ORNATRIX HAIR PREPARING INSTANCES FREE

Compared with such sybaritic indulgence, present-day male grooming and cosmetics seem rather sad and lonely pursuits. Trendsetting was born, nursed into being by the 'ornatrix,' or servant hairdresser.įor their part, the men turned to the tonstrinae, or beauty salons, set up in Rome by expert Sicilian barbers. Such firm categories began to dissolve toward the end of the first century B.C., when Octavia, the sister of the Emperor Augustus, introduced style for style's sake.

ORNATRIX HAIR PREPARING INSTANCES FREE

Thus ringlets, kinks and ribbons as well as the coif itself differentiated free women from slaves, virtuous matrons from prostitutes, matres familias from priestesses. In the early days of ancient Rome, a woman's hair was dressed in a manner befitting her status. And gray hair could be covered up with black calf's blood cooked in fat.įor special occasions, prominent Egyptians would turn to wig workshops for some highly complex replacements and additions.Ĭurls and braids were initially popular with both men and women, although by the Middle Kingdom (1987-1640 B.C.) men were more inclined to opt for wigs that covered much of the forehead, hanging in heavy tresses on either side of the face, where they could be tucked behind the ears. Baldness was a no- no, to be remedied in its early stages by liberal applications to the thinning pate of lion, hippopotamus, crocodile, cat and snake fat, all mixed together. Take the art of hairdressing in ancient Egypt, for instance, where the search for beauty must have muted olfactory awareness. Although the Far East is curiously missing from the overall picture, there is still plenty of intriguing material on display. It comprises three sections: an archaeological and ethnographic overview of hairdressing a panorama of hairdos from the 15th to the 19th century and cut and color as a rebellious statement in the 20th century. How different peoples have marshaled unruly hair into expressions of beauty, style or symbolic representation is the subject of the exhibition 'Un Diavolo per Capello' ('A Devil in the Hair,' meaning a bee in the bonnet), showing through July 2 at the Archaeological Museum in Bologna. Remember those beauty salons of yesteryear? The beehive dryers crowning pink-faced women, scratchy curlers strapped to their heads, their ears puce with heat? About as comfortable as preparing for battle in a suit of armor in mid-July. The military connotation itself smacks of constriction.

It derives from the Latin 'cofia,' meaning helmet. A coif is the tight-fitting cap worn under a veil, as by nuns, or a white skullcap formerly worn by English lawyers.

BOLOGNA - Hairdressing offers ultimate proof of the adage that you must suffer to be beautiful.

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