The Price of Memory: Hairwork Wages for Women in 1863

As a historian specializing in Victorian hairwork, I often discuss the deep emotional labor and artistry embedded in the craft. But it is equally important to look past the sentimental veil and examine the economic reality for the women who professionalized this work.

I recently came across Virginia Penny's 1863 publication, The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work (also published in the previous year under the title How women can make money married or single, in all branches of the arts and sciences, professions, trades, agricultural and mechanical pursuits), a landmark, proto-feminist document that cataloged the jobs and wages available to women during the Antebellum period.

A pioneering social reformer and economist, Virginia Penny (1826–1913) holds the distinction of being the first researcher to conduct extensive studies on women's employment and labor conditions across the United States and Europe. She was initially involved in the American women's suffrage movement before directing her efforts toward labor union organization and establishing an employment agency specifically for women.

Sketch of Virginia Penny in 1859, Unknown Artist.

Driven by her commitment to reform, Virginia Penny spent years traveling to major U.S. cities and utilizing libraries for information on European women's employment. While living in New York City from 1859 to 1861, she finalized her comprehensive study, which culminated in the first publication of its kind.

Penny's systematic research was groundbreaking; she interviewed thousands of employers and workers via in-person visits and mail-in surveys, documenting 533 different occupations. Her unique book did more than list available jobs; it provided thematic analyses of wages and gender differentials, training, health effects, and, importantly, highlighted occupations where women were unjustly excluded due to gender discrimination.

The book’s section on 'HAIR WORKERS' provides a rare, quantitative look at the industry: the cost of apprenticeships, the competition between American and internationally-trained workers, and the stark wages that underscore the economic vulnerability and yet indispensable skill of the “nimble fingers of women.”

This report details the commercial hairwork sector, which most commonly focused on popular jewelry techniques like table braiding, sometimes referred to as ‘ornamental hairwork,’ executed by professionals. Palette work "devices" and sepia miniature paintings were also commonly created by professional hairworkers. 

Advertisement from Self-instructor In the Art of Hair Work by Mark Campbell, 1867.

That is not to say these techniques were not sometimes practiced in the parlor as well, especially once people began to be fearful that their professionally made hairwork was not being created with the hair they sent in to be worked. And though wirework hair flowers - the type of hairwork I make - were primarily the domain of amateur home crafters, some women did sell hair flowers as well, offering their skills at a price and blurring the lines between domestic and paid labor.

Note the mention of $50 paid for a single design versus the average $4 - $5 weekly wage and ten hour work days for the woman doing the actual work.

Section on Hairworkers from The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work by Virginia Penny, 1863.

HAIR WORKERS.

299. Artists. The making of hair ornaments is a distinct branch of labor. Some very beautiful and ingenious pieces of workmanship have been executed. Bracelets, earrings, breastpins, and guards are the most common articles. The work is nicely adapted to the nimble fingers of women, whether engaged in it for pastime or profit. A foreign lady, that does ornamental hair work, told me that it is a right profitable business to one that can do it well, but American women have not patience to learn to do it in a superior manner. A hair jeweller in Philadelphia told me he employs six girls—all Americans, and he thinks they do better than foreigners. He pays a girl seventy-five cents a week, for three or four weeks. By that time she has learned enough to earn $3 or $4 a week. Formerly he required a girl to spend two years learning, and paid her nothing during the time. He mentioned one firm that required three years' apprenticeship. But the girls often became discouraged, and went at something else. Now the business is not so much of a secret. He has now and then paid as high as $12 a week, for a hand that was very ingenious and successful. They pay high for their designs. The gentleman had paid $50, the week previous, for a design. His girls all work in the establishment, and spend about nine hours at their work. It is done altogether by hand. The only disadvantage attending it is the confinement that pertains to it, or any other employment of that kind. An artist on Fifth street gives work out of the house. The average rate of wages he pays is $4 a week. Hair artists, when employed by the week, receive from $4 to $5. At S.’s, New York, they pay a good hand from $4 to $5 a week, ten hours a day. A person of good abilities can learn most of the patterns in three weeks. An ornamental hair worker told me she charges fifty cents a lesson of an hour. A lady was taking lessons who had recently married a jeweller, and was going to Louisiana to live. A good price can be got for such work in the South, for Southerners have had all such work done in the North. A German, who made very pretty ornamental hair work in New York, told me he charges from $25 to $50 for teaching the art—those that wish to learn in a short time, and so require much of his attention, pay $100. It can be very well learned in six months. He pays $10 a week to good hands. The work is the same at all seasons. Strong eyes, nimble fingers, and a clear head are the essentials for a learner.

© 2025 Diane Irby. All rights reserved. This content may not be copied or distributed without written permission from the author.
To cite this essay:
Irby, Diane. “The Price of Memory: Hairwork Wages for Women in 1893.” Victorian Hairwork by dirby.art (victorianhairwork.art), November 2025. https://www.victorianhairwork.art/journal-research/the-price-of-memory-hairwork-wages-for-women-in-1863.

Bibliography:

Campbell, Mark. Self-instructor In the Art of Hair Work: Dressing Hair, Making Curls, Switches, Braids, And Hair Jewelry of Every Description. New York: Campbell, 1867.

Penny, Virginia. How women can make money married or single, in all branches of the arts and sciences, professions, trades, agricultural and mechanical pursuits. Philadelphia, 1862.

Penny, Virginia. The Employments of Women: A Cyclopædia of Woman's Work. Boston: Walker, Wise, and Company, 1863.