Most people are familiar with the practice of ratting the hair, whereby one roughly frizzles and tangles the hair by backcombing with a comb or brush to give it volume. Not so many understand what a hair rat is.
Short description: it is a mass made from artificial or real hair (in the latter case, often saved off one's own comb or brush, though purchased can also be used) employed so as to pad out hairstyles. They are less popular nowadays than they once were, due to their use requiring somewhat long hair in order to secure and conceal them; modern short hairdos don't always allow for this. Additionally, modern hairsprays and glues can often produce similar effects which were not otherwise obtainable in the past. Still, in the hairstyles of Victorian and Edwardian era women (and Georgians, too!) they were often essential for being able to achieve the fashionable looks.
Madam Qui-Vive writes, "There are many advantages in a [rat.] It not only shapes the head properly, but it saves one’s own hair from “ratting” and gives a good, firm, solid foundation for puffs, braids or curls. The hair can be waved or it can be worn plain."
Hair rats can be made in pretty much any shape needed, and are done by tangling up or ratting (hence the name) whatsoever hair is to be used, into the proper form. One's own hair saved off a comb or brush is recommended because this way, it will exactly match your own hair's color and texture. Show-through was a common problem; while formal studio portraits always show ladies with their hair and makeup freshly done, more informal pictures of Edwardian ladies frequently show their natural locks in a bit of disarray, falling away from an inner form that probably is a hair rat; as in the following example of a girl with a low pompadour:
To use a rat, it is secured with hairpins or sometimes with very small threads (much like modern weaves) and the natural hair arranged over it.
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