How Would You Construct This Roman Hairstyle?

[BritishBraider]

I'm trying to re-create some of the ancient hairstyles, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas about how to make this one? Any thoughts would be brill!
http://www.cutezangels.com/Pictures/Tips%20Image/Roman%20hairstyles.jpg

:)

[Stevy]

I'm trying to re-create some of the ancient hairstyles, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas about how to make this one? Any thoughts would be brill!
http://www.cutezangels.com/Pictures/Tips%20Image/Roman%20hairstyles.jpg

:)

Ooh, that's pretty. I like the horizontal banding effect on the bun. No idea how to do it though!

[Pallas]

The twisted bands are made by making a kind of roll on the side of the head and twisting it along to the other side, pinning it down. Same on the other side, but manouver the twist a tad higher.

As for the bun itself, I think you could go with a ton of different ways to mage your bun as big and full as possible?

[Monsterkitti]

I couldnt resist a go but reckon my hair is far too short for that kind of volume :) Please excuse the awful photo, being lazy and using camera phone :)

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=1651&pictureid=69465


I left a couple of sections loose from the biggest bun I could manage, made the bun, secured with 2 sticks. Then I wrapped the section round the bun, then twisted and ran it over the bun before tucking the end in, same with the other.

Also I didnt have a scarf but I like the twists acrosss the bun, I'll try that in my regular do's. Thanks for the idea :)

[anrems]

I'm not of any help, but this is a gorgeous hairstyle that I'd love to attempt! I'll be keeping an eye on this thread!

MonsterKitti, I like what you did! Very cute!

[StormVixen]

OOoohh... I love that style... I'm into Celtic and Pre-Celtic tho (so shouldnt like Ancient Romans lol), I wonder if there are any historically correct (or almost) Celtic styles about... hmmm...

[mellie]

Wow, that is the coolest thing I've ever seen!!

[amoulixes]

So cool, I hope someone can teach us to do this. I would LOVE to wear this style!

[DulceCandy]

looooooove it! but dont know how to do it.

[Liluri]

OOoohh... I love that style... I'm into Celtic and Pre-Celtic tho (so shouldnt like Ancient Romans lol), I wonder if there are any historically correct (or almost) Celtic styles about... hmmm...

This (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=14032) thread might be of interest to you :)

If I had mad hair skills, I'd look at trying to section my hair into 4 parts one at the base being bigger 2 at the sides being smallest. I'd do one small infinity, a large figure eight over it. I'd not be too neat with the ends, no tucking under but leaving them on top so you couldn't necessarily see that the bulk of the buns were a figure eight and infinity. Then just twist the 2 side pieces and lay over the bun in a large winding shape across the buns pinning them in. I don't know how good that description is, but I know if I tried to illustrate it, things would not work out for me. I still might try it later though.

[Starfilly]

Whoa. I need to try this sometime, that style looks incredible! Liluri, your version sounds pretty reasonable to me.

[vindo]

Pretty Idea!:)

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_b2U-2Uet0mw/S8Z7h9gjswI/AAAAAAAAGt0/CGl_S6Qre50/s800/100CANON14.jpg

This is a Renaissance Bun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18xKY5ZDG4s) made with a long big clip. One part was left out to be coiled over the bun zig zag.

[BritishBraider]

Pretty Idea!:)

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_b2U-2Uet0mw/S8Z7h9gjswI/AAAAAAAAGt0/CGl_S6Qre50/s800/100CANON14.jpg

This is a Renaissance Bun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18xKY5ZDG4s) made with a long big clip. One part was left out to be coiled over the bun zig zag.
Wow, thats a wonderful rendition!

[Merlin]

I rather hate to be pedantic here, but really we don't have a lot of an idea how women in the Roman period did their hair. What we have are illustrations of women from a Roman context who may be shown under highly unlikely conditions. Let's face it, if you're having your image created by some bloke with a lump of marble and a hammer you can pretty much get your hair looking however you want it to ('photoshop to length' anybody?), and to be honest, how many blokes really understand how their female significant others achieve their hairstyles anyway. These folks quite plausibly went down to the workshop, got to the top of the head and thought along the lines of "how did my sister do her hair yesterday? oh yeah, there were sort of twiddly bits at the back..."

