How many papillotes are you going to give me, Nini? I'll have read the entire civil code!
Yes but, sweetie, you're going to look so nice!
He has papillotes on his lap, there are curling tongs and more papillotes on the floor. His hair is chin-length, showing how long men's hair is at this time, he's in his shirtsleeves—it's so intimate and cute.
eta: thanks to @daffenger and @sainteverge, who suggested a better translation of the dialog that makes it even more amusing: he's actually saying that they're about to run out of the civil code, which is being used to make his curl papers!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
An 1838 comic by Paul Gavarni, from the "Letterbox" series.
The gist of it is that Corporal Telemaque, shown with his hair in papers and in the process of being curled with a hot iron, must devise an excuse as to why he cannot meet with Monsieur le Sargent Major—seemingly being composed by the young lady with her hair down.
On a low-key yet determined quest to find something I know exists: hairstyling instructions for early-mid 19th century men, ideally illustrated, that spell out exactly how their hair was curled.
There's more than enough circumstantial evidence in fashion plates, portraits, and early photography to demonstrate that Western men absolutely did curl their hair. And the occasional pop culture reference, like the singer of "The Taglioni Coat" who now lives a life of luxury including "A flunkie too, to curl my hair."
TELL ME YOUR SECRETS!
Did 19th century men use papillotes (curling papers)? 18th century men definitely did, and they were pretty open about it. If you do a Google Books search "his hair in papers", 19th century only, you will get a lot of coy, sometimes mocking references, and a clear implication that a man is too vain, too effeminate for his own good—unless he's from the 18th century, when that was acceptable, albeit weird to late Victorian types.
Gorgeous are Mr. Dombey's new blue coat, fawn-coloured pantaloons, and lilac waistcoat; and a whisper goes about the house, that Mr. Dombey's hair is curled.
— Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son, which also has the line "All the young gentlemen tightly cravatted, curled, and pumped" [wearing dress shoes]
N.B. 19th century men's pumps are not high heels, they are low, slipper-like shoes.
Costume de Bal, 1833.
Thackeray sneers about a waiter with curled hair (doubly ridiculous, that a low-status man curls his hair); and Captain Marryat, who has some very suspicious coiffures and a large collection of toiletries, takes a potshot at "the man what puts his hair in papers!" in his novel Newton Forster. (Some real-life politician I'm still trying to figure out—but way to be a huge hypocrite, Fred).
The hair-curling is definitely an earlier 19th century thing for men, and post 1850 or so, if not by the 1840s, books aimed at men's hygiene and grooming make no mention of it. You can see the lack of curls in contemporary men's fashion. No man in 1870 is putting his hair in papers; but maybe a man in 1825? (Still, Albert Smith complained about men curling their hair in The Natural History of the Gent, 1847).
Anecdotally, I don't think it's an 1810s thing. Regency men were obviously using product in their Bedford Crops and Titus and Brutus styles, but they made a break with 18th century curled hair. It's an 1820s and 1830s look, and to a lesser extent an 1840s look: Romantic and early Victorian.
A useful and interesting reference that I have found is an 1847 'Handbook of Travel Talk' by John Murray, intended for an anglophone tourist in Europe. It provides French, German, and Italian translations of example dialogs for the well-heeled traveler. It not only lists articles of dress for the gentleman, and the translations are helpful for understanding European fashion plates, but the "Gentleman's Toilet" section includes a servant asking the gentleman, "Shall I give your hair a curl?"
I have found a number of these "travel talk" books, with similar dialogs—but the later 19th century editions do not have a barber asking the gentleman if he wants his hair curled. Curling papers, and talk of curling the hair, are for ladies only. (This is why late Victorians are boring and horrible).
My first thought wasn't butterflies, however (even though that appears to be the etymology of the word), but another form of small paper bits: papillotes.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
