Period Hair - Roman (753 BC - 410 AD)

To be able to start recreating this hairstyle, we must first learn about where it came from.

Ancient Rome began in the eighth century. It started from a small town in Italy near its central Tiber river. From this small town, it grew to cover most of Europe, Britain, northern Africa, Mediterranean islands and western Asia. (History, 2009). We mostly know Romans for their armies and wars, but did you know they built many roads and walls, that we now take for granted. They also built aqueducts to transport water to their cities. (Natgeokids, no date). They were quite the architects!

 

This particular hairstyle is from the Flavian Era of Ancient Rome, during “the reign of the Flavian emperors (Vespasian, AD 69–79; Titus, AD 79–81; Domitian, AD 81–96)” (Penelope.uchiago, no date). 

At this time, wealthy women would style their hair “in increasingly higher layers of ringlets and then braided and coiled in the back.” (Penelope.uchiago, no date). Examples of this can be seen by looking at the different statues from this era. 

 

Figure 1 - Bust of a Roman lady during the Flavian era (McManus, B.F. no date)

Figure 2 - Bust of a Roman lady during the Flavian era (McManus, B.F. no date)

Figure 3 - Bust of a Roman lady during the Flavian era (McManus, B.F. no date)

 

"On a day to day basis, how a Roman man or woman styled and maintained their hair was one of the strongest indicators of their place in society." (Lewis, S. 2016). This shows that the more extravagant the person wore their hair, the higher up in society they were.

It is possible that the Romans also used wigs to create these glamorous styles. "Some country slaves had their heads shaven and their hair was used to produce wigs for wealthy Roman women." (Tribunesandtriumphs, no date). This would explain how they would have enough hair for these styles. 

Figure 4 - Statue of a Roman lady during the Flavian era (Sherwoodhillmanor, no date) 

Setting the wig

To begin creating this style, a human hair wig was set with two rows of rollers at the front of the head directing towards the back of the head, and then one row in the opposite. 

Figure 5 - Human hair wig that was used (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 6 - Wig set into rollers (Brown, J. 2020)

The back of the hair was then pulled back into a ponytail, with a row of vertical rollers at the nape of the neck, and the ponytail divided into three plaits. 

Figure 7 - Back of the set wig (Brown, J. 2020)

The initial set was rather tricky as it had been a while since rollers had been used, due to restrictions caused by COVID-19. The wig was also brand new, so the hair was very soft, and had a lot of end points. The neatness could be improved greatly, and the ponytail is not centred, so this could use more practice.

Styling the wig

Once the set was taken out, the wig frame that had previously been made, was positioned between the opposing rollers. 

Figure 8 - Wig frame applied to the wig (Brown, J. 2020)

Next was to use the curls to create the detail on the frame. This was done by taking small sections and rolling them into shape. As seen above in figure 4, the curls are all the same size, so that was attempted to be recreated.

Figure 9 - First row of curl details (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 10 - Finished curl details (Brown, J. 2020)

The curls underneath are then brought up to add more detail to the back of the wig frame. A switch is added to the ponytail, braided and coiled. "The switch is a long and beautiful human hair extension." (Voguewigs, n.d)

Figure 11 - Final result (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 12 - Final Result (Brown, J. 2020)

Overall, this style is quite intricate, as the curls all need to be the same size and look very uniform. The wig was slightly hard to work with as it had not been used before, and had lots of endpoints, making it look messy.

Styling the wig - Attempt 2

A second attempt was tried at this style, and it came out better than the first. As can be seen in figure 13, 14, and 15, the set is much neater than before. The ponytail has also been separated into more plaits as this was done again at home, without a switch to add.

Figure 13 - Wet set, second attempt (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 14 - Wet set, second attempt (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 15 - Wet set, second attempt (Brown, J. 2020)

Styling the wig - Attempt 2

The styling was done the same as before, but with a better end result. The ponytail was still slightly off centre, however it was a lot better than the first attempt. This could still use some practice.

