Here is a gallery of pictures portraying traditional Chinese women from years past. This gives you just a little insight of how the ladies dressed, arranged their hair, and a few details about the beautiful culture of China.
Hair pendants, flowers, gems, and jewels were very common accessories for the upper-middle to high-royalty class Chinese women. In fact, ancient Chinese ladies would not arrange their hair without some form of adornment.
In ancient China. when a young girl got married, she was to wear red. Red was the color of joy and happiness. She was to wear a red veil over her face that hung over an elaborate head piece full of jewels, pearls, flowers, and other gems. From the time that she was dressed for her wedding until that night when she was brought to her husband in their bed chamber, she could not remove the veil. The veil was sewn thick so that she could not see through it. If she were to see a widow, cat, or even a well, it was considered bad luck and could ruin the marriage. The veil was also worn to conceal the identity of the bride so that demons and evil spirits would not sabotage the wedding. Sometimes a bride would even attach small mirrors on the inside of her robe to ward off demons and evil spirits. Ancient Chinese people were very superstitious.
Unmarried Chinese girls could not style their hair in elaborate fashions. If a young girl was single and still lived at home, she had to arrange her hair in braids or leave it hanging loosely. Very few hair accessories were permitted, perhaps a flower or a simple pendant. The elegant, bouffant hair-do's were a symbol of a polished, mature, married woman.
The ancient Chinese people considered extremely pale white skin to be very beautiful. Women did all that they could to keep their skin, especially their faces, pale as the moon. Women would often paint or powder their faces white then color their lips red to make their faces appear even more pale.
