POUF REDUX, or, instructions

plocacosmos

So you say you want a pouf?  Basic pouf instructions follow, compliments of Mr. James Stewart, the author of "Plocacosmos, or, the  whole art of hairdressing; wherein is contained ample rules for the young artizan, more particularly for ladies women, valets, as well as directions for persons to dress their own hair", published by the author, London, 1782. I have taken the text from a Gale Ecco print book. These books are scanned images of the actual pages, therefore there is some blurriness of text, some page curl, and some faded print. Some of the text is indecipherable... I've done the best that I can.


I've taken snippets from exhaustive instructions on creating the mode of the day... this is not the complete text, just a general overview.

racinette

These instructions are for a relatively restrained pouf. For a full-on Leonard pouf, just elevate the structure and add lots and lots of accessories, and you, too, can be Marie Antoinette for a day, or a month, or as long as your hair-edifice will last. ! Oh, there are instructions at the end of this post on protecting the pouf during sleep. Be sure to share them with your maid~

Gazette de Beaux Arts

ON THE DEMEANOR OF THE HAIRDRESSER: The first thing you should remember is, to form your intended operations into method, resolve yourself with the various parts, and how you must act to complete them to your wish, in short, form your plans into a perfect rhythm, always having in your eye, that the most trifling thing you do should be well done, and in perfection, or not at all. One thing is particularly necessary, that you should be under no embarrassment, but be possessed of a considerable share of easy, silent determination, you must imagine, to obtain this that the person on whom you operate is a mere statue, or at best, a piece of still life. For that reason, it is plain, that you should not give way to conversation, as that will draw your attention from your business...

plocacosmos

ON HAIR TEXTURE, QUANTITY...: If the quantity of hair should be very great, and grow very quick and close at the roots, and if it should be moist or sweaty, you must beat a quantity of powder into it before you you comb it, and then it is to be cut properly and freely. If, on the contrary, the hair should be thin, that is a small quantity, and grow straggling as if you could count each hair,... you must, in order to dress it properly... mellow it by soaking it well in the ... oil, or or at least some very nutritive, glutinous, penetrating substance, the night before....

Gazette de Beaux Arts

TO CURL THE HAIR:...The hair that is alloted for the curls must be ... done with the finger over or else over a well-turned pair of toupee-irons the same as over the tail-comb already mentioned in order to give them the proper buckle without cramping. To do it with the fingers, you must hold it at the points, and keep it constantly turning over with the points of your right finger and thumb, and keep them so close as to prevent the hairs from touching each other, though curled your left finger your left fingers guiding your right all the way down to the roots of the hair, when, as usual, you take the curl between your left finger and thumb and apply the paper...

plocacosmos

THE BEAUTY OF THE CURL: ...when all is done, they look like regular rows of trees, truly set, with their heads bending to the crown, as if blown thence by a gust of wind from the face, that in idea you could walk a file of men three deep, not only from the front to the crown, through one of these rows, without meeting the least obstruction, but traverse from one ear to the other, in the same regular line...


....If the hair is all curled properly it looks very pretty, being like to many rows of tubes, pipe above pipe, like the small flutes of an organ, only placed horizontally. The hair being now both in papers, and curled with the toupee irons, for the present we will leave them to make the chinong(chignon), or the hair behind...

"ENGLAND UNDER THE HOUSE OF HANOVER"

ON POMATUM AND POWDER: Before you proceed to this, you must have your soft pomatum and powder placed conveniently by your side, with a swan-down puff, and large silk puff, your soft pomatum should, at all events, be sweet, with a proper degree of consistency... and in order to render it nourishing, great great care should be taken that the fat it is composed of should be taken from a healthy young animal, this is easily known by the colour... Calves fat is most proper, and is generally used in pomatums and unguents, being resolutive and emollient. That of hogs and bears have the same qualities, and are strengthening besides... (here Mr. Stewart goes into a discourse on the value of various animal fats as pertains to health issues, including the gem that eel's fat makes the hair grow...!)

"Daring Do's", by Molly Frasko

magasin pitoresque 

ON WORKING VAST QUANTITIES OF POWDER AND POMATUM INTO THE HAIR: ...take now about the bigness of a walnut of soft pomatum, put it in the palm of your left hand, and, with the points of your left fingers, rub it into the head and roots of the hair, taking it from your left hand as you want it, it must be used freely... by rubbing it in gradually from the roots all the way up to the points. There must be a cloth pinned to the lady's shoulders at the two corners, and the other two round the back of the chair she fits in, this will form a bag into which you may put part of your powder, as you want. Now take the end of your comb, and shelve? it into the powder, bringing up as much as will lie on the comb, this you lay on the strip of hair just pomatumed, with your left hand under it, and shove part up to the roots, and part fall lower, in order to mix properly with the pomatum, this you must repeat until it is entirely free from the greasy look from root to point, and let the wide end of a comb pass gently through it, and that the loose powder may fall from it, and no more. ... proceed to the next parting...

