I walk on the overlook of Vitruvian Park and there on the railing is a pearl-studded headband. No one is around, so I can only assume that someone left it there by mistake or else it is a signal of a secret rendezvous. Like a man’s tie on the dorm room door means don’t enter, perhaps a headband on the railing means the coast is clear. Or maybe the woman wearing it thought it was uncomfortable and took it off, only to inadvertently leave it behind. Whatever the reason, headbands were popular when I was growing up. Sometimes those teased-up hairdos were a little too wild, requiring a headband to tame them. Often girls with a bob or a short flip would wear a headband. And there were always girls with ponytails wearing hair ties or ribbons — usually cheerleaders. In college my sister Julie — who was not in a sorority — called all sorority girls “bowheads” because they always had bows complementing their hairstyles. These hair embellishments are not just in the past; they are popular today. Let’s learn more about them.
According to Wikipedia, a headband is a clothing accessory worn in the hair or around the forehead, usually to hold hair away from the face or eyes. Headbands generally consist of a loop of elastic material or a horseshoe-shaped piece of flexible plastic or metal. They come in assorted shapes and sizes and are used for both fashion and practical or utilitarian purposes.
In the UK, horseshoe-shaped headbands are sometimes called "Alice bands" after the headbands that Alice is often depicted wearing in Lewis Carroll’s novel “Through the Looking-Glass.”
Greeks and Romans
The beginning of headbands was no later than around 475 BC to 330 BC, with the ancient Greeks, who wore hair wreaths. The Greeks and Romans wore these pieces for very special occasions or an important event. Cultures such as the Etruscans and Romans started to decorate their wreaths with jewels made up of gold and silver. While wreaths are certainly a likely beginning of today's headbands, some believe that current day hair bands have slowly taken shape from scarves that were worn around the head or were modified from the band of hats that tied under the chin.
In ancient Greek costume, a tainia was a headband, ribbon or fillet, a very narrow band of cloth, leather or some form of garland, frequently worn by athletes.
The tainia headband was worn with the traditional ancient Greek costume. The headbands were worn at Greek festivals. The gods also bound their heads with tainiai. Furthermore, cult images, trees, urns, monuments, animal sacrifices and the deceased had tainiai wound around them. They were later adopted by the Romans. A similar type of headband was the diadema, used as a symbol for kings.
Jews
In ancient times, Jews originally wore headbands — besides turbans and keffiyehs — as their traditional clothing. In modern times, these Jewish fashions are worn by Mizrahi Jews only.
According to Alyx Berstein’s Feb. 2, 2020 article “Headband Nation” in Tablet magazine wearing a headband can signal many things, including marriage, modesty, athletics or fashion. But recently, among a small but growing group of traditional but egalitarian Jewish women, headbands have become a unique way of expressing both their gender and their Judaism.
As more and more women take on the practice, a community has sprung up among what one wearer, Deborah Sacks Mintz, calls the #HeadbandNation. Lilli Shvartsmann, another headband-wearer, describes this community as a “sisterhood,” swapping stories of how they took on the practice and recommending places to shop for headbands: “I do feel connected to the people that wear headbands, in that I know they’re thinking about the same things I think about, and trying to create a culture of head coverings that’s not just male head coverings,” she said. “We are taking the custom and making it our own.”
1700s
According to Vienna Vernose’s article “Beyond the Trend: Headbands” at crfashionbook.com,
a ferronnière is a style of headband typically worn around the forehead with a small jewel suspended in the center. This type of headband was worn in the late 15th century in Italy and then regained prominence around the 19th century. The style was cemented in history in Leonardo da Vinci's “La Belle Ferronnière,” a portrait of an anonymous woman wearing a 15th century style ferronnière.
1800s
Indigenous cultures were some of the first to utilize headbands and headpieces, which were crafted with intricate details that held symbolic meaning.
Early 20th century
According to Wikipedia, in the early 20th century, wide headbands known as headache bands were very popular accessories in women's fashion. Their name came from the belief that the tight pressure they provided around the forehead could relieve or prevent headaches. The French called such a garment a bandeau or bandeaux for plural. In the 1910s, headache bands would likely have been more lacy in design — a crochet central panel decorated with ribbons and rosettes and bordered with lace, for example. Examples from the 1920s and 1930s are more apt to be dramatic sheaths in exotic fabrics and decorated with feathers, and would have been worn with fashions by couturiers such as Paul Poiret. These sorts of headache bands probably achieved their peak of popularity in the 1920s. During the same period, jeweled headache bands or headbands — often in precious metals and precious gems — were popular. Today, items called headache bands are apt to be strictly utilitarian and medical in focus.