The only bit of 'genuine' Roman hairstyling I've ever seen comes from a grave somewhere near York (it's in york museum) - whoever she was had her hair pulled up in a ponytail, twisted round a few times, coiled into a bun and pinned - just like loads of women do today!

[FrannyG]

MonsterKitti and Emi, I LOVE your styles. Awesome. :blossom:

[Bethie]

MonsterKitti and Emi, I LOVE your styles. Awesome. :blossom:

What Franny said :D

[chotee]

MonsterKitti and Emi, I LOVE your styles. Awesome. :blossom:

Me too...love both the hairstyles...

[Leela613]

I agree with FrannyG :). MonsterKitti and Emichiee, your hairstyles are amazing :agree:

[vindo]

Thank you! I will definetly wear that more often from now on, with gladiator sandals of course :D

[EtherealOde]

The first thought that came to my mind was "first, grow your hair out for 15-20 years..."

The sheer silk scarf looks nice with it too, not too flashy yet delicate and feminine. I wonder if there is some kind of hair rat under all of that to add bulk, because that was a huge mass of hair.

[eternallyverdan]

I gave this one a try today, because I've had my hair in rag curls and down, with a fairly stiff breeze. I figure that's about as closing to teasing as I'm ever going to get.

What I did was made 5 or 6 very loose, messy cinnamon buns with the ends sticking out, and then kept adding Amish pins until everything stayed still. I made my crosspieces too thin so that they're pretty much invisible, and my scarf is too wide, but I think that this turned out quite nicely, and that it could look much closer to the original with some refinement:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/forevagreenearth/RomanHairstyle.jpg

[vindo]

The first thought that came to my mind was "first, grow your hair out for 15-20 years..."

The sheer silk scarf looks nice with it too, not too flashy yet delicate and feminine. I wonder if there is some kind of hair rat under all of that to add bulk, because that was a huge mass of hair.

I'm pretty sure there is, the hair seems to be draped over something like in my re-construction where the hair falls over the clip.

[StephanieB]

False hair, rats, extensions - all were historically authentic from at least 1000 C.E. - and quite possibly a lot earlier, but I know to that date, at least. It's highly doubtful that such 'embellishments' were brand-new ideas in various parts of the world circa 1000 C.E.

However - we don't have much in the way of close-up examples of actual extant women's hairstyles from that far back... as Merlin said, we only have carvings and statuary and artwork - all highly suspect to be akin to our Photoshopping today.

What textual descriptions we have are almost exclusively from men, almost all of whom most assuredly had no idea how hairstyles were constructed. (just as is true today)

In such cases, most reproductions and/or reenactor-types go with whatever ends up looking like what artwork or text descriptions are extant, and what seems plausible to us nowadays. BUT every decade or two, what seems plausible to us at the time becomes ridiculously obsolete as we learn more and more. We once thought that medieval perople didn't bathe or wash their hair much - we know better today. We once believed that medieval people spiced their meat so higly because it was rotten and they were attempting to make it more palatable - but we know now that that just isn't true at all. The now-silly list goes on and on and on... and hairstyles are no different than any other aspect of our forbears' lives.


Alo, as an extra point - when one talks about 'ancient Roman women's hairstyles' - one must clarify what class of women one is referring to: That makes a world of difference! Rich women from powerful families might have had their hair dresssed by their slaves daily, but certainly women who did manual labor did not do more than the most basic braids, buns, and the most basic of headgear to confine their hair. Sloppily piled up hair like the buns seen in this thread were much likelier to be working women's (not that kind of ww - lol) hair that was partially falling down (out of it's confines) than that of a woman who did no manual labor - especially in the climate of Rome.

[birthmarkie]

I will definitely try this, or Emi's renaissance bun. I like the boost in volume and tendrils!