Long straight or braided hair and elaborate headdresses. Wigs were common.

Long hair with elaborate knots and updos decorated with natural items (leaves and flowers) or jewels.

Similar to Greece but “blonde” hair was popular and was created with golden powder. Curling tongs were also in wide range use.

Not a great deal is known due to lack of art and literature. Noblewomen wore headdresses that kept the hair mainly covered. Unmarried women wore a fillet, a narrow headband over a wimple.

Noble women wore their hair in loose curls and lower class women wore it page boy style, short or chin-length.

Hair was rarely seen in public. All women wore headdresses, bonnets, hats of hoods.

Updos were still popular but headdresses were on the way out. Hair was decorated with ribbons, pearls and other precious stones.

Costumes had very high collars so it was still the fashion to wear hair up and high. Wire frames were used to style and fix in place. Height was important.

The century of the wig. Wigs the like of which have not been since, except in the movies.

Hairstyles were extremely well coiffed, and were updos and half-updos. Ringlets, braids and twists were popular – often in combination. Hairstyles were built around elaborate headdresses.

Classical Greek and Roman statuary was the basic inspiration for all Regency hairstyles, particularly earlier ones. The styles evolved into carefully planned casual disorder. Short spiral curls were popular.

During the 1840s and 1850s, hairstyles covered the ears and usually had hanging braids or curls that puffed out around the face while a bun secured the rest.

There was a return to natural beauty – often in an austere way. Tidiness, modesty and dignity were watchwords. Loose hairstyles were considered vulgar and a sign of low class. A lady rarely went out without her bonnet.

Correlating with the movement in art, architecture and literature, hair became more organic. Updos were less formal and flowers, leaves and other natural objects were popular items woven into hair or attached to ribbons and delicate headdresses.

This was a period of major change. Women actually began to cut their hair short – gasp! Hairstyles were simple, either sleek so they would wear well under a cloche hat, or with finger waves embellished with delicate but elaborate headdresses and combs. In came the bob and the Eton Crop.

Pencil thin eyebrows together with a sleek upswept hairdo was the archetypal thirties look. Chin length permanent waves were very popular.

Waves became much softer and looser and certainly longer but structured rolls became very evident. In the war years, headscarves were worn to keep dust and grime out of hair. Hair became a matter of practicality for women working en masse for the first time.

The age of the hairdresser was born. Many housewives enjoyed a weekly trip where hair was teased into all sorts of shapes and styles. Headscarves and bands became a fashion accessory rather than a necessity.

In the era of freedom, liberation and hippies, hair became an expression of the woman. Styles were influenced by popular culture and inspired by the rising stars of the hair salons. Think asymmetric, bouffant, the bob, the beehive and long and straight adorned with flowers. Colors and dyes started to become mainstream.

By the mid 1970s women had adopted a variety of hairstyles many based on blow drying of hair into specific flicked positioning from a centre parting. Hair was luxurious and voluminous and the makeup was glaring. The antithesis was punk with its spikes and multicolored Mohicans.

Big and eccentric hair (to balance out massive shoulder pads!) was popularized by film and music but this was also the era that women copied iconic cuts of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Purdey and the overblown hair of shows like Dallas and Dynasty.

Hairstyles were built on the principles of natural beauty and health. They were well groomed regardless of length. Princess Diana continued to aspire but other inspiration came in the form of “the Rachel” and the eclectic look of The Spice Girls.

Anything goes! Women wear their hair any which way with styles and colors changing by the day or the week. The range of colors and accessories is bewildering and trends ebb and flow, some short-lived, some sticking around and becoming accepted into the norm.