Musée des Arts Décoratifs’ New Exhibition Hones in on the History of Hair

Hair: It’s something that everyone has in some way, shape, or form. From body hair to facial hair to hair hair, it remains a crucial part of identity. Just as clothing and accessories trends speak to different classes, subcultures, or generations, what’s on our heads (and bodies) can be just as telling.

As explored in the latest Musée des Arts Décoratifs exhibition, Des Cheveux et Des Poils (“Hair and Hairs”), hairstyles, color, and a lack of hair have all played silently potent roles in society for centuries. From coiffeur Léonard Autier’s laboriously elaborate poufs for Marie Antoinette, to the world’s first celebrity hairdresser Monsieur Antoine and the garçonne cuts of the Roaring ‘20s, to the politically charged Afros of the ‘70s, hair was and remains a form of social capital and cultural identification.

The 600-piece exhibition, which features historic photographs, wigs, tools, products, and more, encapsulates the sociopolitical and cultural zeitgeist of hair over the past six centuries. Running from April 5 to September 17, Des Cheveux et Des Poils covers areas such as the implications of baldness; the popularity of wigs through the lens of King Louis XIV and Andy Warhol; the depiction of body hair in art; and the historic symbolism of natural hair colors—blondeness was associated with innocence, red hair with witches and extroversion, while darker tones were considered a sign of a more sinister disposition. Moving into a more modern context, examples of hair artist Alexis Ferrer’s digital prints of artistic scenery onto hair models posit possibilities for the future. As technology has evolved, offering more ways to dye, style, perm, or cut hair, so too has the artistic landscape of hair as the canvas.