Monday 5 February 2018

Historical Hairdressing - Joan Lennon

I've never had masses and masses of hair to experiment with.  And, as a mother of sons, I haven't had a lot of opportunity to play with other people's hair, either. (Two of them do have masses and masses of hair - they just don't trust me fiddling about with it.)  So I find Janet Stephens' videos on how to recreate hairstyles from archaeological and artistic evidence absolutely riveting.

Here are a few, to whet your historical hairdressing appetite (there are plenty more on Youtube):


Hairstyle of a young Roman girl 40 BCE, 
based on a relief sculpture 
in the Meseo Centrale Montemartini in Rome



Roman Orbis Comarum or Circle of Hair style,
late 1st century CE



15th Century CE hairstyle, 
based on images in the Nuremberg Chronicles

Now, if I can just get my boys to sit still ...


Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.
Walking Mountain.

4 comments:

Susan Price said...

Fascinating Joan I had no idea there was such a thing as a 'hair archaeologist' but think it's pretty wonderful that there is.

And your sons are so selfish, not to let you experiment with their hair!

Penny Dolan said...

Wonderful peep into the making of those hairstyles! No wonder a skilled slave or servant was a valuable resource,

However, the drum music they'd used wasn't exactly relaxing, was it? I was reminded of how I feel when guests are about to arrive and I haven't even begun putting on my face.

Lynne Benton said...

What a fantastic post, Joan. I had no idea how long it took to work on those complicated styles. Very useful info, so thank you for posting.

Joan Lennon said...

Thanks for your comments - I hadn't realised some of those styles were sewn into place like that! Undoing them must have been tricky.