Bed Head: A Note on the Durability (and Subsequent Potential “Reuse”) of Women’s Hairstyles in Antiquity

Abstract

Basing her arguments on a modern recreation of women’s elaborate hairstyles worn in ancient Rome, Janet Stephens proposed that such styles were sewn into place, and therefore were durable and comfortable enough to potentially sleep in and wear for successive days. What has been lacking is an ancient attestation to this as actual practice for women in antiquity. I propose that this can be found in Clement of Alexander’s The Instructor. This not only likely demonstrates the veracity of Stephens’ theory, but also has other important implications for the study of female hairstyles. First, this can potentially serve as a welcome corrective to ancient male derogatory rhetoric on the purported excessive time and resources devoted to female hairstyling. Second, this can also perhaps elucidate the lived experience of real women engaged in self-fashioning and the status that was thought to accompany this in antiquity—not only in that such styles may have been available to more women than previously thought, but also in that those who utilized more than one slave to style their hair were showcasing all the more their status, as likely only one attendant was actually required to achieve the desired coiffure.