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English Girls Wearing 'Hijab' 100 Years Ago

30 replies

icedtea · 04/03/2019 09:35

Old footage showing how women dressed in England 100 years ago

OP posts:
HennyPennyHorror · 04/03/2019 09:42

Well you known those are just shawls right? Practical garments to keep them warm. Not "Hijab".

GregoryPeckingDuck · 04/03/2019 09:46

Uh well that’s pretty stupid. Obviously there have been periods when would cover their hair (most notably during the medieval period) however their head coverings where not hijabs and this fashion had long since passed by the time film was invented.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 04/03/2019 09:49

Um they didn’t have coats. And probably not hats either. They are trying to keep warm. Bollocks would they have worn their shawls like this in the summer.

Tinty · 04/03/2019 09:50

It is pretty obvious from the film that a lot of the women were doing dirty jobs, so they were trying to keep their hair clean and to keep themselves warm. Also there were two women at least at the end of the film with their hair uncovered.

What a load of rubbish.

TeacupDrama · 04/03/2019 09:50

it is true that 100 years ago most women and men covered heads outside men wore bowler hats top hats caps depending on work social status etc, women wore shawls hats etc again depending on social status in common with most of western europe and America
men removed cap/hat to greet a woman, men removed head covering in church women kept it on ( it was only in this instance it is remotely like hijab as it was convention in churches at the time for women to cover heads while praying

Those women in video would not have covered heads walking home in the heat of summer, you will notice in same video that all the men/boys had caps on you can easily find loads of photos of Victorian women with plenty of hair on show

people wore straw hats in summer to keep sun out of eyes as no sunglasses or suncream

neither men nor women covered heads indoors or when going out to evening functions like dinner /theatre it was about social conventions
girls started to put their hair up as opposed to wearing it down at about 14-16

ColeHawlins · 04/03/2019 09:51

It's not hijab.

The shawls would have been around their shoulders unless it was raining or particularly cold. So it's for practicality, not notions of modesty.

Tinty · 04/03/2019 09:52

Also if they worked in a cotton factory they were obviously going to cover their hair to keep all the cotton fibres out of it.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 04/03/2019 09:52

Those pit brow lasses are just trying to keep their hair clean: it was filthy work. The men all have hats on too.

Someone has an agenda here.

SeaweedDress · 04/03/2019 09:57

What a silly video, or perhaps edited to make a specific and fairly nonsensical point?

Those girls are poor, working-class girls covering their heads to keep warm (and keep the dirt away from their hair in polluted environments) between the factory and their homes, not wearing a religiously-mandated headcovering. Hats were expensive if you were poor, and would have been kept for Sunday and out-of-work wear.

And it wasn't that 'not showing your hair' was a thing, it was simply that respectable women of all classes wore some form of headcovering outdoors -- it would have been as odd to go out without a hat (if you could afford one), as it would be to us to go out without shoes. Middle- and upper-class Victorian women who entertained in the daytime in their own homes wore hats!

And you didn't 'wear your hair down your back' because that was a sign of a young girl or child -- you put your hair up when you were, roughly speaking, marriageable. An adult woman appearing on the street with her hair loose would have been seen as undressed, not in her right mind, or potentially a prostitute.

Plus who in their right mind would have worn their hair loose doing a factory job? There are reports of horrific injuries where hair caught in machinery. Hmm

So, yes, it's mildly amusing to see early 20thc English girls wearing shawls over their heads in a way that looks very like the way women from some Muslim communities wear the hijab in 2019, but that's about the limit of the resemblance.

PineapplePower · 04/03/2019 09:58

Don’t know what your point is, this is for practicality and not for modesty. You know, back in the days without proper heating?

Now if you’d shown a bunch of Amish women in bonnets, now that is like hijab.

SeaweedDress · 04/03/2019 09:58

Sorry, x-posted with a lot of people making similar points!

JaneJeffer · 04/03/2019 10:27

Why is this in style and beauty? Are you thinking of going for this look?

TeacupDrama · 04/03/2019 10:32

In Europe most people (men and women) covered their heads as in winter it is very cold and you lose about 20% of body heat through head so hoods up, shawls on as well as hats and earmuffs are about keeping warm, if you go really far north Inuit, Sami etc both men and women cover up so only the barest minimum of skin shows not because of super modesty but to try and keep as warm as possible because it is very cold

icedtea · 04/03/2019 12:23

Why is this in style and beauty? Are you thinking of going for this look?

Yes, I am have been looking at headscarves. I have partial hair loss, but find hats and wigs far too hot and uncomfortable for any length of time. Scarves, especially cotton, feel much more comfortable.

OP posts:
XingMing · 04/03/2019 12:28

The voiceover is drivel.... As PP say, it was about warmth, cleanliness, economics, status and custom. Modesty had nothing to do with it.

SilviaSalmon · 04/03/2019 12:43

Except they took it off as soon as the weather improved Hmm.

SilviaSalmon · 04/03/2019 12:44

A Summer scene from a Lancashire mill town circa 1905.

JaneJeffer · 04/03/2019 12:49

Fair enough iced tea but the video has nothing to do with hijab wearing or you wearing a headscarf. When I was a child all the older women wore headscarves. Maybe you can start a revival.

Cute dog in that photo Silvia

icedtea · 04/03/2019 13:02

JaneJeffer The video came up when searching for headscarf wearing on YouTube. Yes, maybe I can start a revival!

OP posts:
FreezerBird · 04/03/2019 13:07

I can see at least two women with uncovered heads in that film - and others where their hair is visible under the shawl.

icedtea · 04/03/2019 13:43

FreezerBird Yes off course there are uncovered heads. Nobody is suggesting that headcovering was compulsory. What the video indicates is that it was a common fashion for women at that time and place

OP posts:
Tinty · 04/03/2019 15:26

Nobody is suggesting that headcovering was compulsory. What the video indicates is that it was a common fashion for women at that time and place.

So rather than your thread title of English girls wearing Hijab. It is women following the fashion of that time.

SurgeHopper · 04/03/2019 15:29

What exactly is your point?

icedtea · 04/03/2019 16:23

So rather than your thread title of English girls wearing Hijab. It is women following the fashion of that time.

Yes that is right, "English girls wearing Hijab 100 years ago" is the title of the video which I copied and pasted.

On a personal level, as I stated before, I would like to wear a headscarf to cover my hair loss. However I am aware of how unfashionable it is nowadays. However I will probably go ahead and wear it - I am too old to care about current fashion trends now.

OP posts:
Floisme · 04/03/2019 16:32

Leaving aside that video, I remember my mum and my aunties wearing headscarves - silky, patterned squares, folded diagonally and knotted under the chin. I think it was mostly to protect their hair. They all went for a shampoo and set and put their hair in rollers every night and they didn't want the wind or rain to disrupt it.
At the time we used to laugh at them but now, with hindsight, I think they looked pretty cool. So I would do it get ahead of the trend.