After visiting the fascinating, wonderful exhibition on hair and hairs entitled Des Cheveux et des Poils at the Paris Musée des Arts décoratifs, it was only logical for me to write about this issue.
This exhibition explores themes mainly inherent to the history of hairdressing through more than 600 works from the 15th century to the present day, highlighting the trades and skills of yesterday and today. It also addresses issues related to facial and body hair.
So, I wanted to take this opportunity to remind you of the compilation work on the art of shaving we did some time ago. We also discussed hot shaving… and a rather “bizarre” story of razor blades in walls!
Shaving tools – @ Musée des Arts décoratifs Paris – Exhibition “Des cheveux et des poils”, 2023
Shaving tools – @ Musée des Arts décoratifs Paris – Exhibition “Des cheveux et des poils”, 2023
For those interested in shaving, I refer you to the (French) website of the association “Les rasophiles”, where you will find a gold mine of information on all or almost all types of razors provided by wonderful enthusiasts.
In addition, the exhibition addresses the issue of hair colour, a subject about which there is a lot to say. In this post, we will take a brief look at hair colouring.
Hair colouring – @ Musée des Arts décoratifs Paris – Exhibition “Des cheveux et des poils”, 2023
To this aim, let’s look back at a name that may ring a bell: L’Auréale. This is not a spelling mistake, but the name that eventually became the world’s leading cosmetics company’s. It is synonymous with the extraordinary industrial history of the L’Oréal group. As a global leader, the adventure began with a series of innovations, including the first synthetic hair dye. A French chemist of Alsatian origin, Eugène Schueller was 26 years old in 1907 when he developed the first synthetic hair dye at the request of a barber and hairdresser. He named the formula L’Auréale, after a hairstyle worn by women at the time, the “auréole”: trendy in the 1900s, it formed a sort of halo with waves.
In 1909, he founded the Société Française des Teintures Inoffensives (the French Society of harmless hair dyes), which was renamed L’Oréal in 1939. It was at this time that our company headquarters moved to 14 Rue Royale, in Paris.
Hair has always had a profound historical and psychological symbolic significance. In all cultures and at all times, it has carried a very strong social meaning, both conscious and unconscious. Hair colouring quickly became an ordinary act. It all started with the use of natural, or common substances, and it is estimated that the origin of vegetable dyes dates back thousands of years, both in the Eastern and the Western worlds. Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus, Chinese, Romans… They all made an extensive use of vegetable substances and metallic salts to obtain shaded colours. Some of them are still relevant today. Sunlight was also a common way to seek that much desired blonde, such as Venetian blonde.
In fact, L’Auréale was not originally the first hair dye, but rather one of the first hair bleaching methods. It was a technique used in ancient times, particularly by the Romans, to lighten hair. It consisted in applying a mixture of ashes and lime to the hair, and then exposing it to the sun to bleach it. It was used for centuries. Otherwise, apart from blond, the colour was obtained by direct colouring with substances that were often plant-derived, such as henna.
Two discoveries profoundly changed the situation, the first being the invention of hydrogen peroxide in 1818, by French chemist Louis-Jacques Thenard and his German colleague, Friedrich Wilhelm Schönbein. It was soon used to lighten hair, remove stains, and whiten teeth. The second one has a barbaric name, “oxidation dyes”, the best known being PPD, for Paraphenylenediamine. This series of substances discovered by Hoffmann in 1863 helped develop different colours. First used in 1907 by German chemist Friedrich Nietzsche, this invention was then improved by Eugène Schueller. Schueller’s formula resulted in hair dyes that lasted longer and were more stable, softer, less irritant for the scalp, and less problematic for the hair, as well as in richer, more vivid shades. This formula was considered a significant improvement in hair colouring. It is actually the origin of the hair colour industry as we know it today.
Lastly, research on the hair structure made the concept evolve towards that of permanent colouring. Studies on the hair protein revealed that it contains a high proportion of sulphur in the form of a special bond which can be opened and closed at will. This property was then used as the basis for permanent colouring, shaping, curling and straightening techniques. This work laid the foundation of the modern understanding of the hair composition.
Since the creation of the first risk-free hair dye, the extensive research carried out in particular by the L’Oréal group has led to considerable progress in terms of knowledge and hair science, more specifically as regards this family of products. It made the product offering evolve continuously, with proposals incorporating the best state of the art, both in terms of efficacy and safety.
An exhibition not to be missed, if you can.
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