Kika (kichka) is a woman’s headdress with horns in old Russia, a kind of povoinik (soroka without horns, kokoshnik with high front).

Headdress and its lower part taken together were called kika. The lower part was made of laminated linen. As the lower part covered hair, therefore it was also called volosnik.

There were different types of front element of kichka: in the form of a spade (lopatoobraznye kichki), in the form of a horse hoof (kopytoobraznye kichki), in the form of horns directed upwards, upwards- backwards (horned kichki), in the form of a circle or a semicircle (kotelkoobraznye kichki). Such forms of the front element were made with the help of an inset. The inset was carried out of hard material, for example, birch bark. To add to that, glass beads pozatylnik was put on from behind, smart soroka was put on above.

Later kika became an attribute of the wedding gown and married woman attire because in contrast to the maidenly crown it covered hair completely.

In this connection kika got the name “the crown of married life”.

Kiki were worn predominantly in Tul’skaya, Ryazanskaya, Kaluzhskaya, Orlovskaya and in the other southern provinces. In the XIX^th century Orthodox clergy began persecuting women who preferred to wear kika. The clergy made peasant women wear kokoshnik.

As a result of this by the beginning of the XX^th century this headdress had been substituted for povoinik or shawl everywhere, only rarely it was possible to see kika in the southern provinces of Russia. In Voronezhskaya region kichka remained a part of the wedding gown till 1950-ies.

The headdress consists of four details: dontse, ochelie, kuliska and a string. Dontse is made of patterned fabric of beige — brown color which is peppered with blue threads. Also, there is embroidery on cardboard with spun gold and silver threads on the birch bark in technique “vprikrep” on the dontse. Dontse is puckered and is sewn to ochelie. Ochelie consists of embroidered with spun gold galloon, insets from patterned fabric with embroidery and cotton fabric strips of gray color. Ochelie is fringed with black fabric on the bottom.

Kuliska consists of two details — upper patterned fabric of beige — brown color and lining. The black string passes through kuliska.

Before restoration kika was dirty, deformed; there were losses of spun gold on the surface.

After restoration the headdress was cleaned, dust was disposed, losses and tears were strengthened, gaps in embroidery was filled, the threads which were come off were strengthened.