A pagan world -- Crete 3.500 years ago -- Minoan figurines -- Egypt -- Women of ancient Greece -- Greek perfection -- The mysterious Etruscans -- Feminine attitudes, circa 300 B.C. -- Roman matrons -- The bikini in Sicily, 400 A.D. -- The eclipse of the nude -- Byzantine magnificence -- Fairy tale princesses -- High fantasy -- The sway back -- Natural portraits in stone -- Pale and plucked -- The new beauty -- Young and slender -- Renaissance blondes -- The fetish of hair -- Quattrocento coiffures -- The lowered lid -- The candid eye -- In a cold climate -- Eyes but no ears -- The elongated line -- A frame for the face -- The round bosom -- The enigmatic mistresses of Fontainebleau -- Veiled nudity -- The golden age -- Venetian beauties -- Splendid trappings -- Opulent charms -- The saturated curve -- Sense and sensuality -- Curls and pearls -- Charles's choice -- The round and dimpled face -- The small sophisticated head -- The sheltered life -- Fancy dress and frills -- The encircled neck -- The beguiling look -- Art and artifice -- Baroque bravura -- Rosy perfection -- Powdered poodles -- Dressed high -- The heavy head -- A sweet disorder -- From nudity to niceness -- Nudity and near nudity -- The feathered curl -- Softly rounded -- The smooth centre parting -- From a Victorian keepsake -- The eclipse of the ear -- The vogue for ringlets -- Two great beauties of the 19th century -- The reign of Tarleton, Barège, grenadine and gauze -- Romantic dreamers -- Revolt and counter-revolt -- Rossetti's models -- The cult of long hair -- Post-Pre-Raphaelites -- Dressed and undressed in the eighties -- Official art -- 1900: the turn of a century -- Fringes -- Elegant airs -- Edwardian opulence goes to the head -- Rustling silks -- Up-swept hair -- The mono-bosom -- The Gibson Girl -- Soft plumage -- When too much was barely sufficient -- The figure deflates, the hair descends -- The curtained forehead -- Recent history -- Total eclipse -- The forehead reappears -- The dancing twenties -- Neat and tidy -- Prettiness and pathos -- Western magic -- The smooth side parting -- The broad bare brow -- Exotic glamour -- The arched eyebrow -- The long bob -- The pensive thirties -- Present perspective -- Beauty in the bone -- Luxuriant locks, blonde or brunette -- The whittled waist -- Dark magic -- Long hair and straggling -- Short and nibbled -- The casual life -- The dark dominant eye -- The long neck -- Airs without artifice -- Where do we go from here?