Where did Roman blondes come from, and why was blonde hair initially a disgrace

Historians know that in the Roman Empire, there was a fashion for blondes. Northern Europeans usually claim that Roman women dyed their hair blonde or wore blonde wigs because they were jealous of foreigners. They say the Romans considered people of Nordic blood superior to them in their physical and moral qualities. This is not the case. Yes, in the Roman Empire, blonde hair coloring was popular (as it is now in European countries). However, the root cause of this fashion is much more complicated and interesting.

From priestesses of love to queens

According to the famous Encyclopedia of Hair, compiled by Victoria Sherrow, an expert on the subject, in ancient Rome, blonde hair was initially associated with fallen women, and the ladies of easy virtue were blonde. Initially, they bleached their hair or wore matching wigs.

However, the situation gradually began to change. When Greek culture reached Italy, the legionaries began to bring slaves and enslaved women from Gaul. Slaves from Scandinavia began to be brought to ancient Rome more often. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M .For the full article. Roman men liked their appearance, and their wives, wanting to look like beautiful foreigners, began to wear blonde wigs themselves, which were made from the hair of these very slaves. Gradually, the stigma attached to blond hair began to be forgotten. The blonde was no longer associated with the priestesses of love.

The famous anthropologist Desmond Morris described those times ironically and frankly. “The work of the Roman prostitutes was carefully organized. They were licensed, taxed, and legally required to be blonde,” says the scientist. – The third wife of Emperor Claudius, the unbridled nymphomaniac Messalina, was so obsessed with the idea of spontaneous sex with strangers that she secretly left the house at night in a fallen woman’s wig and wandered around the city in search of adventures. Her lovemaking was so intense that, according to rumors, in the heat of passion, she often took off her blonde wig, returning to the royal chambers in an overly recognizable form.”

According to the anthropologist, other Roman fashionistas soon began to imitate the Empress in her desire to be blonde, and the legislators could no longer stop this trend. Their law on prostitution in blonde wigs collapsed under this wave of universal fashion and ceased to exist.

However, as Morris notes, the association with depravity and unrestrainedness, currently associated with blonde hair, has persisted over the centuries, periodically appearing as an opposite, contrasting with another association – the image of blonde virgin innocence.

So, Roman women began to dye their hair lighter tones. For this, they most often used infusions made from saffron flowers. However, other remedies were more “reliable” and, simultaneously, more harmful to the body.

Interestingly, after applying bleaching agents, Roman women exposed their heads to the sun to give their hair a golden or red hue. As the ancient Phoenicians did, wealthy Roman women could afford to sprinkle real gold dust on their hair, which gave it a golden hue. The hair was also sprinkled with pollen and crushed yellow flower petals.

Unfortunately, some of the dyes and bleaches used in those days caused such serious damage to the hair that women eventually went bald. And now they had to wear wigs not independently but out of necessity. Those whose hair did not fall out completely but thinned used false hairpieces to increase volume and mask thin and balding areas.

What about the dark hair? They remained highly esteemed in Rome but were associated with something more natural and ordinary. If you look at an older period, the early Romans preferred to be brunettes. They often used dark colors to hide gray hair and restore its natural color. As expert Victoria Sherrow explains, historians who study Ancient Rome have hundreds of recipes for bleaching or dyeing hair.

Alas, the dark paint recipes were also aggressive. For example, one was a mixture of ashes, boiled walnut shells, and earthworms. In another recipe for dark paint, the ingredients were, in addition to boiled nutshells, charred eggs, leeks, and leeches. By the way, lead-coated combs soaked in vinegar, which the Romans wore on their heads, left a dark coating on their hair. Over time, the color became darker: with repeated comb use, a sufficient amount of lead salts remained on the hair.

If we talk about wigs, then, according to archaeologist Elizabeth Bartman, the Romans brought black hair from India for them. It is worth noting that the Romans had no equal skill in making wigs. They were made from human hair, and according to modern experts, the level at which this work was carried out is now practically unattainable. So, the Romans had dark hair due to trade and light hair due to European captivity.

According to Bartman, the Romans, like modern people, often used combinations of light and dark shades in hair coloring. Here, we no longer talk about the desire to look like a European but rather about extravagance: such hairstyles were decorative. An example of such extravagance is a blonde braid woven into dark curls. Similar hairstyles were very popular.

The Roman civilization, of course, was excellent, highly developed and invincible. Still, some of the legislative initiatives and mores of those times that existed in it are puzzling to modern people. Read about the most ridiculous ancient Roman laws and customs, which look strange for a great empire.