A Hairnet is a small, often elasticised, fine net worn over long hair to hold it in place. Within the world of Coronation Street it is synonymous with the character of Ena Sharples who wore one in almost all appearances she made in the programme from Episode 5 (23rd December 1960) (when the character was hospitalised) to Episode 1983 (2nd April 1980) with very few exceptions.
In an interview given by Violet Carson many years later, she claimed that the idea of the hairnet was her own, saying:
- "My hair looked rather nice, you see, I've got... and still am, thank God, blessed with nice hair...and they started to pull it about. I said, 'don't you touch my hair - it costs me money to have my hair done like this'. So they said, 'What are you going to do?'. I said, 'Well, I'll put a hairnet on it.' And that is the answer to the hairnet, you see?"
Within the programme, the character's propensity to constantly wear the item was rarely mentioned. A notable exception was in Episode 84 (2nd October 1961) for the wedding of Harry Hewitt and Concepta Riley when Jack Walker said he wouldn't recognise her without it and Alf Roberts won a bet with him that she would be wearing it when he said, "she were born with that thing on!"
Occasions where she wasn't seen wearing the item included having her passport photograph taken in Episode 470 (14th June 1965), Len and Rita Fairclough's wedding in April 1977, Tracy Langton's christening a month later and Brian and Gail Tilsley's wedding in November 1979.
In Episode 212 (24th December 1962), Ena donned a special golden hairnet to mark Christmas when she was in the audience for the community play Lady Lawson Loses. In Episode 776 (22nd May 1968) Ena gave notice to Minnie Caldwell that she would be returning from Lytham St Annes by sending her one of her hairnets through the post and in Episode 1520 (11th August 1975) she gave an unhappy Tricia Hopkins one to wear to keep her hair rollers in place.
Within the production, Violet Carson had to wear three hairnets at once to ensure that the mesh showed up on the television cameras. This was demonstrated in Episode 305 (13th November 1963) when Ena took one off when discussing her hair with Valerie Barlow and showed that there were more beneath. This meant that there were plenty of them to send to fans or to give out as competition prizes and such items are regularly resold to the present day.
Outside of the character of Ena, the unhappy staff in Underworld were made to wear hairnets for several weeks by manager Danny Baldwin in June 2004 but he soon relented to keep the peace and countermanded the order.