Hair stick

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Portrait of a religious donor wearing hair sticks decorated with gold and jade, 983 AD Donor portrait, Mo-Kao-Khu Cave 17.jpg
Portrait of a religious donor wearing hair sticks decorated with gold and jade, 983 AD

A hair stick (also hairstick) is a straight, pointed device, usually between five and nine inches (13 cm to 23 cm) in length, used to hold a person's hair in place in a hair bun or similar hairstyle.

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Unlike many hair pins, which are usually small and quite simple,[ citation needed ] hair sticks are often more elaborate and decorative, and feature jeweled or carved designs that make them stand out as pieces of luxury jewelry.[ citation needed ] The price of hair sticks varies greatly depending on the style, materials, and craftsmanship – the cheapest pairs of plastic hair sticks can cost less than a dollar, while a single, hand-crafted hair stick by an artist can cost over two hundred dollars.

Historical use

Hair sticks have been in use for thousands of years, and have been found in cultures of the ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks,[ citation needed ] India and China. Although some of these have been jewelled, luxury items, such as the gold hair sticks of Egypt, [1] more common, wooden hair sticks have also been found in cultures such as Rome, [2] suggesting that they were in wide use amongst people regardless of their financial standing. However, the most influential culture on modern hair sticks has been Japanese, and in particular the use of decorative Japanese kanzashi.[ citation needed ]

Although many modern hair sticks draw more on the elaborate approach to the design of kanzashi more than on the simpler designs for functional pins, kanzashi are used within a far more rigid and traditional environment.[ citation needed ] Kanzashi are frequently floral in design, especially those dictated by the changing of the seasons and used by geisha.

See also

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Shubi, also called as zhi, is a generic term used for Chinese combs in China, which includes thick-teeth comb shu and thin-teeth comb bi. Shubi originated about 6000 years ago in China during the late Neolithic period. Some Chinese combs dating from the Shang dynasty were found in the Tomb of Fuhao. In ancient China, Chinese combs had a high special status, a high artistic value, was an important form of hair ornament in Chinese history. Chinese comb also had and continues to hold unique cultural meaning and emotional value. Chinese combs in China were not used only for grooming purposes, they were also used holding and decorating hair. Both Chinese men and women wore decorative combs in their hair in ancient China. Chinese women often wore combs and fine-tooth combs in their hair buns. Chinese comb-making was also an important form of traditional Chinese art and business industry.

References

  1. About.com A brief overview of modern and historical hair sticks
  2. HistoryForKids.org Archived 2015-09-10 at the Wayback Machine , Roman Clothing