Hair Accessories in the Elizabethan Era

Elizabethan women loved to accessorise their hair, the bigger the better in that era and the more things you wore the more wealthier and high up you looked.

In our hair lesson we looked at some hair pieces that Elizabethan women wore back then.

CAUL:  A Caul is a loose net cap worn over the head, it normally has a lot of beading on it, mainly pearls as they were a favourite of the Elizabethan women.

Cauls were favoured by Elizabethan women and were worn at many different events and places, they were easy to use and kept the hair in tact.

(Costume: Rennaisance repro, 2013)

French Hood: This was an alice band type head piece. It kept the hair off of the face, it was a thick headband that went up and out at the back creating the "hood" like shape. You could have a veil at the back draping down or not and a lot of the time these were decorated with lots of jewels.

Attifet: The Attifet, similar to the French Hood is another Alice Band like headpiece but it has that famous heart shape to it, so that when women had the heart shape hair they could also wear a headpiece that followed it. The front dip in the headpiece would normally be a fold over the headpiece that created the heart shape. This too could come with a veil or not and was decorated again with lots of gorgeous jewels and beads and also lace.

• (Inspiration - renaissance, Tudor, medieval hats, 2014)

Pill Box Hat: This hat was worn by men and women in the Elizabethan era. The name of the hat explains the look of it, it was a small and round box like cap that would sit on the back of the head. It was normally decorated with gold or silver thread detailing and occasionally some beadwork and was worn normally with the hair up.

Cloth Bonnets: Cloth bonnets were a very popular headpiece worn by all women in Elizabethan time. It was worn by the poorer people on a daily basis to keep the hair out of the face, and normally was not detailed at all. It was also worn by maids and kitchen hands etc. The richer more wealthier people wore the bonnets a lot to keep the hair out of their face when they sleep, the more money you had the more detailed the bonnets would be.