How did frontier ladies curl their hair?
Carson Mell
Burbank, California
Frontier ladies who curled their hair usually wore Victorian rag curls. They cut soft rags into strips about as long as their hair, separated dampened strands of their hair (usually about six strands) and wrapped each strand around a rag. They clipped the tail end of the rag to the top of their head, then went to bed and unraveled the rags the next morning—resulting in spiral curls.
Finger curling was another way to s

True West September 2018
In This Issue:
Features
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Fire in the Hole!
- Adventures in the Apache Country
- Americas First “Astronauts”
- Bodie, California
- A Not So Heroic End
- Joe Mundy Rides Again
- Cap Mossman: Boss of the Hashknife
- Like Ducks to Water
- Sneak Attack on the James Farm
- Remington’s Last Six-guns
- Riding for the Hashknife
- Bank Robbery at Telluride
- How did Frontier Ladies Curl their Hair?
- Arab Berbers Ride Hard
- I Will Always Be Your Friend
- Viva L’ouest!
- A Hero on his Last Run
- A Dandy of a Man
- John Slaughter and the San Bernardino Ranch
- The Youngers of Missouri: Part Two
- The Youngers of Missouri: First Blood
Departments
- Did Old West Saloons Have Refrigeration?
- What History Has Taught Me: Erik J. Wright
- Fort Smith, Arkansas: Where the Old West Begins
- What was Paladin’s first name on Have Gun-Will Travel?
- Western Events for September 2018
- Mexican Marvels
- Pursuing Outlaw Sam Bass
- How Tough was Longhorn Meat?
- The Youngest Prisoner
- Did “Big Nose Kate” Carry a Gun?
- History in Ink
- Why did Cavalrymen Wear their Pistols with the butts Forward?
- The Mother Lode Spirit
- Upping the Ante