According to Vienna Vernose’s article “Beyond the Trend: Headbands” at crfashionbook.com,
31-time champion Suzanne Lenglen was the first female tennis star to turn professional in 1926. The French athlete broke boundaries when she played Wimbledon with bare arms and a knee-length hemline designed by Jean Patou. Her signature style was a thick headband as an early follower of the flapper-era trend.
Beginning her career as a hat maker, Chanel was attuned to all the hot new headwear. She is pictured here wearing a headband wrap with longtime friend and ballet dancer Serge Lifar.
Pin-up shots were an inherent part of pop culture in the 1940s. Models took glamour shots that were mass-produced and used as posters during wartime. Pin-ups were often paintings, illustrations and photographs of women in revealing clothing sometimes wearing hats or scarfs tied into an up-do.
1950s
Actress Grace Kelly often wore headbands to accessorize her looks. Here, Princess Grace wears a simple black headband against a lace gown at an awards ceremony.
The 1959 hit film “Suddenly, Last Summer,” based off the Southern Gothic play of the same title by Tennessee Williams, starred Elizabeth Taylor. Her costumes for the film were designed by English designer Oliver Messel, making on-screen statements of old Hollywood glamour in flowing scarf headbands and ultra-feminine silhouettes.
1960s
Bridgitte Bardot starred in the semi-biographical film “Vie Privée” in 1962. Aside from films, the French bombshell often wore thick, black-colored headbands in her own wardrobe to hold back her blonde locks.
As one of the most famed style icons to ever live in the White House, former First Lady Jackie Kennedy defined fashion trends for an era with some of her looks. She often wore colorful headbands to match her signature suit and dress styles.
According to Wikipedia, during the 1950s and 1960s, many glamorous young women in Britain and the U.S. wore plastic headbands with the beehive hairstyle or silk veils when driving. At the same time, working-class women wrapped strips of cloth around their hair as protection from the industrial smog and dirty rain.
1970s
After the Summer of Love of 1967, hippies wore tie dye and paisley bandanas as headbands in imitation of Leftist activists and guerrillas. These were also worn by many hard rock and heavy metal guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Ted Nugent, Bruce Springsteen, or Link Wray during the early and mid-70s to keep cool on stage.
According to WIMBA’s Aug. 21, 2018 blog post “The Story of the Headband” at aminoapps.com, Wilt Chamberlain waited until he played with the Lakers in 1968 to introduce the headband to the league. At that time the headband was only an old sweaty piece of fabric with elastic gently positioned under his Afro. It was so iconic that one of those headbands from the year 1971 got sold on auction for $4,141!
According to Vienna Vernose’s article “Beyond the Trend: Headbands” at crfashionbook.com,
queen of Studio 54, Bianca Jagger sported hundreds of iconic disco-era looks across the dance floor. Holding a pair of white doves, Jagger wears a leafy gold headband at the New York City club.
1980s
When you think of an '80s workout guru clad in a terrycloth headband, spandex and leg-warmers, you think of Jane Fonda. “Jane Fonda's Workout” became the highest-selling VHS of all time and would be the first of 22 workout videos under the series over the next 13 years, which would collectively sell over 17 million copies.
On Princess Diana's tour of Australia in 1985, she famously wore a diamond and emerald choker alternatively as a headband around the forehead.
1990s
The French couturier experimented with provocative glamour throughout his career. For his 1994 haute couture show, Yves Saint Laurent used floral details in the form of an ornate metal headband.
British jewelry designer Shaun Leane designed this sterling-silver crown of thorns for Alexander McQueen's 1996 show Dante, inspired by religion and the afterlife.
2000s
Jenny from the Block won the award for Best Dance Music Video in 2000 wearing an all-white number by P Diddy's Sean John. Lopez wore a white bandana and braided pieces throughout her hair in one of the most iconic looks of the early 2000s.
Moschino's Spring/Summer 2015 collection by Jeremy Scott paid homage to Barbie's icon status with a lot of pink and platinum blonde. "Like every girl and gay boy, I loved Barbie," Scott said after the show. Looks from the collection featured a workout Barbie, complete with Barbie terry cloth athletic headbands.
Chanel's Fall/Winter 2018 show was reminiscent of the backcombed hair and headband combination looks of the '60s, featuring solid black or embellished headband looks.
For his Spring/Summer 2019 collection, Rick Owens used three-dimensional metal headbands on a variety of looks. The geometric pieces were a unique design, elevating headbands to sculptural pieces.
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