Through the Eras

FashionRelief of hairdresser Inu. BROOKLYN MUSEUM OF ART, 51.231, CHARLES EDWIN WILBOUR FUND. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION.period. Men also wore wigs pushed farther forwardthan they had during the Old Kingdom, indicating thata low forehead was considered attractive in this period.While early in the New Kingdom, men continued towear the same styles that had been popular in the MiddleKingdom, men’s styles became more elaboratearound the reign of Amenhotep II (1426–1400 B.C.E.).Artists portrayed a hairstyle with two different styles ofcurls: one in triangular-shaped wings, or lappets, at theside of the head and one down the back. Scholars sometimescall it the lappet wig because of these overhangingfolds of hair. These details made hairstyles appearmore complex and suggest that men paid more attentionto their hair in this period of relative peace andprosperity.WOMEN’S HAIRSTYLES. Women also could weareither a short or a long hairstyle in the Old Kingdom.The ideal was heavy ringlets that could just frame theface, or a longer wig that included hanks of hair overeach shoulder and down the back. Scholars call thisstyle “tripartite” because the wearer divided her hairinto three sections. Tripartite hairstyles could beshoulder-length or longer. Often a fringe of natural hairwas displayed over the forehead when wearing a tripartitewig. Almost all women wore the same styles regardlessof class. During the Middle Kingdom, womenadded short, curled wigs to the possibilities for coiffure.Royal women also began wearing the so-calledHathoric wig, named for the goddess Hathor. This styleresembled the way Hathor wore her hair when depictedon the capital of an architectural column. The thick,wavy hair came forward over the shoulder and curled,sometimes around a ball. Natural hair remained visibledown the woman’s back. At the beginning of the EighteenthDynasty (1539–1292 B.C.E.), royal women continuedto wear the Hathoric wig and the now ancienttripartite wigs. When human women wore this style indepictions, the artists decorated it with additional rowsof horizontal ringlets. Goddesses, however, wore theirhair in the most conservative fashion, recalling the OldKingdom style. Upper-class women also added a fulllengthstyle called enveloping. Rather than dividing thehair into three parts as in the tripartite wig, an envelopingstyle presented the hair as a continuous massenclosing both shoulders and the back. In the EighteenthDynasty, enveloping styles generally reached theshoulder blades. Women’s hair was a component oftheir sexual allure. Images of young women on cosmeticarticles such as mirrors or the objects called cosmeticspoons, have especially elaborate hairstyles. In The Storyof Two Brothers, written in the Ramesside Period(1292–1075 B.C.E.), the scent of a woman’s hairprompts a man to kill her husband because he desires98 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)