Figure 16 - Roman Styled, second attempt (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 17 - Roman Styled, second attempt (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 18 - Roman Styled, second attempt (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 19 - Roman Styled, second attempt (Brown, J. 2020)

Overall, this style is quite tedious to do, and can take a while to master, especially getting all the curls to be uniform. However, an improvement can be seen here and that's all that could be asked for. If this was tried for a third time, more time would be taken to centre the detailing at the back.

Final Images

Figure 20 - Roman Final Images (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 21 - Roman Final Images (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 22 - Roman Final Images (Brown, J. 2020)

Figure 23 - Roman Final Images (Brown, J. 2020)

-Jess

Reference list:

• 10 facts about Ancient Rome. (no date) Available from https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/history/romans/10-facts-about-the-ancient-romans/ [Accessed 18/09/2020]. 
• Ancient Rome. (2009) Available from https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/ancient-rome [Accessed 17/09/2020].
• Coiffure. (no date) Available from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/coiffure [Accessed 17/09/2020].
• Lewis, S. (2016) Roman Haircare. Available from https://coriniummuseum.org/2016/07/roman-haircare/ [Accessed 17/09/2020].
• The Flavian Lady. (no date) Available from https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/museums/flavianlady.html [Accessed 18/09/2020]. 
• Roman Hairstyles. (no date) Available from http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-clothing/roman-hairstyles.htm [Accessed 20/09/2020].
• Wig PRO The Switch Human Hair Extension. (no date) Available from https://www.voguewigs.com/the-switch-human-hair-extension-wig-pro.html [Accessed: 20/09/2020].

 

Bibliography:

• Adkins, L. & Adkins, R.A. (2014) Handbook to life in ancient Rome. New York, Infobase Publishing.
• Ancient Roman clothes, hairstyles and perfumes. (2018) Available from http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub369/item2069.html [Accessed: 22/09/2020].
• Badian, E., Saller, R.P. (2020) Ancient Rome. Available from https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Rome [Accessed 18/09/2020].
• Bartman, E. (2001) Hair and the artifice of Roman female adornment. American Journal of Archaeology, pp.1-25. 
• Cornwell, B. (no date) Caesar Haircut for Men - A timeless Roman Empire Hairstyle. Available from https://nextluxury.com/mens-style-and-fashion/caesar-haircut-for-men/ [Accessed 19/09/2020].
• Evans, J.K. (2014) War, Women and Children in ancient Rome (Routledge Revivals). Oxfordshire, Routledge.
• Flavian Hair. (2014) Available from https://strangewayes.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/flavian-hair/ [Accessed 17/09/2020].
• Gamble, J. (November 2015) Flavian Coiffure. Available from https://www.balteranyc.com/blogs/news/79288707-flavian-coiffure [Accessed 17/09/2020].
• John, H.D. (2013) Commerce and social standing in ancient Rome. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.
• Mark, J.J. (2009) Ancient Rome. Available from https://www.ancient.eu/Rome/ [Accessed 19/09/2020].
• The History of Wigs. (no date) Available from https://www.elegantwigs.com/history-of-wigs.html [Accessed 17/09/2020].
• Warner, M. (2015) No pain, no rogaine: hair loss and hairstyle in ancient Rome. Available from https://blogs.getty.edu/iris/no-pain-no-rogaine-hair-loss-and-hairstyle-in-ancient-rome/ [Accessed 17/09/2020]. 
• What caused the Flavian hairstyle for Roman women to be so different from previous and future styles? (2017) Available from https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/6nxakt/what_caused_the_flavian_hairstyle_for_roman_women/ [Accessed 20/09/2020].
• What was life like in Ancient Rome? (no date) Available from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zwmpfg8/articles/z2sm6sg [Accessed 19/09/2020].

 

Figures:

• Figure 1, 2, 3 - McManus, B.F. (no date) The Flavian Coiffure. Available from http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/flavian.html [Accessed 17/09/2020].
• Figure 4 - Sherwoodhillmanor (no date) Available from http://sherwoodhillmanor.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/flavianhair_origfront.jpg [Accessed 17/09/2020].
• Figure 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12  – Brown, J. (2020) York College.
• Figure 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 - Brown, J. (2020) Leeds.