Hair

The A yrian monarchs are represented with beard elaborately plaited, and hair falling in ringlets on the shoulder, which may have been partly artificial, like that of the Persian monarchs, who, according to Xenophon, wore a wig. Both the hair and beard were dyed, and the eyes blackened with kohl, . ( Layard. ) The Egyptians kept the head shaved, and wore wigs and beard-boxes. The Hebrews generally wore the hair short, but the horse-guards of King Solomon “daily strewed their heads with gold dust, which glittered in the sun.” ( Joseph us. ) The ancient Greeks wore their hair long. The A then i ans wore it long in childhood, had it cut short at a solemn ceremony when they became eighteen years of age, and afterwards allowed it to grow, and wore it rolled up in a knot on the crown of the head, fastened with golden clasps ( crobylus, corymb us ). Women wore bands or coifs ( sphendone, kekryphalus, saccus, mitra ). Youths and athletes are represented with short hair. The favourite colour was blonde ( xanthus ); black was the most common. The ancient Romans also wore long hair; about 300 B.C. the practice of wearing it short came in ( cincinnus, cirrus ). The Roman women anciently dre ed their hair very plainly, but in the August an period adopted some extravagant fashions. Each of the gods is distinguished by his peculiar form of hair: that of Jupiter is long and flowing; Mercury has close curling hair, . The Danes, Gauls, and Anglo-Saxons wore long flowing hair, and the shearing of it was a punishment: when Julius Cæsar conquered the Gauls, he cut off their long hair. Among the early Frankish kings long hair was the privilege of the blood royal. From the time of Clovis the French nobility wore short hair, but as they grew le martial the hair became longer. François I. introduced short hair, which prevailed until the reign of Louis XIII., which was followed by the period of periwigs and perukes of Louis XIV. The variations from the Conquest to the last generation in England are so striking and frequent that each reign may be distinguished by its appropriate head-dre . (Consult Fairholt’s Costume in England, Planché’s Cyclopædia of Costume, .)