And it’s true—ancient Roman hairstyles continually evolved to suit the ideals of their times. By looking at ancient coins and sculpture, we can see these changing trends and how hairstyles were more than just fashion, but conveyed age, wealth, and status.
Generally speaking, early Roman imperial hairstyles aimed for simplicity in both men and women: short locks of neatly combed hair for men and symmetrical longer locks in women, often held in place as a bun or with hairpins and other accessories. These were likely influenced by the earlier figures on Roman coins, which featured gods and goddesses as well as ancestors and kings.
Figures on early Roman coins
Roman, possibly minted in Rome
Roman, minted in Rome
Roman; minted in Rome
By the late first and early second centuries, the look had changed and had become dominated by more elaborate coiffures. As is true today, time is money, and the wealthier you were, the more time you had to spend getting your hair styled. By the mid-second century, men displayed a fuller mass of hair, often with larger curls and a beard, inspired by portraits of philosophers.
Ancient Roman
Ancient Roman
Women, on the other hand, wore ever more dramatic curls and towering, elaborate hairstyles. The time and assistance needed to achieve such styles, along with the use of lavish ornaments, like the gem-encrusted diadem, or crown-like headband, on a Portrait Bust of a Woman, would convey luxury and wealth. Veils, diadems, and even sewn-in hairpieces offered further adornment.
Roman, minted in Rome
Ancient Roman
Roman, minted in Rome
Into the third century, close-cropped hairstyles became popular with militaristic emperors, while imperial women continued to wear time-consuming though slightly toned-down styles, such as organized braids pulled back up around a center part, a style also executed in women’s wigs.
Roman, possibly minted in Siscia
Roman, minted in Rome
As with today, both men and women desired a full head of hair and were thus sensitive to visible baldness. Efforts to hide receding hairlines included the use of wigs and headwear like wreaths. The ancient Roman author Suetonius records how, because of his thinning hair, the Roman emperor Otho (reigned Jan.–April 69) “wore a wig so carefully fashioned and fitted to his head, that no one suspected it.”
Suetonius also vividly details the sensitivities of Julius Caesar in this regard, writing “his baldness was a disfigurement which troubled him greatly, since he found that it was often the subject of the gibes of his detractors. Because of it, he used to comb forward his scanty locks from the crown of his head, and of all the honors voted him by the senate and people, there was none which he received or made use of more gladly than the privilege of wearing a laurel wreath at all times.”
Wigs and artfully placed wreaths
Roman; minted in Rome
Roman; minted in Rome
Women were equally judged and scrutinized. The narrator Ovid’s Amores (I.14) playfully teases his mistress about losing her hair over a poor dye job:
I used to warn you, not with so much care,
And waste of ointment, to adorn your hair:
That warning now is useless, you have none,
And with your hair that trouble too is gone.
Where are the silken tresses, which adown
Your shoulders hung? A web was never spun
So fine, but, ah! those flowing curls are gone.
That’s one reason for the popularity of wigs, like this one, worn by the Empress Julia Domna, who was married to Emperor Septimius Severus. It’s a sign of wealth and social standing.
Roman, minted in Rome
Like many other aspects of the ancient Roman world, what we know about hairstyles and fashion are heavily focused on the nobility and the elite. Their appearance, especially on ancient coins, allowed fashion trends to circulate widely around the Mediterranean so that others could see what was in vogue. Intricacies of hairstyle were also captured in later paintings recalling the classical past.
How closely a portrait realistically depicts the subject is always up for debate, but one thing is certain: a good stylist is always worth their weight in gold.
—Elizabeth Benge, collection manager, Arts of Africa and Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
Video
Check out this video to see how modern stylists have recreated Roman hairstyles.
But there are not more acorns on an oak tree, more bees on Hybla, or wild beasts on the mountains, than there are modes of doing a woman’s hair, and new ones are invented every day.
—Ovid (Ars Amatoria III)
