Rag curls and rag curlers for curling hair

This page describes the use of rag curlers including how to produce a rag curl and why rag curls were so commonplace in the past. It is based on childhood experiences and observation from when rag curls and rag curlers were commonplace.
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By the webmaster, based childhood observations in the 1940s
Rag curls
Rag curls are curls produced by rolling fairly thick strands of hair up with strips of fabric - rags - and leaving them for several hours, usually overnight, to set into shape. The results are loose, natural-looking curls, and most of the photos labelled as rag curls on the internet could never have been produced that way. I know because making rag curls from rag curlers was common practice in my 1940s childhood. My aunt and grandmother did it every night. It was a routine for them. They would never have gone to bed without doing it. Sometimes they did it on my hair too, but usually I had plaits.
Below I explain in detail how to make rag curlers and rag curls.

Rag curls. Note how loose they are.
Rag curlers and why their name
Rag curlers are strips of torn non-stretch fabric about 6 inches (15 cm) long and 1½ inches (4cm) wide. In the past they were 'rags' because they were never bought specially for the purpose but were cut from bits of worn-out clothing, bed-sheets or off-cuts from dressmaking. There was no shortage of these rags because women did much more sewing and dressmaking than today. Hence the term 'rag curlers'.
Most of the photos of rag curls on the internet show ribbons not the rags described above. The photos are clearly staged as the ribbons would not be strong enough to stay in place overnight.
Advantages of rag curlers
Rag curlers have a number of advantages:
- They were (and still are) free because most households had outworn fabric items which could be torn up into rags. Cost was very important to ordinary families in bygone times.
- They produce - and still produce - a loose natural-looking curl.
- They didn't (and still don't) damage the hair like curling tongs which needed to be heated.
- They were (and still are) softer than metal curlers and pipe-cleaners. As the favoured hair curler in the past, a significant advantage was that they were more comfortable to sleep on.
Nevertheless, they were normally only used for the ends of hair so that the bulge fitted snuggly into the nape of the neck or the forehead - another reason why the photos on the internet are probably staged.
How to make a rag curl
One rag was needed for each curl.

Hair in a rag curler
A rag was folded over the end - just the end - of a length of hair to grip it. The rag was then wound over and over on itself and the ends were then tied together with a knot.
As I had plaits, I only had to sleep with two rags, one at the end of each plait, and used this way they were not uncomfortable because the plaits could be arranged so that they were not lain on.
Disadvantages of rag curlers
Today, rag curls are little more than a fun thing, but in the past they they were very popular indeed. But they were not the complete answer to curling hair.
- They needed to be in place for many hours to be effective and were therefore used overnight which meant that they could be lumpy to lie on unless carefully positioned.
- They did not look attractive in bed - a severe disadvantage for younger women.
- The curls tended to fall out after a few hours.
- For a slightly longer-lasting curl, the hair could be wetted before making the curl, but this was not comfortable in bed and didn't make much difference to how long the curl lasted.
Inaccuracies in period films and images
To summarise: I never knew anyone who had rag curlers put in all over their heads, although they are commonly shown this way in period films and images. Used in this way, they would have been far too uncomfortable in bed. Curlers were actually placed round the edge of the head so as to be less lumpy for sleeping on, and is almost certainly why hair styles were usually fairly straight with curls just at the ends - see the following photo. There are more on the hair styles page.

Another misrepresentation in period films is that the rags are always shown as white. In practice they were made from any spare bits of material.
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