Hair

I also saw a picture on my socials this past weekend of the BACK of this head

That image is burned into my minds eye. I didn’t save it to share with you but the complexity of the braids was really epic and wonderful. I’m not up on the latest on discussions of Roman hair technologies, but it used to be everyone thought the complex designs were wigs and then one day someone woke up and realized if women with high texture hair engaged in sewing of hair to preserve styles (read, traditional Black styling) that this could have be the case in antiquity. Everyone seems pretty certain they didn’t have lots of bobby pins. I love bobby pins. If you’ve seen any pictures of me with retro hair it is all possible because of bobby pins.

When I started my post doc work everyone believed you could date coins based on the empresses’ hairstyles esp the Faustinas but then the deep variation among the provincial coinages make that very problematic at least outside Rome. That’s another conversation I’m not up on. It just hangs out in the back of my brain eager for the right moment to explore one more time.

I had a former mentee who thought she was heading to the PhD to talk about hair as a form of female communication in the Roman world, but then with a little exposure to the joys of the Hellenistic and global politics she swerved in that direction. As I got into this field because of Polybius after thinking I was going to be an art historian, I cannot blame her, but I still sometimes want to chat hair. Hair dressing. Combs. Barbers. Depiliation techniques. All of it. Just for fun.

Anyway. I’m full of grief and guilt. We had to say good bye to our very difficult cat, much beloved, a dumped stray who walked into our lives 3 years ago and felt like a gift from the universe, even an apology for other shitty things at that time. I miss my cat intensely. And no I don’t want to talk about it so I’m posting about hair. Don’t send cat pictures. I’m not ready.