Povoynik of the late 16th century from the Pokrovsky Monastery burial vault in Suzdal

Remember the expression "to okrutit' someone" (literally, to wind someone round, and so to ensnare them into marriage)? It is tied to the custom of winding a bride's hair around her head in a particular way: on her wedding day a Russian girl acquired the right to a new hairstyle and a new kind of headdress. The elaborate headdresses of married women, kokoshniks among them, which sometimes consisted of 3 to 4 or even 10 separate parts, were worn over just such a cap, which covered the hair wound around the head: the volosnik or povoynik. Povoyniks were worn by women of every estate. The photograph shows a precious povoynik from the burial vault of the Intercession Convent in Suzdal. It dates from the late sixteenth century and is kept in the museum of the Suzdal Kremlin, in the Archbishop's Chambers. It was found in 1972. Only two volosniks have ever been found in Suzdal.