Romans had black hair

mode of wearing. The Greeks of the oldest times regarded long hair in a man as an ornament, and only out it as a sign of mourning. Among the Spartans it was usual for boys to wear their hair short, and to let it grow when they attained the age of ephibi. At Athens, down to the Persian Wars, the hair was worn long, and fastened up into a knot (krobylos) by a needle in the form of a grasshopper. In later times, however, the Athenian boys had their hair cut when they became ephebi, and dedicated it to some deity, generally to Apollo, or the gods of their rivers, or the Nymphs, who were regarded as the protectresses of youth. But a free Athenian citizen did not wear his hair very short, or he would have been mistaken for a slave, who would be obliged to do so. Down to the time of Alexander the Great a full beard was regarded as a mark of manly dignity. After this it became fashionable to shave the face quite smooth, and only philosophers wore beards, to mark their antagonism to the general custom. The Romans too, in ancient times, wore long hair and beards. It was not till 300 B.C., when the first hair-cutter (tonsor) came to Rome from Sicily, that they began to cut both. The younger Scipio is said to have been the first Roman who shaved every day. In course of time it became the fashion to make a festival of the day when the beard was first shaved. Young men, however, would sometimes wear a neatly cut beard, and only men over forty would shave. To let the beard grow was a sign of mourning. In the first half of the 2nd century A.D. the emperor Hadrian brought full beards into fashion again; and if we may trust the coins, it continued among his successors, with few exceptions, until Constantine. From his time, however, the emperors appear almost without exception without a beard. The beard was removed not only with razors and scissors, but with tweezers and hair-destroying compositions. The hair of the head was artificially treated with oils and hot irons. From the middle of the 2nd century A.D. to the time of Constantine it was the established custom to cut the hair quite short, after the fashion of athletes and Stoic philosophers. As Greeks and Romans usually went bareheaded, good manners required particular attention to be paid to the hair and beard. Hence a great demand arose for barbers, part of whose business it was to trim the nails, remove warts, and so on. The barbers' shops were much frequented, and became the favourite resort for people in quest of news and gossip. The Greek women, to judge by existing monuments, followed an extraordinary variety of fashions (fig. 1, a-h). The point seems generally to have been to cover the forehead as much as possible. One of the commonest modes of wearing the hair was to draw it back over the head and ears, and let it simply bang down, or fasten it in a knot with a band and a needle. The bands of cloth or leather, wound round the front of the head to fasten the front and back hair, were often made to support a pointed metal plate called stephane. This was a broad strip of metal resembling a diadem. and richly ornamented. It sometimes appears as an independent ornament, especially on the images of goddesses (fig. 1, c, d, f, g). There were several kinds of fastenings, by which the hair was artistically arranged; for instance, the sphendone, so called from its likeness to a sling, being broad in the middle and narrow at the end. The hair was often worn in nets (kekryphalos), bags (sakkos), and handkerchiefs wrapped round it in the shape of a cap. Greek ladies were early acquainted with the use of artificial appliances, such as fragrant oils, curling irons, and the like. The Roman matrons, in ancient times, tied up their hair with a fillet ( vitta) in a tower-shaped top-knot (tutulus); but unmarried women wore their hair in as simple a style as possible. It was, in general, merely parted, or fastened up in a knot on the neck, or woven in tresses arranged round the front of the head. Brides wore their hair in a peculiar fashion, arranged in six braids, and wrapped in a red handkerchief. To attract attention by an unusual coiffure was thought to be in bad taste. But, towards the end of the republican age, the old-fashioned simplicity in dressing the hair disappeared, as it did in other matters of dress. Foreign arts, especially those of Greece and Asia, found more and more acceptance. During the imperiiael period, when the arrangement of the hair formed a most important part of a lady's toilet, no rule was observed but what individual caprice and varying fashion dictated, and the wildest and most tasteless fashions were introduced. False hair came into use, as well as ointment and curling irons. False hair was used sometimes in making up the high coiffures at one time in fashion, and sometimes for perruques. Light colours were the favourite ones for perruques, and hence a regular trade was set up in the hair of German women. Sometimes, following a Greek fashion, Roman ladies tried, by artificial means, to give their own dark hair a fair or a ruddy complexion. A corrosive soap, imported from Gaul, was specially used for this purpose. Besides ribbons and fillets, needles, often richly ornamented, of ivory, bone, bronze, silver, and gold, were used to fasten the hair. To protect the hair, Roman ladies wore nets (reticulum), often of gold thread, kerchiefs (mitra), and caps (calantica), made of various materials, sometimes of bladders. In wealthy houses male and female slaves, trained by special masters, were kept for dressing the hair. (See the engravings.)


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