Ignác Šechtl and Josef Jindřich Šechtl: December

“The parting in your hair zig-zags like the path to Klokoty,” grandmothers used to say when they saw a young man whose hairstyle in the “courtly” manner had gone wrong. (In Czech the word for a hair parting is the same as for a footpath.) Why the comparison to the path to Klokoty? This old picture gives an explanation. Such a view was offered from Kotnov tower before the area sank into the trees. True, the path does not zig-zag significantly. But it is also true that having one’s hair parted like the path to Klokoty does not add any dignity to one’s appearance.