{"id":357,"date":"2016-09-13T08:32:47","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T07:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/?p=357"},"modified":"2016-09-12T07:59:17","modified_gmt":"2016-09-12T06:59:17","slug":"shaving-romans-and-facial-hair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaving, Romans and Facial Hair"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/&amp;t=Shaving, Romans and Facial Hair' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Shaving, Romans and Facial Hair%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/&amp;title=Shaving, Romans and Facial Hair' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/&amp;title=Shaving, Romans and Facial Hair' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>A Culture of Shaving<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Grooming was fundamental for the creation of a Roman. Hair was cut and combed \u2013 it is one of the main features of statues of famous emperors. Like cleanliness obtained by going to the baths, grooming created by a barber was an essential element in what it was to be a Roman. It would appear that this applied to both males and females in ancient Rome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">The emperor Augustus was one of those Romans, who shaved every day and paid special attention to his appearance, something that can be seen in the many statues that survive of Rome\u2019s first emperor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.58.26-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-364 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.58.26-AM.png\" width=\"684\" height=\"830\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.58.26-AM.png 684w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.58.26-AM-247x300.png 247w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.58.26-AM-660x801.png 660w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 684px) 100vw, 684px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">In the film, <em>Four Sisters in Ancient Rome <\/em><a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RQMgLxVxsrw\"><em>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RQMgLxVxsrw<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>you can spot the torturer going to the barber in the Subura early on in the film. This blog looks at the grooming of males, for the reason that most publications on hairdressing connect this Roman practice to female hair and, thus, omitting a major cultural practice. It might also be said that the favouring of female hairdressing may reflect our own social biases. Yet, it needs to be recognised that female hairstyles could be far more complex than those of males.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Hairstyle and hair-cutting is still associated with gender division today, leading one writer to call the Barbers\u2019 Shop \u2018the last male space\u2019 <a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/www.spectator.co.uk\/2013\/08\/the-last-male-space-why-old-fashioned-barbers-are-booming\/\">http:\/\/www.spectator.co.uk\/2013\/08\/the-last-male-space-why-old-fashioned-barbers-are-booming\/<\/a>. For female hairstyles in ancient Rome, see this film that introduces the subject <a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1Ev5QIYOJyQ\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1Ev5QIYOJyQ<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">In ancient Rome, barbers had not always existed. Varro made this point clearly by observing its proof in the fact that very old statues featured beards and Pliny was to suggest that barbers were only introduced in 300 BC. Thus, our concept of the shaved Roman face did not stretch back into the myths of time and, as can be seen on the Ara Pacis in Rome \u2013 Aeneas had a beard. The contrast is striking with the images of Romans, such as Augustus, of whom Pliny the Elder (<em>Natural History <\/em>7.211) never neglected the razor and shaved every day. A feature of Roman grooming that was traced back by Pliny to Scipio Aemilianus, who died in 129 BC. Like so much of what we see as typically Roman, shaving was introduced by barbers, Greeks, brought to Rome from Sicily.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.36.53-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-359 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.36.53-AM.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2016-09-12 at 7.36.53 AM\" width=\"888\" height=\"710\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.36.53-AM.png 888w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.36.53-AM-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.36.53-AM-768x614.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.36.53-AM-660x528.png 660w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 888px) 100vw, 888px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Hairy Youths<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Children took up their toga of adulthood, when they were between 14 and 16 years old, but their facial hair continued to set them apart from most adults. It seems apparent from a relatively small number of references (Ovid <em>Tristia <\/em> 4.10.58; <em>Palatine Anthology <\/em>6.161) that young males did not shave and were associated with a downy beard until they were in their early twenties; when the first shaving of their beard was marked by a dedication of the hair to a goddess, such as by Nero to Jupiter (Petronius <em>Satyrica <\/em>29; Suetonius, <em>Nero<\/em> 12; Censorinus <em>On Birthdays<\/em> 1.10).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">There were in fact three types of young men, who could be defined by their facial hair:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Those who had dedicated their first beard<\/strong> \u2013 such as Octavian who shaved his beard for the first time in 39 BC at the age of 23 years of age (Dio 48.34.3). It was convenient prior to this date to associate himself with the god without a beard \u2013 Apollo (other gods were characterised by their beards \u2013 Neptune\u2019s was blue and Mercury\u2019s was blond.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Those who were growing their first beard<\/strong> &#8211; who were associated with a misdemeanours (Juvenal <em>Satires <\/em>166) and were perhaps the runners or <em>Luperci <\/em>at the Lupercalia \u2013 Augustus insisted that they should not be <em>inberbes <\/em>(unbearded).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Those who had smooth cheeks<\/strong> \u2013 one of whom we find in Apuleius\u2019 <em>Metamorphoses <\/em>(9.22.5) as the miller\u2019s lover \u2013 who was both an adulterer and sexually attractive to men.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>From Rustic Beard to Urban Grooming<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Martial in quite a number of his Epigrams refers to hair, beards and grooming (e.g. 2.17, 9.27, 11.58, 12.59) that allow us to see the variation in Romaness from the visitor to Rome from the countryside with a beard to the fully groomed males of Rome \u2013 with their body hair carefully removed with tweezers. A feature that would produce some of the sounds recorded by Seneca (<em>Letters <\/em>56) staying close to a bath-house. It allowed the Romans to also develop a contrast between their own culture of grooming and that of the Romans of the past, who had beards. Equally, the appearance of hair \u2013 groomed through to unclean was a clear marker of status.