Combs for dressing and cleaning the hair have been used since antiquity. However the evolution of hair combs to be used solely for decorative purposes appears to have developed in the last quarter of the 18th century.
The hairstyles of the period 1760-1790s were extremely voluminous, requiring several hours work on the part of the coiffeur. Pictures have come down to us of fantastical coiffures adorned with ships at sea, complete with sailors, and entire landscapes with houses and farm animals! These vast erections were padded out with huge amounts of false hair and kept in place by grease or pomade.
Such complex dressings could only be assembled in stages. Contemporary descriptions of hairdressing in the last quarter of the 18th century show that it was usual to use small combs for holding back portions of the hair while other parts were being worked on. In her scholarly account of the development of ornamental combs, Jen Cruse (see reading list) speculates that the decorative hair comb as we know it today probably developed from these small plain implements used for dressing the hair.
These early decorative hair combs were at first fairly simple affairs compared to their later descendants in the mid Victorian era. They were very flat in construction and were made from such materials as silver, brass and steel. At first the ornamental top or heading of the comb was of fairly modest proportions and usually decorated with lacy filigree wire work or pierced work of delicate proportions. As time went on, other materials such as ivory, horn and the favourite tortoiseshell were added to the decorative repertoire of jewellers who began to specialise in making these combs.
