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Snood (headgear)
 
 
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A snood is a type of headgear
Headgear

Headgear, headwear or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head .Headgear serve a variety of purposes:...
, historically worn by women over their long hair
Hair

Hair is a protein filament that epidermal growth from hair follicle deep within the dermis. The fine, soft hair found on many nonhuman mammals is typically called fur; wool is the characteristically curly hair found on sheep and goats....
. In the most common form it resembles a close-fitting hood
Hood (headgear)

A hood is a kind of headgear that covers most of the head and neck and sometimes the face. They may be worn for protection from the environment, for fashion, as a form of traditional Clothing or uniform, to prevent the wearer seeing or to prevent the wearer being identified....
 worn over the back of the head. The band covers the forehead or crown of the head, goes behind the ears and under the nape of the neck. A sack of sorts dangles from this band, covering and containing the fall of long hair gathered at the back of the head. A snood is sometimes made of solid cloth, but sometimes of loosely knitted yarn
Yarn

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibers, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking....
, or other net-like material.

In modern times the word has also come to be applied to a tubular neck protector or warmer, often worn by skiers or motorcyclists.






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A snood is a type of headgear
Headgear

Headgear, headwear or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head .Headgear serve a variety of purposes:...
, historically worn by women over their long hair
Hair

Hair is a protein filament that epidermal growth from hair follicle deep within the dermis. The fine, soft hair found on many nonhuman mammals is typically called fur; wool is the characteristically curly hair found on sheep and goats....
. In the most common form it resembles a close-fitting hood
Hood (headgear)

A hood is a kind of headgear that covers most of the head and neck and sometimes the face. They may be worn for protection from the environment, for fashion, as a form of traditional Clothing or uniform, to prevent the wearer seeing or to prevent the wearer being identified....
 worn over the back of the head. The band covers the forehead or crown of the head, goes behind the ears and under the nape of the neck. A sack of sorts dangles from this band, covering and containing the fall of long hair gathered at the back of the head. A snood is sometimes made of solid cloth, but sometimes of loosely knitted yarn
Yarn

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibers, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking....
, or other net-like material.

In modern times the word has also come to be applied to a tubular neck protector or warmer, often worn by skiers or motorcyclists. The garment can be worn either pulled down around the neck like a scarf, or pulled up over the hair and lower face, like a hood. A commercial company making womens' clothing also uses the word as a trademark and sells a decorative variant of the sports snood as its signature product.

The word is first recorded in Old English from around 725 and was widely used in the Middle Ages for a variety of cloth or net head coverings, including what we would today call hairbands and caul
Caul (headgear)

A caul is a historical headress worn by women that covers tied-up hair. A fancy caul could be made of satin, velvet, fine silk or brocade, although a simple caul would commonly be made of white linen or cotton....
s, as well as versions similar to a modern net snood. Snoods continued in use in later periods especially for women working or at home.

In Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 and parts of the North of England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 a silken ribbon about an inch wide called a snood was worn specifically by unmarried women as an indicator of their status until the late 19th or early 20th century . It was usually braided into the hair.

Snoods came back into fashion
Fashion

Fashion refers to the styles and customs prevalent at a given time. In its most common usage, "fashion" exemplifies the appearances of clothing, but the term encompasses more....
 in the 1860s, though the term "snood" remained a European name, and Americans called the item simply a "hairnet
Hairnet

A hairnet, or sometimes simply a net or caul, is a small, often elasticised, fine net worn over long hair to hold it in place. It is often worn by food service workers to prevent hair from contaminating the food....
" until some time after they went out of fashion in the 1870s. These hairnets were frequently made of very fine material to match the wearer's natural hair color (see 1860s in fashion - hairstyles and headgear
1860s in fashion

1860s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by extremely full-skirted women's fashions relying on crinolines and hoop skirt and the emergence of "alternative fashions" under the influence of the Artistic Dress movement....
) and worn over styled hair. Consequently, they were very different from the snoods of the 1940s.

Snoods became popular again in Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. At that time, the British government had placed strict rations on the amount of material that could be used in clothing. While headgear was not rationed, snoods were favored, along with turban
Turban

The turban is a headgear consisting of a long scarf-like single piece of cloth wound around either the head itself or an inner hat. The word "turban" is a common umbrella term, loosely used in English to refer to several sorts of head wrap....
s and headscarves, in order to show one's commitment to the war effort.

Today womens' snoods are commonly worn by married Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
 women, according to the religious custom of hair covering
Tzniut

Tzniut or Tznius is a term used within Judaism and has its greatest influence as a notion within Orthodox Judaism. It is used to describe both the character trait of modesty and humility, as well as a group of Halakha pertaining to conduct in general and especially between the sexes....
.

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