Roman hairstyles
Hairstyle fashion in Rome was ever changing, and particularly in the Roman Imperial Period there were a number of different ways to style hair.
Styles are so distinctive they allow scholars today to create a chronology of Roman portraiture and art; we are able to date pictures of the empresses on coins or identify busts depending on their hairstyles.
In other words, having a complex and unnatural hairstyle would be preferred to a simple one, because it would illustrate the wealth of the wearer in being able to afford to take the time to style their hair.
[11] The palla supposedly signified the dignity and sexual modesty of a married woman, but due to its encumbering nature as a veil, there has been much debate whether it was only worn in public by the aristocracy, or if at all by working women of lower classes.
Due to the nature of hair and the relatively wet climate in the upper reaches of the Roman Empire, there are very few examples of wigs that survive to this day.
Emperor Lucius Verus (r. 161 – 169 AD), who had natural blond hair, was said to sprinkle gold dust on his head to make himself even blonder.
[20] The galerus could be in the form of a fillet of woolen hair used as padding to build an elaborate style, or as a toupee on the back or front of the head.
Further, glue could be used to affix it to the scalp or alternatively, as a bust from the British Museum illustrates, the toupee could be braided into the existing hair.
[21] Janet Stephens is an amateur archaeologist and hairdresser who has reconstructed some of the hairstyles of ancient Rome, attempting to prove that they were not done with wigs, as commonly believed, but with the person's own hair.
[25] Although exactly how these marble wigs were attached is unknown, the likely difficulty of changing the 'wigs' effectively would have probably put many women off choosing a detachable and reattachable bust in the first place.
[28] To prevent graying, some Romans wore a paste at night made from herbs and earthworms; in addition, pigeon dung was used to lighten hair.
In order to dye hair black, Pliny the Elder suggests applying leeches that have rotted in red wine for 40 days.
[29] Dyeing hair red involved a mixture of animal fat and beechwood ashes[30] whilst saffron was used for golden tones.
Emperor Domitian regulated barbershops, prohibiting razors from being drawn in the middle of a dense crowd, and barbers from practicing in public places.
[47] Flavian and Antonine hairstyles differed greatly between men and women in real life and in the physical appearance of hair for male and female sculptures.
In ancient Rome hair was a major determinant of a woman's physical attractiveness; women preferred to be presented as young, and beautiful.
On the other hand, most men in the Flavian period of the late first century CE have their hair trimmed short on the crown like the portrait of Domitian for example (pictured) that implied an active role in society, while a woman's connoted passivity.
[49] Furthermore, whether Roman portraits faithfully translate the actual hairstyles worn by the sitters is problematic because of the scarcity of surviving hair which leaves little basis of comparison.
[51] Despite being from the East, she adopted a wig to project a familiar Roman guise and particularly in order to imitate her predecessor, Faustina the Younger.
[52] In 2012 Janet Stephens's video Julia Domna: Forensic Hairdressing, a recreation of a later hairstyle of the Roman empress, was presented at the Archaeological Institute of America’s annual meeting in Philadelphia.
[52] As time progressed, Severan hairstyles switched from the finger-waved center parting style, to one with more curls and ringlets at the front and back of the head, often accompanied by a wig.
However, men who lacked access to private hairdressing and shaving services or those who preferred a more social atmosphere went to a barbershop (tonstrina).
The barbers usually shaved the customers faces with iron razors and applied an aftershave with ointments that may have contained spider webs.
Among the Patrician class and Equites, a clean shave and a closely trimmed head of hair would become the rule in Rome beginning in the second century BC.
Scipio both sought to emulate the style of Alexander the Great, who shaved to prevent enemy soldiers from grabbing his beard in battle,[56] as well as to signal to the conservative Roman senate that new ways of thinking were needed to defeat Hannibal.
[57] Among those Roman men who wished to keep some facial hair, it was acceptable to shave one's mustache but not the remainder of one's face, a style then popular in Greece and seen as Hellenic.
Numismatic evidence demonstrates Emperors and other prominent figures wearing beards during periods following the death of a close family member or military defeat.
The Claudians were one of the oldest families in Rome, and could trace their lineage back to the first days of the Republic, when longer hair was in style and favored especially by the Patrician class.
Every emperor for the next 100 years wore a full beard, with the exception of Caracalla's co-regent Geta, who only ruled for 11 months alongside his brother and was murdered at 22.
One literary source, the Historia Augusta, claims that Hadrian wore a beard to hide blemishes on his face, although most historians consider the book's reliability dubious.
