go.'

My siblings grew up in the eras of maxi-dresses, disco glam and eighties cocktail dresses. My mum loved all that. Sadly, I came of age during the grunge period. I could not rock a headscarf. I'd be more the Ena Sharples end of things than the Tippi Hedren look.

My Nan always did.

It was for the reason previously mentioned, she didn't wash and dry her hair at home, she went to a salon once a week for a 'wash and set' and this would be ruined if it got wet. She didn't own shampoo or a hairdryer!

One of my nans always wore a headscarf tied under her chin when outside she had a perm so it was to protect that. She sometimes also wore a rain hood (we were still selling these in the late 90s in Woolies!) Other nan occasionally did if it was a windy day.

We have a couple of mums at school now who wear a headscarf but tied at the base of the neck.

Yes, same here. I think it was to stop her hair getting messed up in the wind or rain. My Grandmother was one of those ladies who had her hair set once a week at the hairdressers and she always had a 'protection scarf' on outside.

We don't really do super structured hair styles now so it doesn't matter so much. I can't imagine the luxury of a blow dry once a week at a salon but Grandma managed that on a pension. How things have changed

Yes my mum wore a headscarf up until the early 80s (she was born just after the end of the war).

Both my nans also wore them (all British and not Catholic). Plus the plastic ones for the rain!

My mum did as a teenager in the late 50s, she was a proper fashionista and I have some fab photos of her and my dad who was a teddy boy. She wore them like this ...

Both my Grandmothers wore them throughout my chidhood in the 70s. I can't remember my younger Gran wearing one in the 80s but I also can't imagine my older fashioned Granny not wearing hers, I think way in to the 90s when she died. I think it was for warmth when out and about but unlike a hat it didn't mess with their hairdo. It was always folded in to a triangle and tied under the chin.

My mum was born in 1945 and would never have worn one. She would have thought it very old fashioned. But she did go through a long phase of wearing a triangle silk scarf around her neck secured with a clasp. A bit like a scout now I think of it.

There was a fashion for them to be tied, hippy style behind, at the nape of the neck in the 90s.

Not my Mom (Midlands spelling before I get jumped on) but most of the women in my family did wear a scarf or a hat most of the time come summer or winter.

I also remember those plastic rain hats too, I thought it odd they wore that and took an umbrella! I was born in the 70s

My mother wore a headscarf frequently when I was a child, I think it was to keep her hair neat if it was windy. This was in London in the 60's and 70's. I remember other mothers wearing them, too. My grandmother wore frightful hats with big hatpins stuck in the sides. My mother had stopped wearing a headscarf by the 80's.

Yes. I was born 71 mum wore headscarfs sometimes. It's not something she'd wear when being smart, more for nipping to the shop when it was windy I think. She did also wear scarves round her neck often with a collared blouse and woollen tank top on top..one of these was an orangey gold silkey one that I still have.
She also wore a wraparound apron thing all the time in the house during the day but took it off once dinner was done. She'd have been in her 40s so different style to a younger mum.

Not my mum as way too young for this look, but the older of my 2 grans always did. She had a green chiffon one she particularly liked.

Not my mum, but both my grannies wore hats and headscarves a lot when I was a child - 70s and 80s. They were both catholic, and wouldn’t have dreamt of going to church without some sort of head covering - but they would often wear them out to the shops too.

Mid 70’s, to mid 80’s- my Nan and Gran always, under the chin like the Queen.
my mum didn’t, she wore a crochet beanie!

My Mum never did, but we drove everywhere. I think it might have been to do with protecting a carefully done hairdoo. We lived to far from anywhere to walk.

I do remember thinking about it as a child and knowing that this was something that happened in the past but not any more, so I think it was already gone by the 80s in the place where I lived.

I do remember the hilarious pushchair covers though, where the little kid's head stuck through a hole in the cover and the hood was part of the cover. I lived in a very rainy place and the little kids always had rain hitting their faces. They never looked that pleased.

My mum was definitely wearing headscarfs well into the 1970s, tied under the chin, although she also had a lovely expensive one that was big enough to cross over under the chin, wrap all around the neck and then tie under the chin - I think she got the idea from Elizabeth Taylor!

Headscarfs were very glamorous in the 50's/60's/70's - so many photographs of Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie O, Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, The Queen!

My gran always wore a scarf (Manchester 1970's) usually a silky one for daily wear and a chiffon one when it was warmer, my great aunts wore them too and all of them had a good collection of hats for winter and summer .
They were all born around 1904 -1915 5 girls and one boy . Church of England .