04.5 – Haircut
*Disclaimer: I am not a hairdresser*
Page-by-Page Notes
Page 1
Val looks at himself in a mirror made of polished silver.
(Left) Silver mirror, 1st century CE, silver, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/248003.
(Right) Mirror depicted in “Monumental sarcophagus punctuated by niches with a knight in the center”, made in Asia Minor and imported to Rome, Musei Capitolini Centrale Montemartini.
A pair of shears/scissors
A pair of ancient Roman scissors (forfex), c. 201-500 CE, bronze, https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co86747/ two-pairs-of-ancient-roman-scissors.
Val’s comb is one-sided; double-sided combs (one side with wider teeth and another finer, more tightly packed side, probably for removing lice) are common.
Double-sided combs (one side with wider teeth and another finer, more tightly packed side, probably for removing lice)
Comb with case, 1st century CE, boxwood, Vindolanda, Roman Britain, now in the Vindolanda Museum. https://www.vindolanda.com/comb-with-case; https://x.com/OptimoPrincipi/status/1695468752802869520/photo/1.
Small Bone Comb, 1st century CE, bone, Pompeii, Archaeological Park of Pompeii. https://pompeiicommitment.org/en/inventario/body-care-objects/.
Other comb examples:
Bone comb from Pompeii, c. 10-79 CE. https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co147010/comb-bone-roman-from-pompeii-10-79ad.
Comb, wood, Fayum, Roman Egypt. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA37414
Woman looking in a mirror as she dresses (or undresses) her hair, 1st century CE, fresco, from the Villa of Arianna at Stabiae (Castellammare di Stabia), National Archaeological Museum of Naples. https://www.flickr.com/photos/carolemage/17392924485/.
Val considers selling his leftover locks of hair (blond)
Lucius Verus had golden curly hair, which he sprinkled “gold dust on his head so that his hair might become brighter and blonder” (Grant, 1994)
Records show people lightened their hair color and/or used wigs made from the hair of conquered peoples (e.g., Germany, India) (Ovid, Amores, I.XIV.45-46) (Suetonius, Otho, XII) (Bartman, 2001)
Page 4
Val’s new hairstyle is inspired by Antinous; I intended to keep the anastole (ἀναστολή, a hair curl at the middle/front of the hairline, popularized by and most prominent in Alexander the Great’s portraits).
Bust of Antinous, 130-138 CE, marble, found at Patras, National Archaeological Museum of Athens, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bust_of_Antinous_%28NAMA%29.
Clothing/Hairstyles
Tunics and Togas
Fragment of a Fresco Panel with a Meal Preparation, fresco, c. 1st century CE, https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103TPX.
Convito/Banquet scene with inscribed words, 1st century CE, fresco, House of the Triclinium Pompeii (now in Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli), fresco (fourth style), https://isaw.nyu.edu/exhibitions/pompeii-in-color/objects/banquet-scene
Hairstyles (men) (in progress)
Giovane con rotolo, 1st century CE, Pompeii, Museo archeologico nazionale di Napoli. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giovane_con_rotolo.JPG.
Women’s clothing
(Layers: supparus, tunic, stola, palla)
Fresco of a woman with a tray from the Villa San Marco, Stabia Archaeological Museum, ancient Stabiae, reconstruction by Stephen Chappell, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fresco_of_a_woman_with_a_tray_from_the_Villa_San_Marco,_ancient_Stabiae.jpg
Reading of the rituals of the bridal mysteries (first fresco), Villa dei Misteri, Pompeii, fresco (second style), c. 60 BCE, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_fresco_Villa_dei_Misteri_Pompeii_001.jpg.
Hairstyles (women)
Nodus
A hairstyle parted in three sections, with one roll of hair over the forehead, and the two remaining sides tied into a bun behind the neck. The style was (re)popularized during the late Republican and Augustan periods by Augustus' wife Livia and Octavia (Stephens, 2013).
Referenced in 03 – Silphium Stealers (ep. 01) when Val and Marina comment on each other’s (informal) hairstyles.
Tutulus
A hairstyle worn primarily by the materfamilias (female head of a household), created using three to four parted sections to create a bun at the top of the head (Olson, 2008) (Stephens, The Tutulus Hairstyle: Ancient Roman Hairdressing, 2013).
Dyes
“A woman will dye her hair with the juice of some German herb; and the artificial colour becomes her better than the natural one.” (Ovid, Ars Amatoria, 3:158-64) (mid-1st century BCE)
“Soap, too, is very useful for this purpose, an invention of the Gauls for giving a reddish tint to the hair. This substance is prepared from tallow and ashes, the best ashes for the purpose being those of the beech and yoke-elm” (Pliny, NH, 28.51) (1st century CE)
“I see some (women) turn (the colour of) their hair with saffron. They are ashamed even of their own nation, (ashamed) that their procreation did not assign them to Germany and to Gaul: thus, as it is, they transfer their hair thither)! Ill, ay, most ill, do they augur for themselves with their flame-coloured head, and think that graceful which (in fact) they are polluting!” (Tertullian, De Culti Feminarum, 2:6:1) (mid-3rd–early 4th c. CE)
Bibliography
Bartman, Elizabeth. “Hair and the Artifice of Roman Female Adornment.” American Journal of Archaeology 105, no. 1 (2001): 1–25. https://doi.org/10.2307/507324.
Cleland, Liza, Glenys Davies, and Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones. Greek and Roman Dress from A to Z. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis, 2007.
Grant, Michael. The Antonines: The Roman Empire in Transition. United Kingdom: Routledge, 1994.
Kaufman, David B. “Roman Barbers.” The Classical Weekly 25, no. 19 (1932): 145–48. https://doi.org/10.2307/4339078.
Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd and Glenys Davies. “The Body.” In A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in Antiquity. United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.
Nicolson, Frank W. “Greek and Roman Barbers.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 2 (1891): 41–56. https://doi.org/10.2307/310326.
Olson, Kelly. Dress and the Roman Woman: Self-presentation and Society. United Kingdom: Routledge, 2008.
Radicke, Jan. Roman Women’s Dress: Literary Sources, Terminology, and Historical Development. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110711554
Stephens, Janet. “Ancient Roman Hairdressing: On (Hair)Pins and Needles.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 21 (2008): 110–32. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1047759400004402.
Stephens, Janet. “Ancient Roman Hairdressing: On (Hair)Pins and Needles.” Journal of Roman Archaeology 21 (2008): 110–32. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1047759400004402.