A shamshura in Western Siberia, Altai and Transbaikalia was a complex headdress. It was also common among Russians in the North in the 18th–19th centuries. The point is that an important element of the wedding ritual was “winding”, or changing a girl’s headdress to a women’s one. Before marriage, girls wore one plait adorned with crowns and headbands. During the wedding ritual the only plait was unbraided, and two plaits were braided instead. They were then“wound” around the head and hid under a women’s headdress. Its type and name varied depending on the region. Some people called it shamshura, while others called it kichka, soroka, or kika.

A shamshura was a soft cap made of chintz or sateen with a rectangular or oval frontlet made of quilted canvas. A hard canvas roll was sewn between the frontlet and the top of the hat. The cap was tied at the back with a braid or cord. The shamshura tightly covered the hair braided in plaits or arranged on the top of the head.

This element of clothing was usually covered with a kerchief or a kokoshnik. On weekdays, the shamshura was covered with a cotton shawl, which was folded diagonally, its two ends tied at the back of the head. During holidays, the shamshura was worn with a bright silk shawl or a thin cashmere one. The shawl was folded diagonally, and its front part was folded several times, forming a thick roll about 17 centimeters wide, leaving a small triangular end at the back.

The kokoshnik was worn on the shamshura only on festive days. It was made of red silk or velvet. The soft part of the kokoshnik was gathered over the temples in folds. The shamshura was also worn with a kichka, which in Siberia was a cap made of silk, sateen or velvet with a flat round top, slanted at the back.

On festive days, a rectangular strip of velvet or silk on a dense base, was tied to the shamshura. It was embroidered with gold thread, beads, and decorated with braid trimmings. The headdress was often additionally decorated with fresh or artificial flowers, which were pinned to the shawl or kokoshnik. In Siberia, the shamshura was worn until the mid-1920s. The headdress from the museum’s collection is one of the objects of everyday life of Russian peasants — old residents of Novokarasukskaya volost.