A Hair-Raising Adventure

 

“If in a moment’s passion, you should join the ruling fashion,

And should bob your hear alone and all unaided,

Then you suddenly regret, and your family’s upset,

And you have no wish your folly be paraded”

 

Chalet School characters change their hairstyles for a number of reasons, not always by their own choice!

 

The first person to have a radical change of hairstyle is Simone, who cuts off her pigtail to try to please Joey (School Ch9). Lavender Leigh also takes scissors to her own hair, when she uses Frau Meiders’ cutting-out scissors to cut off her ringlets which are annoying her by getting caught in things (Lavender Ch17). Another person who has a sudden haircut is Rosalie who gets her hair caught in a hedge (Rosalie Ch9). Tom hacks it off with a knife. Needless to say, all these girls soon have their hair properly trimmed, either by a hairdresser or by Matey.

 

Most of the characters change their hairstyle as they get older, either because they want to look more grown-up, or, as in the case of the continental girls, because it is traditional to put their hair up when they are 18. Mary-Lou decides to try one pigtail instead of her two “Kenwigses”, and starts a trend (Mary-Lou Ch3). In New House Ch7, Simone notices Jo’s hair is getting long and untidy - Madge has persuaded her to grow it. Before long she is having trouble keeping it in knobs over her ears using hairpins (Jo Returns Ch5). Miss Annersley suggests parting it in two tails and crossing them over each other at the back. However, Joey’s hair grows quickly, and soon she is able to wear it in “earphones” - flat shells over her ears made up of small plaits. Joey’s eldest daughter, Len, wants to try a more unconventional style - the ponytail (Joey+Co Ch2). Len isn’t the first to think of trying a ponytail - Vi suggests it but decides not to incur Matron’s wrath (Mary-Lou Ch3). Jo agrees that Len can try a ponytail for the holidays, but thinks it will get untidy. Con decides to do away with her fringe after seeing how grown-up it makes her look at the sale (Summer Term).

 

Not all girls who want to change their hairstyle do. Polly Heriot wants her long pigtail cut off (Jo Returns Ch4). Marie wishes she could have her hair shorter while she is at school like Simone. Wanda wants to cut hers but Friedel makes her promise not to (Rivals Ch2). Ted pleads with Miss Annersley to have her hair cut off, since it is always untidy. Miss Annersley refuses but brushes it until it gleams and ties it back in a ribbon and slides at the sides to keep the ends out of her eyes. She is to have it thinned at the hairdresser so it is not too hot in the summer (Theodora Ch9).

 

In Rivals Ch14/15, the middles discover their hair has turned white overnight after being floured by the prefects, who have to shampoo the middles’ hair as a punishment. It’s not only the girls who undergo sudden transformations in their hair. Miss Wilson’s hair turns white when escaping from the angry mob in Spärtz (Exile Ch9). I don’t know of anybody dying their hair, although Joey does tease Miss Leslie by asking if she uses dye, as she has no grey hair (Jo Returns Ch5). Gretchen von Ahlen’s hair is temporarily turned yellow when she falls into a tub of Gaudenz’s colourwash (Summer Term Ch12). The only person I know of who has a perm is Joan Baker who wears her hair in artificial waves (Problem Ch7).

 

Changes of hairstyle are used as a disguise in Exile Ch10. Miss Wilson, Joey, Cornelia, Evadne and Jeanne plait and coil their hair to look like peasants. Evadne suggests hacking Hilary’s bob to make her look like a boy, but instead a handkerchief is tied over it. In Redheads, Copper’s long red pigtails are cut off at her father’s request, to make her less recognisable. Matron cuts off the pigtails and neatens the ends, but at the first opportunity Copper is taken to the school’s hairdresser, Herr Fritz Beschannen in Interlaken. He changes the parting to a side parting.

 

Grizel’s hair is scorched in the fire at the hotel in Salzburg and it comes away in her hands. She has it cropped close to her head at a hairdressers the next day, but it is uneven (Head Girl Ch17). Kathie Robertson is another who scorches her hair - she carelessly catches it in her bunsen flame (Island Ch6). Adrienne Desmoines’ long thick hair has to be cropped close to her head as she is burned when a fire results from the tableau “The Burning of Moscow” (Adrienne Ch15). It is bobbed to the nape of her neck and the slight wave in her hair turns into big loose rings all over her head. It is because of the change in her appearance that Mary-Lou realises Adrienne is related to Robin.

 

When Eustacia is in bed after hurting her back, her hair is cropped and a fringe cut so no slides will hurt her head. Her hair is wavy and the fringe hides her high forehead (Eustacia Ch25). Mary-Lou is horrified that she has had her head shaved and lost her pigtail following her accident. She is happy to discover it will grow in curly (Mary-Lou Ch17).

“Then go to Mrs Jarley on the spot

If you’ve bobbed and later wish that you had not.

Till your hair is grown once more

Keep your dummy to the fore

To take for you the chaff you should have got!”