Page 23 - All About History 58 - 2017 UK

Léonard’s name. The hair was built up around a
metal frame and horsehair until it reached the
magnificently outrageous heights often associated
with the late queen. The style was painstakingly
woven around the frame, entwining it was with
‘postiches’, or false hairpieces.

POWDERING THE POUF
Once the towering pouf was completed, Léonard
From ships to feathers to fruit
baskets, Léonard made elaborate
used a little pomade, such as beechwood wax, to
works of art atop the queen’s head
coat the hair. With the queen holding a protective
mask in front of her face, he then took a cup of
wheat flour hair powder and, using a puff of goose
feathers, applied a coating of powder to Marie
Antoinette’s waxed hair.

DRESS TO IMPRESS
For Marie Antoinette and Léonard, high hair
and lashings of powder weren’t the end of the
matter when it came to hairstyles. Together they
pioneered statement hair and Léonard finished
off his creations with decorations ranging from
feathers to flowers to the infamous model ships
that cropped up in so many caricatures of the
late queen.

THE COURT ARRIVES
At noon, Léonard departed Marie Antoinette’s
chambers as she began her Grand Toilette, an
elaborate beauty routine performed in front of
female courtiers. Léonard, meanwhile, made the
most of his celebrity status as Coiffeur de la Reine
by spending the afternoon at Versailles, dining,
socialising and soaking up the plaudits of the court
and queen.

THE EVENING

ENTERTAINMENTS
Should Marie Antoinette have an evening
engagement, such as a formal ball or visit, Léonard
would ensure that her hair would be the most
dramatic and eye-catching of all the attendees.
If no additional styling work was required, he
would leave Versailles for his home, ready to begin
another fabulous week as the toast of Paris.

Layered with pearls,
feathers and decorations, Léonard’s infamous creation,
the pouf, was a favourite
the queen’s hair was
target of cartoonists looking
always the talking point
to lampoon his extreme style
of fashionable society
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