Woman Combing her Hair

Woman Combing her Hair, a pastel on paper from around 1887-90 now at the Musée d'Orsay, is a mature example of Degas's intimate grooming series — the extended sequence of works depicting women brushing, combing, and arranging their hair that runs through the 1880s and into the 1890s. For Degas, the act of combing one's hair offered a subject of great formal interest: the repeated linear movement of the comb or brush through hair was simultaneously a bodily action and a visual line, the arm's trajectory repeated in the falling strands. This pastel captures a specific moment in the routine — the figure bent slightly forward as she draws the comb through loose hair. The observation is intimate and unselfconscious.

Pastel enables Degas to render the hair itself with extraordinary naturalism — long, directional strokes that follow the fall of the locks, built up in layers to achieve the texture and sheen of human hair. The warm, reddish tones of the figure contrast with the cooler background. His handling of the body is confident and economical, locating the form with minimal marks. The composition is typically Degas: figure placed off-center, the action caught in mid-flow.