Women working at machines in war industrial plants were required by factory acts to cover their hair. The federal government co-operated with companies on educational campaigns to convince women of the necessity of this safety measure. Cautionary tales were circulated to warn women of the hazards of not keeping their hair properly covered. One story told of a war worker who, "with 200 stitches required to replace her scalp, torn from her head when her hair became entangled in a machine," had been offered little hope that it would ever grow again.
In time however, the bandana became a badge of patriotic service. As the kerchiefs were sometimes designed by the workers themselves, with different colours worn in different factories, bandanas also became symbols of solidarity for the women working for a particular company. According to one news story, the women at the Victory Aircraft plant in Malton, Ontario, staged a forty-five minute "walkout" in January 1944 when management tried to replace the bandana with a "deep-crowned visor cap of grey cotton to match the workers" overalls.
Here we see a woman employed in the production of Bren guns at the John Inglis Company of Toronto demonstrating the proper way to tie on a bandana.
Courtesy: Toronto Telegram Photograph Collection York University Archives (Box 337, File 2257)
