Not New Hair!

My fifth grade teacher used to make much of us kids when someone got a haircut, gleefully greeting us with "New hair!" if we came in cut or curled or the like.  Today, let's take a look at *old* hair - and styling.  From the link here, it's possible to find not only ancient Roman earring styles (DIY!), but also still more forensic archaeological hairstyling theories and demonstrations.  My personal favorite, ironically made impossible for me just today by a *new* hair(cut), is the Aphrodite Knot, and Agrippina the Younger's is also very nice (if also for longer hair than I have , as though I've kept the overall length, I'm now all full of layers).  Be sure to look a the "you might also like" tiles if you're interested.

Thank you, Leila, for leading me to this place by way of the Vestal Virgin hairstyle link!

These links, by the way, lead mostly to somewhat long-for-YouTube instructional vids for very intricate and ancient hairstyles.  At 9 to 17 minutes, they will mostly be of interest to the *very* curious, or those with a particular interest in hairstyles from the ancient Roman, Renaissance, and 18th/19th-century Western eras, or cosmetology and its history.  As many require hair from waist to even THIGH length, these aren't going to be for most of us - yet the ideas are fascinating and could be adapted.

One aspect of many of these is how common actual sewing is in hairstyling.

Having long hair myself, and a brother who carves, I've long used hair sticks (what Janet Stephens, the hairstyling archaeologist refers to as bodkins).  When men or women who would never use this method ask me how I make them "stick", I usually note that it's something like sewing - use the point to pick up hair on one side, cross over the twist of hair to be secured, then pick up another section on the other side.  Hairstick styles generally depend on some similar form of "stitch" or others.

The extent to which I've used stitching in my hairstyling is NOTHING compared to the actual needle and thread methods theorized/shown in Ms. Stephens' demonstrations, and it's kind of gratifying to watch clear, simple instructionals on methods I never would have figured out, but which both fascinate me and also bear out some of the nebulous ideas I've had about "how it's done" ... or how it *was* done, once upon a time.

Image found at:  tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com
(c) trendstop

I might have to get into some of the ribbon-lacing and woven hairstyles I've known about and studied a little bit in the past.  Some of it not such distant past (or, perhaps, actually the future ...):