Hairdo

Today

Fashions do go in circles, they say. At the weekend, Becky was sporting a little Aliceband in her hair. "Well, my boyfriend says he likes me in an Aliceband", she explained, somewhat defensively. No reason; Alicebands are pretty trendy at the moment, after all.

"I used to wear an Aliceband, generally made out of ribbon", I said.

In My Day

The trouble with the circular nature of fashion is that it can be hard to forget the connotations of the first time you experienced it. In fact Alicebands are really connected in my mind with childhood hair management, rather than fashion, so I tend to see it as an intrinsically childlike style.

I had long hair until I was about thirteen. For day to day wear, I had two plaits. Mamma always put a side parting at the front, which resulted in the parting doing a little wiggle to get to the centre at the back and in slightly uneven plaits. The plaits were tied up with ribbons. Mamma always bought nylon ribbon in bright colours. The ribbon was first wrapped twice around the end of the plait and then knotted and tied into a bow. The knot and bow did all the work; no elastic bands or anything.

On special occasions, my hair was released from its bonds and tied up with a ribbon in Aliceband style. Mamma generally put a big bow at the top and secured the whole thing with a plentiful supply of hairgrips. I remember reciting some poetry at a Townswomen's guild event when I was not quite five years old. The poem started "I love to wear my party frock that Auntie bought in town...". Mamma made me a pink taffeta frock with blue scalloped ribbons and tied my hair up in a large satin ribbon to match. I felt so beautiful wearing it.

Later, plaits gave way to pony tails, either flowing loose or plaited with a ribbon top and bottom. At one time I used little clips ornamented with butterflies top and bottom. This so amused the third year girls at Grammar school that they used to chase me around the playground yelling "Flutter by, butterfly!" This was more intimidating than it might at first seem and is probably why I nagged to have my hair cut.

My ribbons did at one time offer some drama, providing a somewhat strange snack for a goat at London Zoo, as he pulled at my bright red ribbon. We watched in horror as the whole lot went down his throat.

So, while I do like to be on-trend, I also think that Alicebands won't feature in my wardrobe this Spring.