snood, either of two types of hair ornament worn by women. The Scottish snood was a narrow circlet or ribbon fastened around the head and worn primarily by unmarried women, as a sign of chastity. During the Victorian era, hairnets worn for decoration were called snoods, and this term came to mean a netlike hat or part of a hat that caught the hair in the back. In the 1930s the name was given to a netlike bag worn at the back of a woman’s head to hold the hair. During World War II snoods were immensely popular in factories, where they were worn to keep hair from being caught in machinery.