During the early 1630s, hair was pulled back from the forehead with side partings on both sides of the head and curls hanging from them, and sometimes at the back of the neck. A small chignon or bun was worn halfway up the back of the head. In general shape the fashion continued the same after mid-century, but from 1660 until 1670 there was a custom of wiring out the curls dangling on either side of the head. The curls were often thicker and more numerous than formerly. At the same time, there was a fashion that parallel of wearing short hair, in a pile or mop of ringlets that would point down all over the head, they then would be arranged very thickly at the back. This was called an hurluberlu coiffure.
The rigid hairstyles soon replaced the earlier soft, curly hairstyles. The long, lavishly displayed side locks were reduced, during the 1660s, to a few thin, spiral locks, while the rest of the hair, the remaining biggest part, was towered onto the top of the head as well as widened to the sides. Beginning with the 1680s, the hairstyles took over the form which seemed to tower towards great heights, which was then adapted by the ladies and was fashionable for decades. The hatters during the middle of the 1680s was the Fontange ŕ la Sultane, which was not towered yet, no wire construction was used, but soon this was going to change, and what we now know as the Fontange. This summed up the hairstyle and hatters of women of the 17th century. Sometimes the hair towered so high on its base of ratted or "fluffed" natural hair and hair extensions, made the ladies head look as if it was in her mid-section than on her shoulders.
The Fontage is tributed to the influence of French fashion which dominated European style from the 17th to the mid 20th century. Its prestige derived from the glamour of Versailles and the influence of Louis XIV. Nevertheless, the term is wrong and only refers to the bow. From the late 17th century, it was beginning to be fashionable to curl the hair at the forehead and pull the rest of the hair back in a knot, leaving the sides of the coiffure flat. Behind the curls, the frill of the cap grew higher, and the arrangement of cap or caps and frills more complex with terminology to suit. Pictures of the different hairstyles and head coverings, as well as fontanges can be found at the bottom of the page.
The difference between male and female development of hairstyle was in its distribution over the fashionable person of the wearer instead of the amount of curls and amount of hair. While the ladies' hair towered high on top of her forehead, from the late 17th century,(it has been documented at circa 1680s) onwards, the men's hair covered their shoulders and backs often down to their waist.
The instructions of the ladies' high Fontange is described in a German article in Amaranthes Dictionary in the year 1715:
"Fontange or top is a cap which is made from white laces or lawn which is covering and piled up high onto a wire construction. The rows of this pleated lace are two, three or four times one behind the other, with the lace ends falling down behind the ears. Decorated at the front and back with ribbon bows in many colours. The parts which make up a Fontange are the cap-wire, the Commode (base), the nest of wire, the plate above it, the Pavilote and the ribbon."
Furthermore the ladies used eggwhite to make the hair stiff and the false hair, which was needed to build the complicated construction and to fasten it in the hair. Where this hairstyle got its name from, namely from Marie Adelaide Scorailles de Roussilhe, Duchesse de Fontanges, who was in 1680 briefly the reigning favourite of the French King Louis XIV, and how it developed.
It is well-documented that Louis XIV's totalarism rule did not succeed in a hairstyle even though he had threatened. This hairstyle's popularity declined in the 1720s when the styles changed to the Georgian or Rococo era.
References:
Clark, Fiona. Hats: The Costume Accessories Series. Dr. Aileen Ribeiro (Ed.). London: B.T. Batsford, 1988.
Corson, Richard. _Fashions in Hair: The First Five Thousand Years._ London: Peter Owen, 1965.
Ginsburg, Madeleine. _The Hat: Trends and Traditions._ New York: Studio Editions, 1990
Horsting, Ruth and Pistolese, Rosana. _History of Fashions._ New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1970
