This anonymous Victorian book treats hair and beards from every angle its title promises: historical, aesthetic, ethnological, physiological, anecdotal and tonsorial. It moves from the beauty of natural hair and the fashions of antiquity to the freaks of later fashion, the age of wigs, the history of barbers and the structure and colour of hair.
A curious, gossipy history of grooming, with satirists from Martial to Swift on hand. Download the free EPUB.