Support Your Local Hair Weaver
Looking for an expert to weave your cut hair into an art piece? Well, if you lived in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri in 1919, you would likely visit one Mrs. Gothals, as per this Fair Play advertisement. Mrs. Gothals was reported to have considerable skill in using human hair to create switches, or extensions, as well as hair weaving. It was a service that was common enough to warrant a newspaper advertisement, as well as the interest of the writer.
Newspaper article describing a hair weaving business. Fair Play, Ste. Genevieve, MO September 13, 1919.
Although not specifically mentioned in the article, supplies of hair were most often provided by the clients themselves, usually their own hair or hair of a loved one. By 1919, the bob hairstyle was becoming popular in the United States and elsewhere; millions of women lopped off their long locks and embraced some variation of the bob, ranging from the Buster Brown to the Eton crop. This led to a surplus of virgin hair on the market, as most women had little use for their discarded tresses. Indeed, one 1922 American newspaper article complained that so much hair was being thrown away from barber shops that the landfills were being overrun with mountains of shorn hair.
Still, many women preferred to keep their treasured braids for one reason or another. One trend entailed women cutting their long hair short and saving the braid to use as a kind of extensions for evening functions and parties, while in the day they showed off their sleek bob. Using one’s own hair as a switch or extension was common in the early 20th century, especially when women were making drastic changes from long to short hair. To make the hair stable in place for long term use, hair weavers and wig makers were hired to fashion the hair into postiches, a kind of hair extension. (Although the terms postiche, switch, and extension differ in their precise definitions, they all refer to the practice of using hair, most often human, to create false hair pieces) Hair weavers like Mrs. Gothals of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, helped fulfill the demand for skilled workers in the field of hair crafting, an art that is becoming more common and influential.
