The ancient Egyptian hairstylist was expected to be able to style hair, as well as cure baldness, make hair (of a rival) fall out, get rid of head lice and cover up the signs of aging by dyeing grey hairs. Ancient Egyptian clients would also require more mundane tasks, such as cleansing and scenting the hair.
Tinting
The Egyptians used natural dyes which are known to coat and partially penetrate the hair's 6–14 layers of cuticles. These natural semi‐permanent tints do not leave roots as they wash out of the hair, although a virtually permanent tint may be achieved with frequent application. The main colour the Egyptians would probably have wanted to achieve was black, emulating the dark brown colour of their youthful hair. One recipe was an ointment made of juniper berries and two unidentified plants kneaded into a paste with oil and then heated. The natural blue‐purple colouring agent in the plants would rub off on the hair, while the astringent properties of the juniper would...
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Notes
- 1.
Natron was a salt (sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate) that was used in the mummification process to dry out the body of the deceased in order to assist in its preservation.
- 2.
Ushabtis were small figurines made from wood or clay, or occasionally stone or ivory. Often the ushabtis were depicted with tools, or in some act of work. They were buried with Egyptians, so that, if the deceased were called to work in the afterlife, the ushabti would take the deceased's place performing the task.
Fig. 1 
Guests at the banquet with scent‐cones on their heads, Tomb of Nakht (TT52) (author's own photograph).
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To find out more about the author's work please visit the Website of the Egyptian Cultural Heritage Organisation: http://www.e‐c‐h‐o.org
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Tassie, G.J. (2008). Hair in Egypt. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9703
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