A French hood is a type of hat or headdress. Women in Europe wore it in the 1500s. It had a stiff, crescent-shaped frame that fit over the head like a headband. The front and back sides of the frame had pearls, beads or other decoration on them. The headband was attached to pieces of cloth called lappets that either covered the back of the head and most of the wearer's hair or were flipped forward onto the head.