Greco-Roman hairstyle

In the earliest times the Greeks wore their κόμη (hair of the head) long, and thus Homer constantly calls them κᾰρηκομόωντες (long-haired).

The Spartan boys always had their hair cut quite short (en chroi keirontes),[4] but as soon as they reached the age of puberty, they let it grow long.

[6] At a later time, the Spartans abandoned this ancient custom, and wore their hair short, and hence some writers erroneously attribute this practice to an earlier period.

A libation was first offered to Heracles, which was called oinisteria or oinesteria;[8] and the hair after being cut off was dedicated to some deity, usually a river god.

In ancient times at Athens the hair was rolled up into a kind of knot on the crown of the head, and fastened with golden clasps in the shape of grasshoppers.

Of these coiffures one was called kredemnos, which was a broad band across the forehead, sometimes made of metal, and sometimes of leather, adorned with gold; to this the name of stlengis was also given, and it appears to have been much the same as the ampyx.

These hairnets were frequently made of gold threads,[15] sometimes of silk,[16] or the Elean byssus,[17] and probably of other materials, which are not mentioned by ancient writers.

[18] Women with this kind of head-dress frequently occur in paintings found at Pompeii, from one of which the preceding cut is taken, representing a woman wearing a Coa Vestis (Coan cloth).

The women too originally dressed their hair with great simplicity, but in the Augustan period a variety of different head-dresses came into fashion, many of which are described by Ovid.

[32] One of the simplest modes of wearing the hair was allowing it to fall down in tresses behind, and only confining it by a band encircling the head.