A woman in the late Qing Dynasty, holding a folding fan and wearing a nail set on her hand. Because she admired the hairstyle of the Qing Dynasty men's shaved forehead hair, she also shaved off her forehead hair to express that she did not let her eyebrows be shaved, and the side photograph showed this even more. In the Qing Dynasty, the claim that the body was subject to its parents no longer existed, so it is not surprising that women occasionally shave their heads. Therefore, this woman's forehead is not innate.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, two men were carving an object, possibly a filigree of cloisonné. Because the photographer didn't specify what they were carving, it was puzzling to see such a large, slightly curved pipe with a large and thin end. It wasn't until I saw Cixi's ornaments that I suddenly realized that they were imitating a piece of equipment made by the noble ladies of the palace.
Cixi coloring photo. She likes to wear nail sets, which are made of gold, precious stones, etc., which are dazzling and protect the nails. In almost all of Cixi's surviving photographs, nail sets can be seen. During the Cixi period, it was very popular for rich women to wear nail covers, so there were works of art imitating giant nail covers.
Cixi wears giant nail covers. Noble women have long nails, made of gold and silver nail sets, exquisite decoration, rich in variety, this nail cover is also called "finger protection". Imperial palace ladies during the Qing Dynasty also used cloisonné nail sets to protect carefully kept nails.
Empress Dowager Cixi, who was under the curtain, wore decorative metal or cloisonné nail covers on her little finger and ring finger to increase the length of her nails and show her noble status. In fact, at that time, men also had the habit of leaving nails.
Zhang Zhidong, you can see that he has nails, not short. At that time, men and women with high status had the habit of keeping long nails. The females show that they do not have to work, while the males show their masculine strength and status, similar to the role of beards. Because Cixi appreciates the reuse of Zhang Zhidong, it is not excluded that Zhang Zhidong imitated Cixi and left long fingernails.