Hackle

The hackle is a clipped feather plume that is attached to a military headdress.

In the British Army and the armies of some Commonwealth countries the hackle is worn by some infantry regiments, especially those designated as fusilier regiments and those with Scottish and Northern Irish origins. The colour of the hackle varies from regiment to regiment.

The modern hackle has its origins in a much longer plume, originally referred to by its Scots name, 'heckle', which was commonly attached to the feather bonnet worn by Highland regiments (now usually only worn by drummers, pipers and bandsmen). The smaller version originated in a regimental emblem adopted by the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment to be worn in the sun helmet issued in hot-weather postings from the 1870s.

Hackle colours in British fusilier regiments

Modern fusiliers

In the modern British Army, there is a single regiment of fusiliers, plus a battalion of a large regiment. Hackle colours are:

Hackle (disambiguation)

Hackle may refer to one of the following.

Hackle (wig making)

A hackle is a metal plate with rows of pointed needles used to blend or straighten hair. This tool is used as a preliminary step in the process of custom wig making. It is typically clamped firmly to a table before use.

The pointed needles are very sharp. This is paramount, because the hackle is used for three main purposes: mixing or blending hairs in special blends of colours, untangling wigs or hair extensions, and preparing the hair in a single or double draw. For single drawn, we get rid of the shortest hairs in the bundle at the root area. For double drawn, what we do with the hackle is to draw one bundle in it, with each different lengths that is, separating their different lengths. Any double drawn (DD) hair tends to be far more expensive than any other hairs because for four ounces of DD we may have used over a kilogram of single drawn, especially long lengths. In DD, all hairs have the same length, typical wigs with DD hairs are Sheitels.

Hackles are also used in the preparation of flax for spinning.