Chignon (hairstyle)

[1][2][3] Chignons are generally achieved by pinning the hair into a knot at the nape of the neck or at the back of the head, but there are many variations of the style.

The chignon can be traced back to ancient Greece, where Athenian women commonly wore the style with gold or ivory handcrafted hairpins.

Athenian men wore the style as well, but they fastened their chignons with a clasp of "golden grasshoppers", according to The History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides.

[citation needed] The chignon was also popular in ancient China, where married women wore the low, knotted hairstyle.

[citation needed] Male writers of the Victorian era, like Anthony Trollope, were fond of poking fun[6] at the perceived absurdity of the fashion, which was much in vogue in England in the 1860s.