"Sanitary and Dependable"

I picked up this little envelope at the antique mall on Saturday.....mix "human hair" with "sanitary" and "dependable" and I'm on it.
Plus the vintage gal is quite pretty.

Of course it begs the question, why?.
I had my own ideas, but decided to ask around and Jonathan from Kickshaw Productions provided the historical perspective.

"Yes, they were made of human hair to blend in with your own, and this was in the days before hairspray, so they were to keep the hair in place. They were made for waved and smooth hairstyles that could easily become mussed or frizzy....

The pic on the cover is showing the relative size of the hair net to your head. They are elasticized around the edge but they can be pulled taut to that size, depending on whether you are using it to cover your entire hairstyle, or just part of it. This one says its 'bobbed' size, so there are larger sizes for long hairstyles, like Veronica Lake. I remember watching a movie with Barbara Stanwyck and she had a long turned under pageboy, and at one point she moved her head and you could just glimpse the hair net used to keep that long smooth under turned hair in place. "

He also reminded me that hairspray was not commercially available until 1956. The net is very, very fine, lightweight and blond. I can see how it would be almost invisible over your hair.
So there you go, they are still a good option for those of us who wear vintage hairstyles and do not want to use hairspray which can make those soft styles of the 20's, 30's and 40's look stiff.