Hair extensions may be more frequently associated with The Only Way is Essex than Far From the Madding Crowd, but rendering
complex and voluminous nineteenth-century hairstyles couldn’t always rely on
women’s natural hair – and often didn’t. In 1873 over 100 tons of hair were
sold in France alone. And then, as now, the human hair trade was one which
raised difficult ethical issues, with connotations of exploitation and the
commercialisation of the female body.
In Thomas Hardy’s The
Woodlanders (1887) this question of buying and selling hair is considered
on a localised level, with the poor Marty South opening the novel by selling
her hair, under duress, to the wealthy landowner Mrs Charmond. Marty’s hair is
intrinsically tied to her femininity. Her initial plea, ‘Why can’t the lady send
to some other girl who don’t value her hair – not to me!’, is a fruitless and
ridiculous one – as the wig-maker will push her anyway, and hair is shown to be
central to all women’s sexual worth.
 |
| An elaborate Victorian hairstyle |
Giving up her hair is akin to being seduced. When the deed
is done the passage reads:
‘She would not turn again to the little looking-glass, out
of humanity to herself, knowing what a deflowered
visage would look back at her and almost break her heart; she dreaded it as much
as did her own ancestral goddess the reflection in the pool after the rape of her locks by Loke the Malicious.’
[emphasis mine]
The wig-maker places temptation in Marty’s way, leaving her
with the sovereigns, so that she compares him to ‘the Devil to Dr Faustus in
the penny book’. He also casts her desire to keep her hair as indicative of her
sexual desires, effectively shaming her into submission: “Marty South,’ he said
with deliberate emphasis, “you’ve got a
lover yourself; and that’s why you won’t let it go!”
When Marty chooses to cut off her own hair she does so upon
realising Winterborne’s indifference to her, turning on herself in a manner
close to self harm:
‘With a preoccupied countenance, and with tears in her eyes,
she got a pair of scissors and began mercilessly cutting off the long locks of
hair, arranging and tying them with their points all one way.’
Marty’s organisation as she cuts, remembering to bind the
locks as she has been instructed, sits in stark contrast to the self-hating emotions
which prompt her final decision. What makes the affair even crueller is that
Marty only receives attention from Winterborne after she has lost her hair – the source
of her sexual attractiveness. He tells her: ‘Why, Marty – whatever has happened
to your head. Lord, it has shrunk to nothing – it looks like an apple upon a
gate-post.’
 |
| Fontaine loses her hair (and sells her body) in Les Miserables |
Winterborne is oblivious to the role he has unwittingly
played in Marty’s sale of her hair, and their next exchange is revealing. She
tells him: ‘I’ve made myself ugly - and hateful’. His response is kind but
untrue: ‘You’ve only cut your hair – I see that now’. But Giles Winterborne
never sees clearly, and can never look at Marty in a sexual light or recognise
her affection for him. He judges the women in his life – Marty and Grace – by appearance,
and hair is a vital part of this assessment.
But what of the woman on the other end of this exploitative
exchange? Felice Charmond, who buys Marty’s hair? Hardy casts her as selfish
and culpable, especially because her vanity is at play even in church where she
firsts spots Marty’s hair:
‘You sat in front of her in church the other day; and she
noticed how exactly your hair matches her own. Ever since then she’s been
hankering for it.’
But Felice is a victim too – of the untenable standards for
female beauty. Mrs Charmond’s sense of self worth is bond up with her
attractiveness even more than Marty’s. She is only thirty but fears ageing and feels
threatened by the teenaged Grace. Her desire for Marty’s hair may seem frivolous
but this act of hair cutting and purchase comes to stand for the tragedy of both
women’s lives.
Do you know any other Victorian novels which deal with the
sale of women’s hair? Let me know below, on Facebook or by tweeting
@SVictorianist!
;)
ReplyDelete