Ancient Greek Female Hairstyles: A Journey Through Time

Have you ever wondered how women in ancient Greece styled their hair? Unlike today, exploring the history of hairdressing reveals fascinating insights into their culture and values. Hair, along with clothing, was a vital element in expressing personality and style. Since time immemorial, people have dedicated time to hair care routines, and the ancient Greeks were no exception.

The Art of Hairdressing in Ancient Greece

In ancient Greece, hairdressing was considered an art form. Natural hair colors were favored, and elaborate hairstyles were common. The goal was to create a cohesive and unified look, where the hairdo complemented the outfit.

Early Styles: Long and Flowing

In the earliest times, Greeks, both men and women, wore their hair long. Homer frequently refers to them as "long-haired." The Spartans maintained this practice for centuries, with boys cutting their hair short until puberty, after which they allowed it to grow long.

Athenian Customs: A Rite of Passage

The Athenians had a different custom. They wore their hair long in childhood but cut it off when they reached puberty. This cutting of the hair was a solemn act, attended with religious ceremonies. The hair was often dedicated to a deity, such as a river-god. Upon reaching manhood, Athenian men would again let their hair grow.

Common Hairstyles and Adornments

Popular hairstyles included flat hairdos, often tied back just above the neck. Finely and diligently braided strands were a characteristic feature, lavishly decorated with headbands, circlets, and other accessories. In fact, ancient Greece saw more hair adornments than any other period in history.

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• The Korymbos: In ancient times, Athenian females wore their hair rolled up into a kind of knot on the crown of the head.
• Coiffures: Heads of females were covered with a kind of band or a coif of net-work.
• Sphendone: A broad band across the forehead, sometimes made of metal or leather adorned with gold. It was also called stlengis and appears to have been much the same as the ampyx.
• Kekryphalos: The most common kind of head-dress for females, divided into the three species of kekryphalos, saccus, and mitra.
• Cecryphalus: A caul or coif of net-work, corresponding to the Latin reticulum.
• Sakkos: Covered the head entirely like a sack or bag, made of various materials, such as silk, byssus, and wool.
• Mitra: A broad band of rich cloth of different colors, wound around the hair. It was originally an Eastern head-dress, comparable to the modern turban.

Hair Color

Black hair was the most frequent, but blonde hair (xanthē komē) was the most prized. In Homer, heroes like Achilles and Ulysses are represented with blonde hair.

The Athene Hairdressing Academy and the Calamistrum

Greece was home to the first Athene Hairdressing Academy, where hair was curled for the first time. Hairdressers used red-hot rods called calamistrum to transform straight hair into waves, making curly hair very popular. Curls were often left loose or partly pinned to the top of the head.

Hair Accessories

Headbands, diadems, coronets, headscarves and sfikotires (clips / loops) were used to create the various styles, as well as hair additions and fenakes (wigs). Bronze and golden spirals were used for fasting and decorating the hair.

The Anademata, Sphendone, and Kekryphalos

Women of Greek antiquity knew in the arrangement of their hair that, unlike the men who cut it, they wore long to achieve a great variety. Veils of light or precious fabric, ribbons of various colors, flowers and fragrant ointments were often used in artistic hairstyles.

• Anademata or Anadesmai: A simple, narrow band that held the hairstyle together. Similar bands (called nimboi) were also wound around the forehead to make it smaller, since a low forehead was considered a sign of beauty.
• Sphendone: Wide in the middle, it narrows towards the sides, like the slingshot from which it gets its name. Often the Sphendone was also folded backwards with the wide end, which then summarized the hair like a net. Then this band was called Opisthosphendone.
• Kekryphalos: The net, made of gold and silk threads, held the hair together at the back.
• Sakkos: Completely closed and hood-nicely pulled over the head. It was a colourfully striped piece of fabric which, like the cap of the Egyptians, perhaps served as protection against the sun’s rays, or was worn to protect the hairstyle. Often the sakkos also has the shape of a pointed cap, which is also worn by men.
• Petasos: Outside the home, especially on journeys, women and men alike used the Petasos, which had been handed down by the Thessalians, a broad-sprung white felt hat, which hung down on ribbons on the back, if one did not want to put it on.

Hairstyles in Different Periods

• Archaic Period: In the Archaic period hair flowed freely.
• Classical Period: In the Classical period hair styles became more complex; some of them appear on the small heads of the figurines found at the Playground. Another version of this hair style is called peponoeidis (melon-like) because its deep parallel ‘grooves’ resembled those of a melon. Very often curls were left hanging freely around the forehead in the shape of knots or bell clappers, creating the style known as tettix.
• Hellenistic Period: The most impressive hair style of the Hellenistic period was the herakleion amma (knot of Hercules), which was associated with good fortune and love.

Ancient Hair vs. Modern Hair

In antiquity, the art of hairdressing was developing rapidly. We can find the beginnings of many hairdos that are popular nowadays. A lot of hairstyles that were made in ancient Greece are still worn today, yet their versions are frequently a little bit reinvented. Still, the similarities are numerous. Alike ancient people, we also take care of our strands and we want them to look neat, we beautify the hair. Similarly to the ancient, we reach for hair oils to condition hair, gift it with shine and protect against the sun.

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tags: #greek #female #hairstyles #history

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