Really Vintage Hair

During one day a week, we have someone that cleans the apartment and I am forced to find something to do in the big city of Rome. For two hours. Poor me, right? Anyway, this week I decided to go to the Palazzo Massimo, which houses some beautiful statues of former emperors, draw-dropping mosaics, amazing wall paintings and a nice small jewelry collection.

The thing that intrigued me was the hairstyles on the women. This one above is slightly reminiscent of a 1910/1920 style, even though it was about 200 AD. I was instantly intrigued. Even better, the plaque that accompanied about 10-15 ladies talked directly about the hairstyles — it was perfect! This is the back of the head:

You can see the plait going up the back of the hair and I guess stops at the top of the head. This was the time period when many women were using hair extensions and wigs to jazz up their looks. Here is a woman with a wig...and what a wig it is:

Here is a side view of the same woman, who supposedly is Julia Domna, wife of Lucius Septimius Severus:

Here are some others that I thought were interesting (is this totally dorky, or what?!):

 

I believe this is Claudia Octavia (wife of emperor Nero), who sported the center front part with three row of tight curls on either side (which you can see in the top photo.)

Here is another woman (I should have written down names), but I want to say that this is...I should ask my husband. I am a bad former classist!

 

The interesting part of this hairstyle is it separated three parts on the front part of the head, loosely pulled back (perhaps curled) and then the back was braided and crowned the back/top of the head. You can see the braid better in the bottom photo. This was much earlier than the first two ladies, more like 30-50 AD.

Emperor Augustus' wife, Livia, sporting an early pompadour?

You can see that the hair from the front pomp is braided and is brought down the center part of the head and then wrapped around the bun in the back. Poor Livia, her face look a little worn.

This is the traditional look when I think of ancient Rome or Greece. Again, I don't know who this is, but I wonder if this was a much more laid back look? Although if someone had a statue made of themselves, I imagine it was more formal look. Does that make sense?

And just because I am a super dork, check out Brutus. He was pretty hot:

Ok, enough of my super dorkiness. Am I the only one that found this interesting??? It is okay, if so. I am comfortable in my dork-itude...if that is a word :)