Braid casings research request/ discussion (again)

I am working on a redraft of my opinion/observations article on 12thc women’s hairstyling. I’ve been looking on my own and I’m coming up empty, except for Goddard, so I’m really desperate for help. What I
need to get from others are any reliable information they might have on braid casings, including articles you might have written, direction to good sources, etc. I’m also going to post this on the SCA_Milliners and SCA_Authenticity lists, so if you see this several times, I apologize.

I’m looking for resources on 12thc French hairdressing and costume, though only sources I consider well researched (i.e. not drawn completely from Peacock or Norris, etc) will be included in the list of sources (webbed articles will be linked). Unpublished articles are great too, and I will not quote you unless I have your specific permission to do so.

I’ve been given recommendations to look in Goddard, several times, but have not been able to lay hands on a copy yet (in 2 years of looking), though I was given a long quote a while back to help me along. Are there any other sources for this idea, or is she the one from whom all others are drawn? I’ve been looking in translations of period literature, but linguists don’t seem to care about the significance of dress to characterization in romances. Grrr.

I am still not really convinced that stuffed, sewn casings, as such, were real; even after reading the quotes from Goddard (though it might be different if I could get a hold of the book and actually read them
in context).

For those who are fortunate enough to have read Goddard’s work: Does she give any information on where the idea of a stuffed casing comes from, other than existing as a conclusion based on the word usage in the poems cited? I think that, in the context given (where words may have been chosen to rhyme as well as elicit mental images) the words *may* have a different intended meaning than she is reading into them:

** _fouriaus, fourreau_ (scabbard) might refer to an actual casing (as for a sword) OR may refer to the appearance of the hairdressing, i.e. scabbard shaped, or looking like a sword-scabbard. They really do, especially when weighted at the ends.

** _bourreaus, bourre_ (padding) might refer to the false hair itself, as being false hair, made of horsehair,
wool, thread, human hair, rags, whatever. Stuffing or padding would also have been made of similar items.

Assuming the above, it may be a case of one descriptive meaning several things. A similar issue exists with fabric terms and clothing terms. There does not seem to be mention of any separate term meaning ‘Hair Extension’, either, so I’m leaning toward this explanation.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

~ Marguerie de Jauncourt / Maura Folsom
Message #960, March 28, 2003

How about I scan the references from Goddard and put them on the group page for you? (sometime this weekend?)

You may want to broaden your search to look at cultures further east to see if you can find any Byzantine/Russian/Eastern European examples that may have been brought back west by crusaders?

~Katrine / Katherine Barich
Message #961, March 28, 2003

OOOO! Yes, please! <kisses feet> Your long typed quotes were a big help, though, given that that’s as close as I have yet come to seeing the book 🙂

You may want to broaden your search to look at cultures further east to see if you can find any Byzantine/Russian/Eastern European examples that may have been brought back west by crusaders?

Oddly, I think the braids may have come south and east, rather than from the other direction. my mom (yes, this costume history thing is hereditary) has references to weighted long braids being worn in Ireland in earlier centuries, though they were worn in threes, and ISTR an idea that the braids came from the Norse somehow, but that could just be a conflation of other ideas in my head. Hence the further research thing 🙂

Thanks again!

~ Marguerie de Jauncourt / Maura Folsom
Message #962, March 28, 2003


Voillet-le-duc has a pile of stuff on milinary and hair dressing, but as we’ve already noted he reliablity isn’t great.

~ Rowena le Sarjeant / Belinda Sibly
Message #963, March 28, 2003

Marguerie,
Have you tried searching through Orb or other online collections of medieval literature for references to
hair or braids? When I was researching teeth I found some interesting quotes that way.
http://orb.rhodes.edu/library.html – link broken

Also, have you looked at sermons of the time. There might be one that rails against women who are so vain that they add to their hair or something.

As far as finding a copy of Goddard goes. Interlibrary loan is usually the best way to go. However, do you
know anyone in college? I got my little sister to check it out for me. I had seen copies available at
www.abebooks.com but it was a reprint.

~ Slaine / Mary Haselbauer
Message #964, March 31, 2003