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.39.16-AM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-360\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.39.16-AM.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2016-09-12 at 7.39.16 AM\" width=\"918\" height=\"476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.39.16-AM.png 918w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.39.16-AM-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.39.16-AM-768x398.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/files\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-12-at-7.39.16-AM-660x342.png 660w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 918px) 100vw, 918px\" \/><\/a><strong>Exercise: <\/strong>take a look at this short film to see what male hairstyle from the ancient world you find the most attractive <a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iYbJ7i8X47M\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iYbJ7i8X47M<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Bad hair days and their meaning<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\"> In a society, where the appearance of the body was seen to reveal the state of mind of an individual \u2013 men grew beards and their hair, when they were in a deep crisis. Augustus, on hearing of the news of the defeat of Varus and loss of the legions in Germany, simply let his beard and hair grow for months \u2013 as well as famously bashing his head against a wall and shouting that Varus should give him back the lost legions (Suetonius <em>Augustus <\/em>23). Similarly, when Caligula\u2019s sister died, he also did not shave for days (Suetonius <em>Caligula<\/em> 24). Both Augustus and Caligula, by the appearance of their hair, showed their distress and appeared close to madness \u2013 something that is also found in the <em>Aeneid <\/em>(1.319 or 6.48)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Gender and hair care in ancient Rome<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #ffffff\"> The <em>tonsor<\/em> or barber might work in the street or from a shop. They did not just cut hair and shave beards, but also trimmed finger and toe nails, removed unwanted body hair and made wigs. These seem very modern activities, but as Janet Stephens points out we need to avoid anachronisms and should not expect Roman hairdressing technologies to be the same as those found today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">The whole subject of ancient hairdressing is riven with complexity, not least because there was a whole technical language involving pins, needles, threads and so on. Interestingly, Varro (<em>On the Latin Language <\/em>5.29.129) associates the words of hairdressing with a female toilet-sets (<em>mundus<\/em>). Yet, we know that males developed hair that was curled with similar equipment. Yet our sources, particularly Festus and Isidore of Seville, suggest that equipment was specifically for female hair that is associated with sewing with a needle and thread.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">The gendering of the equipment is also matched by a Roman concept that fastidiousness over the body\u2019s hair was a sign of effeminacy that is found at its most cutting in Martial\u2019s <em>Epigrams <\/em>(e.g. 2.62). Yet, there was a fine line between being masculine and simply unkempt. Men might remove hair from their armpits, but regarded removing hair from their legs as a step towards effeminacy (Seneca <em>Letters <\/em>114.4). Ovid in the <em>Art of Love <\/em>(1.505-524) offers advice to men don\u2019t overdo the curling and avoid hairpins \u2013 this he sees as the grooming associated with women and effeminate men.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Instead, Ovid recommends that men make themselves attractive to women by ensuring that: their hair and beards should be trimmed by an experienced barber, their body should be bronzed from working out on the Campus Martius, their shoes should be the right size rather than too big, their toga should fit well and not be stained, their fingernails should be clean and not too long, hair should not protrude from their nostrils, teeth need to be free of plaque, their breadth should not smell, and their armpits should not smell like those of a goat. You have to wonder how many people in Rome did not do these things and were the inspiration for Ovid\u2019s list of recommendations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Exercise: <\/strong>can you use Ovid\u2019s advice to see if Lucius and others followed this guidance in the film <em>A Glimpse of Teenage Life in Ancient Rome? <\/em> <a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=juWYhMoDTN0\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=juWYhMoDTN0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\"><strong>Further Reading<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Elizabeth Bartman (2001) \u2018Hair and the Artifice of Roman Female Adornment\u2019, <em>American Journal of Archaeology<\/em> 105: 1-25.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">John Englert and Timothy Long (1972) \u2018Functions of Hair in Apuleius\u2019 <em>Metamorphoses\u2019<\/em>, <em>Classical Journal <\/em>68.236-39.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Mary Harlow and Ray Laurence (2002) <em>Growing Up and Growing Old in Ancient Rome: A Life Course Approach, <\/em>Routledge: London pp.72-75. <a style=\"color: #ffffff\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.co.uk\/books?id=aDvM81NIackC&amp;pg=PA65&amp;source=gbs_toc_r&amp;cad=3#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\">https:\/\/books.google.co.uk\/books?id=aDvM81NIackC&amp;pg=PA65&amp;source=gbs_toc_r&amp;cad=3#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Martin Kilmer (1982) \u2018Genital Phobia and Depilation\u2019, <em>Journal of Hellenic Studies <\/em>102: 104-112.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Janet Stephens (2008) \u2018Ancient Roman Hairdressing: on (hair)pins and needles\u2019, <em>Journal of Roman Archaeology <\/em>21: 111-32.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Jerry Toner (2015) \u2018Barbers, barbershops and searching for Roman popular culture\u2019, <em>Papers of the British School at Rome <\/em>83: 91-110.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff\">Craig Williams (2010) <em>Roman Homosexuality<\/em>, 2<sup>nd<\/sup> edition, Oxford University Press, pages 139-144.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/&amp;t=Shaving, Romans and Facial Hair' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Shaving, Romans and Facial Hair%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/&amp;title=Shaving, Romans and Facial Hair' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/&amp;title=Shaving, Romans and Facial Hair' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Culture of Shaving Grooming was fundamental for the creation of a Roman. Hair was cut and combed \u2013 it&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/2016\/09\/13\/shaving-romans-and-facial-hair\/\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Shaving, Romans and Facial Hair<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40877,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[152656],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40877"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":365,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lucius-romans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}