Recamier Coiffure

The Coiffure Lesson

A Picture Story which tells how to make the New Recamier Coiffure

The woman with a well dressed coiffure is like a woman who dresses well. She avoids extremes. To have her hair dressed in the fashionable way she no longer has a huge pompadour and an exaggerated swirl, but, instead, a soft low pompadour, a few pretty puffs and perhaps a coil or a cluster of curls made from the ends of her own hair. her aim is to have her coiffure look natural, and for this reason she will be interested in the now fashionable Recamier style.

This fashionable Coiffure can be made with little or much Hair

Although the Recamier is the smartest coiffure of the hour, unlike many other styles, it is one that every woman can arrange herself and with only her own hair. Whether a woman has much or a little hair, she can always develop it in a graceful way, if only she knows how. In this lesson is explained how the Recamier coiffure can be made making the most of little hair and disposing of what seems like almost too much hair in an equally satisfactory manner.

To make the Recamier coiffure, first brush all the hair carefully. Then divide it by making a parting from the crown of the head to the forehead, and again by parting on both sides which runs from the centre parting two inches back of the forehead to an inch back of either ear.

Next brush all the hair forward. Comb it smooth and divide into three equal strands. Each strand is then drawn back and fastened at the crown of the head with a large hair pin. Do first one side strand, then the other, and, lastly, the front one. Pin each one separately.

To secure a soft fluffy pompadour, like the one shown in this illustration, avoid the use of a pompadour roll where the hair is thick enough to stay in position. After the pompadour is all pinned securely in place, the next step in arranging the Recamier coiffure is making the puffs.

Each puff is made by rolling a strand of hair over the two forefingers, beginning at the end of the strand and rolling toward the head. When all the strand is used up, the puff is pinned at the crown of the head with two hair-pins at both ends on the under side.

Care should be taken not to place the puffs in stiff positions. The woman with little hair can only have the puffs, and for these she should use both the front and back hair. But the woman with much hair should use only the front portion in making them. The back division she uses for the soft coil shown in this illustration.

To make this coil, the back hair should be divided in two. the left division is twisted backward and brought over to the right side and pinned in place around the cluster of puffs. The same should be done with the right half, only bring it over the left side around the puffs. After the coils are in place pin in the fancy coil pins.

From Girls Own Paper and Woman’s magazine, 1911.