Sidelock of youth

Only in a few cases was it gathered with a clasp at its point of origin and ended with a spiral but left as a loose lock of hair in between.

The Horus lock, like the sidelock, was braided from three strands of hair, which seem to terminate in a claw-like shape and are connected with the goddess Mafdet in Egyptian mythology.

In accordance with the mythological precedent, the children of the king, as his designated heirs, received the Horus lock as an indication of the special duties that were bound up with that status.

In iconography, royal children were depicted naked and sucking on their finger, with their heads shaved entirely bald except for the sidelock.

With the beginning of the New Kingdom, the lock of youth achieved central significance as a special symbol of the princes and princesses of the 18th Dynasty.