AIBU to think less of period dramas that use French braids/plaits?

[mommybunny]

I’m really keen to see Little Women but on the trailer I saw a girl with French plaits and that’s kind of ruined it for me. I remember French plaits becoming a craze in the 80s (1980s!) but as far as I recall they were a new hairstyle then. To me, French plaits in a drama set during the American Civil War belongs in the same anachronistic dump as Mrs Maisel telling her audience that Dr Spock’s message was “you got this”, or the numerous examples of men keeping their hats on indoors.

I’m happy to be proved wrong, and to be shown that French plaits existed before the 1980s, but Wikipedia is no help.

They've been around for centuries. A quick google will tell you they've been popular in France since the 17th century. It's not a new thing your parents discovered.

Strange reason not to see a movie but here's a link to a page on civil war hairstyles - plaits have their own section.

None of the characters in the film have the "taught" closely woven French plaits of the 1980s. More loose plaits which just start near the crown.

Lol.

I think anyone with Afro hair will be able to tell you about braids...

10,000 years of human history and you think one of the simplest styles of braids was invented in 1984?

Have a look at hair patterns in viking, Greek, Mesopotamian, Egyptian or Nubian art. So many different braids and patterns. There is no way something so practical was only thought of within my lifetime.

I think anyone with Afro hair will be able to tell you about braids...

Ditto Vikings.

Ah man, link didn't work.

bust.com/style/19298-victorian-hairstyles.html

-Reminds me of my elderly Aunt telling me she dreamt in Technicolour before it was ever on the films .

Now really OP...

Ancient Germans had man buns. Still a bloody awful style but hey.

Firstly, they're plaits. In a pre-industrial society, where people are using handcrafts like knitting, sewing and crocheting and also feeling the need to keep their hair out of their face, the plait will be spontaneously developed.

Secondly, they were a new fashionable thing in the UK in the 1980s, and called French braids. Assuming that they are a French style, why would that mean that they hadn't been known in America until the 80s?

This is one of the most bizarre and funniest things I've ever seen on here.

Little Women is set in 1869. There was an article in a US magazine in 1871, referring to a French braid. Also, braiding had been around for literally 1000s of years. It's unlikely French braids were just "discovered" in 1980.

oh dear - do you really think they where 'invented' in the 80's ?

really?

Have you seen Cats OP?

I can understand frustration at lack of historically accurate details but l don't think this is significant enough to dismiss the whole film. Especially as they may well have been around then.

I love the idea that sometime around 1979 someone somewhere sat down and invented a braid

Wikipedia is no help? Even the section where it talks about the history of the French Braid and the earliest known use of that particular name in 1871?

This thread has made my day! Poor OP!

Ok, I mean I don't think French plaits started in the 80s. But if you want to not see a film based on this knock yourself out.

this is a book giving instruction in a number of things - including some methods of braiding.

Lol

Also what’s the problem with Mrs Maisel and Dr Spock? His approach to child rearing was pretty much “you got this” Or do you mean that she wouldn’t have used that phrase at that time? I don’t think Mrs Maisel is supposed to be authentically true to the era in terms of characters’ speech.

We have a picture of my husbands great great great grandmother on her wedding day in New York with plaits

Roman vestal virgins wore cornrows and depictions of cornrows dates back about 5000 years. Given that French braids are inverted cornrows, I find it difficult to imagine that no one in 5000 years ever thought of inverting their cornrows until the 1980s.

Oh dear.
This is like when a certain kind of oblivious white person says that twerking was ‘invented’ by Miley Cyrus