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EveryHairstyle

Style capital, France

Paris

Where Marcel Grateau invented the marcel wave in 1872, Antoine popularised the bob, and the chignon and French twist were perfected.

Paris has been the capital of hairdressing as of fashion. In 1872 Marcel Grateau created the marcel wave with heated tongs. In the early 20th century the Polish-born hairdresser Antoine, known as Antoine de Paris, helped make the short bob fashionable, and Coco Chanel cut her own hair short. The French twist and the chignon became standards of elegance, and balayage colouring developed in Paris salons in the 1970s.

The heated wave

Marcel Grateau found that turning heated curling tongs upside down made a deep, natural-looking wave rather than a ringlet. The marcel wave spread through Europe and America and stayed in fashion for half a century. In the 1920s it was set on short hair, and it paired with the bob. Its heat and pattern were later copied by cold finger waving and by the first permanent waves.

Bobs, chignons and the twist

Antoine is credited with cutting short bobs for actresses before the First World War, inspired, he said, by Joan of Arc; the bob became a symbol of the modern woman in the 1920s. Postwar Parisian hairdressers made the chignon and the French twist, the vertical roll called the banane in French, into the polished look of couture shows and films. Paris salons remain trend-setters, and their stylists dress the hair for fashion week.

Hairstyles of Paris

MarcellingInvented in Paris by Marcel Grateau in 1872Bob cutPopularised by Antoine and the women of the 1920sChignonThe classic low knot of Paris coutureFrench twistThe vertical roll of postwar eleganceEton cropEton cropThe shortest cut of the 1920s, worn in Paris cabarets

Also tied to Paris

🇺🇸 United States and 3 moreNatural hair movement A social and cultural campaign for wearing textured hair without chemical straightening.Natural · Coily and kinky hair · 1960 🇫🇷 FranceTitus cut Short layered cut with curls from late 18th-century FranceCut · Curly hair · 1791

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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