Long Hair photos - below waist long blonde braid - length Tresses.
Russian braid – girl's pride and glory
Since olden times in Russia a girl's main adornment, her pride and glory was her beautiful long hair. These days one often sees girls and young women with long hair flowing loosely around their shoulders, but it is a rare sight, indeed, to see hair in a braid. And more's the pity! A braid is a Russian traditional women's hairdo.
In Russia of old when choosing a bride attention was paid to the figure, the face, and the thickness of the braid of hair. Unmarried girls wore their tresses in a braid that they decorated at the end with a ribbon or a beresta (birch bark) tablet decorated with beads. A braid was plaited as loosely and as widely as possible, with the hair divided up into many locks and interwoven with golden thread. The rich folk used strands of pears for this.
It was quite an art in itself to braid hair: the wide braid had to conceal the entire neck, tapering down to the beresta "kosnik" at the tip.
On the day of the wedding the girlfriends of the bride to the accompaniment of drawn-out sorrowful songs, intercepted with laments, unbraided the bride's hair, in order to re-plait it into two temporal ones that would be woven around the head crown-like. Then the head was covered with a small cloth cap "povoinik". Married women were not allowed to uncover their heads in the presence of men other than their husband.
Long tresses were carefully looked after. Dirty, unkempt hair was unacceptable. Hair was washed with use of curdled milk, egg yolk, moistened bread, and then rinsed with herbal recipes that lent hair an additional shine. When arranging hair, they made use of combs, hair picks and ribbons.
In accordance with Russian tradition, women were supposed to keep their hair concealed from general view, since it was deemed their hair possessed magic properties, and could bewitch a future husband. It's not accidental that female goddesses in myths and legends are depicted with their tresses loose and wildly tangled. That explains why the women's headwear was of such great importance in Russia of old: it was also a symbol of decency and integrity. It was the height of impropriety to appear in public bare-headed, and in order to disgrace a woman it was often enough to tear her headwear off her head. It was deemed a terrible insult. That is where the word "oprostovolositsya' - "to make a fool of oneself" is derived from.
A woman's headwear served as a sort of ‘visiting card'. It could help one glean facts about the wearer: what area she was originally from, her age, family status, (an unmarried girl, a married woman or a widow), her social standing.
Girls wore a ribbon in their hair, a band, or a headband of leather or beresta - birch bark.
The headwear of married women was symbolically connected with the sky, which is characterized by their "bird" names: ‘soroka' - magpie, ‘kokoshnik' - hen, ‘kichka' - duck, and the decorations on the headwear in the form of a sun and birds, as well as ribbons symbolizing the rain. Particularly beautiful was women's headwear of the north: tall, richly decorated in a ‘frosty' pattern, they shimmered like the snow. In central and southern areas the headwear was smaller, lavishly patterned in multicolored designs.
On ordinary days the hair was concealed under a small cap, atop of which they wore a headscarf, folded in a triangular shape.
After the kokoshnik and kichka headwear, the head scarf was the most popular with peasant women. At the end of the 19th century scarves, shawls made of wool, cotton, down or silk became widespread.
The traditional and invariably popular headwear of Russian women was and still is a hat. In Medieval times fur or fur-lined hats could only be worn by representatives of boyar or princely rank. In the 19th century they became widespread among the entire population due to the Russian climate noted for its very cold winters, changeable autumn and spring.
The Russian mentality traditionally links the type of headwear with the prevalent weather conditions. When its cold contemporary women wear wool knitted hats, berets, fur caps and hats. As for the head scarves, they are chiefly worn in the villages, since the tradition is still observed in rural areas.
The 20th century witnessed the end of the era of the braid. True, in the USSR they were still popular, and up until the 90s a majority of school-girls still wore their hair in braids (in the younger classes - two braids). And yet, even though the hair braid is rarely seen these days, it will never disappear altogether, since it remains a symbol of feminine grace, beauty and style that defies the whims of fickle fashion.