plocacosmos

ON FRIZZING: ...while you hold it between your first two fingers(not holding the hair perpendicularly up, but slanting toward your left shoulder) you are to take with you, the most essential part of hairdressing depends on your frizzing well. As the hair is now held in your left hand, grasp your dressin-comb in your right, about the middle of the comb, leaving the small teeth to perform their office, you must hold the comb with a considerable degree of strength... Your comb thus placed, your two hands has the same combat on the other side, the left pulling from, while the right beats down the hair, from the roots to the very points, this, by being wove on both sides, makes it much softer, but great pains must be taken, that it is not reduced in it's length, but appear as long as it really is...

plocacosmos

THE ART OF THE FRIZ:...There is double reason for this firmness, as without it the hair would not have a proper consistency to stand erect and keep together, and at the same time have the full length that it originally had. If it is well done, it appears like a frape?? of hair-cloth well-wove, transparent, yet strong, and stand as high as the length of the hair...


THE FRIZ BEAT:......You must begin and beat or frizz down the hair towards the face, in a regular friz, your left hand giving way imperceptibly, as your right hand gains upon the hair, remembering, that you hold it straight, and friz it even; that it is not writhed and thwarted, nor warped to one side or the other, and that the hair falls regularly in a friz, and not in the least bunch or cluster; if it does, you must loose your hold, smooth the hair, with the the comb under your hand, all the way up, and begin afresh...

Les Annales conferencia

FRIZ BEAUTY:...If well done, it looks now like the hedge before-mentioned, but considerably polished, at the same time examining, and if you find two hairs together, or writhed from their regular course, or the least hollow cavity or dent. you must look on any or all of those as blemishes; at the same time so light and transparent that it may be seen through like a piece of hair-cloth or feathery gauze. Again take some soft pomatum, but in small quantity, and gently touch the front all over with it, take your machine and blow a considerable quantity of powder in the hair from the front and behind, in order to give it a light, clear, clean look...

Les Annales conferencia

THE HAIR CUSHION(aka the POUF structure):...The hair now being ready for the cushion thus far... What follows depending altogether on the whim or fancy of the day... the cushion used cannot be too small, it's shape nearly that of a heart... it should be made clean, or delicately neat, or else, being placed on the warmest part of the head, it may breed and become troublesome. Be careful to place your cushion entirely in the center, if not, the hair will look very bad...


PINNING THE HAIR: ...The cushion being fixed, begin in the front, and with a thin, slender, well-made hair pin, hang the hair to the cushion, this is done by pushing the pin in the friz, and catching the back friz by lifting it, as it were, then pushing the pin in the cushion, if the head of the pin has caused any chasm, or break, you are to pick it out with the next pin you use, go on doing this down the side of the toupee, which may take seven pins for the front, one the middle, and three for each side....

CURLS AROUND THE FACE: On curls around the face: ...If well done, they look like a small plot of ground, thickly planted with small tulips or daisies, bending their heads to the ground, but more commonly compared to a bull's forehead, hence it may well be called "en tauro".


ON, CAPS, RIBBONS, GAUZE, ORNAMENTS:  ...when it is the fashion for lappets, and other trumpery vagaries behind, they should be the smallest and simplest of the kind, every cap loaded too much, particularly behind, looks trolloping. For full dress, young ladies will look best without any cap at all, a cluster of curls should adorn the top of the head... These curls are generally false, and used ready powdered and pomatumed and frizzed, they are placed or stuck on with a black pin, like a bunch of flowers. The ornaments should be most simple, and wore from the right point of the toupee(cushion), sloping or winding down gradually to the center of the left side, in the middle of the front hair. Whatever is placed on the head should be placed in this shape, and for very young ladies, only a few flowers and pearls, with a few good feathers, if in fashion...

...The toke, or dress-cap, when wore, should be exceedingly small and and narrow... that it may with ease drop into the space made for it's reception,  in the ornaments it should be made rich, genteel and fanciful but by no means crowded, as no genteel lady will ever be seen with a bungling, crowded head.

English Illustrated Magazine, 1901

 English Illustrated Magazine, 1901

ON PROTECTING THE HAIR-
EDIFICE WHILE ATTEMPTING SLEEP: ...The lady now being entirely complete, we must wait her time of coming home at night, in order to give her a few directions about her night-cap. All that is required at night is to take the cap or toke off, or any other ornament... with regard to the hair, nothing need be touched but the curls, you may take the pins out of them and with a little soft pomatum... do them with long nice rollers, wind them up to the root, and turn the end of each roller firmly in to keep them tight, remembering at the same time that the hair should never be combed at night, having almost always so bad an effect as to give a violent head-ache the next day. After the curls are rolled up, touch them with your pomatumy hands, and stroke the hair behind, after that, take a very large net-fillet, which must be big enough to cover the head and the hair, and put it on, and drawing the strings to a proper tightness behind, till it closes all around the face a neck like a purse, bring the strings round the front and back again to the neck, where they must be tied, this, with the finest lawn handkerchief, is night covering sufficient for the head.

modes de femmes, image source, " XVIIIme Siècle, institutions, usages et costumes: France 1700-1789" By Paul Lacroix