Hair in Ancient Greece

 Hair in Ancient Greece

Hair in Ancient Greece, or lack of it, as hair styles were one the most significant identifiers of individuals as any society. Greeks took particular care of their hair because they believed it was the seat of life and strength and that the various hair styles either increased this strength or had an apotropaic effect, i.e. they warded off the evil.

It was therefore only natural that hair styles were featured in art and literature. The oldest accounts are to be found in the works of Homer where, for the first time, one encounters the dedicating of hair to deities and the dead.

Hair styles in Ancient Greece

In the Amfissa Archaeological Museum are exposed over 800 little heads of female figurines of the 3rd and 2nd century B.C. They were found in the “Playground” area of Amfissa. Their hair styles are particularly interesting. Bronze and golden spirals were used for fasting and decorating the hair. They give us an great opportunity to observe the way in which women arranged their hair.

In general women are always presented as having long hair, apart from slaves who had short hair for reasons of hygiene and social discrimination.

• In the Archaic period hair flowed freely. They were held in place by a coronet, but by the late 6th century BC it was gathered behind the head and folded around a band to form the krovylos (bun).

• In the Classical period women appear to have preferred to gather their hair in a bun, known as the “knidian hair-style“, named after the Knidian Aphrodite, a statue by Praxiteles.

• In the Hellenistic period hair styles became more complex; some of them appear on the small heads of the figurines found at the Playground. Knidian hair-dressing continued to be very popular but from 250 BC onward small curls were left hanging around the neck.

Another version of this hair style is called peponoeidis (melon-like) because its deep parallel ‘grooves’ resembled those of a melon. Very often curls were left hanging freely around the forehead in the shape of knots or bell clappers, creating the style known as tettix. Of particular interest is the lambadion, a type of bun with loose ends which conjured up images of torch flames or a horse’s tail.

However, the most impressive hair style of the Hellenistic period was the herakleion amma (knot of Hercules), which was associated with good fortune and love. All the hair was brushed forward to form a kind of bow or butterfly.

Headbands, diadems, coronets, headscarves and sfikotires (clips / loops) were used to create the various styles, as well as hair additions and fenakes (wigs). Also common was the use of garlands of fruit and ivy leaves, but mainly from the plant elichryson (immortal) which was believed to bring serenity.

• In Roman times hair styles became extremely complex and pretentious, named after the empresses or patrician ladies who set the trend.

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