Parents, indeed all members of the older generation, often criticize the newest styles and trends that their teenage children find appealing. This was just as true 150 years ago as it is today. So, when young ladies in the late 1800s experimented with a radical new hairstyle – bangs! – criticizing adults were quick to label it the “lunatic fringe.” Let’s examine this hairstyle to see why it was considered so crazy.

Women’s Hairstyles of the 1800s

For centuries, women in many cultures wore their hair long and uncut. Long hair on women symbolized femininity and prosperity and even good health. But let’s be real. In patriarchal societies, women’s hairstyles were centered around the standard of beauty that men established. And since men of the past were threatened by a woman with short hair, they conditioned women and girls to believe that cutting one’s hair would be akin to denouncing their gender – a major taboo in the past. So, women continued to wear their hair long without question, even if it was cumbersome, hot, heavy, and in the way.

In the late 1800s, when the “lunatic fringe” became popular, women wore their long hair parted in the middle, slicked back, and wound into tightly knotted buns. It was a harsh, severe look, but it kept a woman’s hair neat, tidy, and out of the way. 

Young women in the 1870s and 1880s were living in an interesting time in history. One of the topics in the national conversation was women’s suffrage. Several women’s organizations were working to spread information about women’s equality, women’s rights, and voting privileges. Girls and young women were thinking about their roles in society and the constraints put on them. It was only natural for them to question conventional thoughts and standards, including those involving their hair.

They were not yet as bold as the women of the 1920s who chopped with long hair into short bobs, but they were taking baby steps to get to that point. The “lunatic fringe” was one of those baby steps. Basically, the “lunatic fringe” was bangs. The Brits use the word “fringe” in place of bangs so that part of the term was borrowed from them. As for the “lunatic” part, it was used because older adults thought young women were crazy to cut their hair and they thought the bangs made them look insane. 

Did you read the Little House books as a child? There is a part in one of the books, Little Town on the Prairie, which covers Laura’s teenage years, involving the “lunatic fringe.” As Laura is preparing to attend a town sociable, she fusses over her hair and finally asks her parents, Ma and Pa, if she can cut the front of her hair into bangs like her bestie, Mary Powers, has done with her own hair. Ma and Pa sneer at the “lunatic fringe” and comment on the folly of youth but grant their permission. Laura trims her bangs and curls the hair into a mass of curls across her forehead. She then goes to the party, satisfied that she looks modern and stylish. 

Teddy Roosevelt

Newspapers and ladies' magazines often noted the popularity of the “lunatic fringe,” although most were critical of it. It should come as no surprise that President Theodore Roosevelt would have been aware of the phrase. His socialite daughter, Alice, probably wore her hair in that fashion. When Roosevelt addressed the American Historical Association in December of 1913, he commented that “There is apt to a be a lunatic fringe among the votaries of any forward movement.” The president, of course, was not discussing women’s hairstyles. Instead, he was observing that there are fanatical extremists on the far edges of every social and political issue. It was a perfect metaphor for describing political radicals.

We have long since ditched the British “fringe” in favor of bangs. Bangs, as a hairstyle, always go on a rollercoaster of popularity but they are still a thing. Of course, no one questions your sanity anymore when you decide to get bangs, although your best friends may advise against it. The “lunatic fringe” of the 1870s and 1880s is just another example of teenagers who try something radical with their hair for the shock value it has on older adults. For girls of the 1880s, wearing the “lunatic fringe” was akin to dying their hair pink or shaving it into a Mohawk. It was the latest fad and it was designed to upset the establishment.