Hair, or lack of it, is one the most significant identifiers of individuals in any society. In Antiquity, the power of hair to send a series of social messages was no different. This volume covers nearly a thousand years of history, from Archaic Greece to the end of the Roman Empire, concentrating on what is now Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Among the key issues identified by its authors is the recognition that in any given society male and female hair tend to be opposites (when male hair is generally short, women's is long); that hair is a marker of age and stage of life (children and young people have longer, less confined hairstyles; adult hair is far more controlled); hair can be used to identify the 'other' in terms of race and ethnicity but also those who stand outside social norms such as witches and mad women. The chapters in A Cultural History of Hair in Antiquity cover the following topics: religion and ritualized belief, self and society, fashion and adornment, production and practice, health and hygiene, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and social status, and cultural representations.

How have our attitudes to hair changed over time? In what ways have new technologies influenced hair-related practices and beliefs? Is hair just about fashion or does it express social, spiritual, and cultural meanings? In a work that spans nearly 3,000 years these ambitious questions are addressed by 60 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. With the help of a broad range of case material they illustrate trends and nuances of the culture of hair in Western societies from ancient times to the present. Volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make the set as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the reader the choice to gain an overview of a period by reading one volume, or to follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.

Hair, or lack of it, is one the most significant identifiers of individuals in any society. In Antiquity, the power of hair to send a series of social messages was no different. This volume covers nearly a thousand years of history, from Archaic Greece to the end of the Roman Empire, concentrating on what is now Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Among the key issues identified by its authors is the recognition that in any given society male and female hair tend to be opposites (when male hair is generally short, women's is long); that hair is a marker of age and stage of life (children and young people have longer, less confined hairstyles; adult hair is far more controlled); hair can be used to identify the 'other' in terms of race and ethnicity but also those who stand outside social norms such as witches and mad women. The chapters in A Cultural History of Hair in Antiquity cover the following topics: religion and ritualized belief, self and society, fashion and adornment, production and practice, health and hygiene, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and social status, and cultural representations.

Hair, or lack of it, is one the most significant identifiers of individuals in any society. In Antiquity, the power of hair to send a series of social messages was no different. This volume covers nearly a thousand years of history, from Archaic Greece to the end of the Roman Empire, concentrating on what is now Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Among the key issues identified by its authors is the recognition that in any given society male and female hair tend to be opposites (when male hair is generally short, women's is long); that hair is a marker of age and stage of life (children and young people have longer, less confined hairstyles; adult hair is far more controlled); hair can be used to identify the 'other' in terms of race and ethnicity but also those who stand outside social norms such as witches and mad women. The chapters in A Cultural History of Hair in Antiquity cover the following topics: religion and ritualized belief, self and society, fashion and adornment, production and practice, health and hygiene, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and social status, and cultural representations.

How have our attitudes to hair changed over time? In what ways have new technologies influenced hair-related practices and beliefs? Is hair just about fashion or does it express social, spiritual, and cultural meanings? In a work that spans nearly 3,000 years these ambitious questions are addressed by 60 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. With the help of a broad range of case material they illustrate trends and nuances of the culture of hair in Western societies from ancient times to the present. Volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make the set as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the reader the choice to gain an overview of a period by reading one volume, or to follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.

How have our attitudes to hair changed over time? In what ways have new technologies influenced hair-related practices and beliefs? Is hair just about fashion or does it express social, spiritual, and cultural meanings? In a work that spans nearly 3,000 years these ambitious questions are addressed by 60 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. With the help of a broad range of case material they illustrate trends and nuances of the culture of hair in Western societies from ancient times to the present. Volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make the set as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the reader the choice to gain an overview of a period by reading one volume, or to follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.

How have our attitudes to hair changed over time? In what ways have new technologies influenced hair-related practices and beliefs? Is hair just about fashion or does it express social, spiritual, and cultural meanings? In a work that spans nearly 3,000 years these ambitious questions are addressed by 60 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. With the help of a broad range of case material they illustrate trends and nuances of the culture of hair in Western societies from ancient times to the present. Volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make the set as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the reader the choice to gain an overview of a period by reading one volume, or to follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.

How have our attitudes to hair changed over time? In what ways have new technologies influenced hair-related practices and beliefs? Is hair just about fashion or does it express social, spiritual, and cultural meanings? In a work that spans nearly 3,000 years these ambitious questions are addressed by 60 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. With the help of a broad range of case material they illustrate trends and nuances of the culture of hair in Western societies from ancient times to the present. Volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make the set as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the reader the choice to gain an overview of a period by reading one volume, or to follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.

In the period 1450 to 1650 in Europe, hair was braided, curled, shaped, cut, colored, covered, decorated, supplemented, removed, and reused in magic, courtship, and art, amongst other things. On the body, Renaissance men and women often considered hair a signifier of order and civility. Hair style and the head coverings worn by many throughout the period marked not only the wearer's engagement with fashion, but also moral, religious, social, and political beliefs. Hair established individuals' positions in the period's social hierarchy and signified class, gender, and racial identities, as well as distinctions of age and marital and professional status. Such a meaningful part of the body, however, could also be disorderly, when it grew where it wasn't supposed to or transgressed the body's boundaries by being wild, uncovered, unpinned, or uncut. A natural material with cultural import, hair weaves together the Renaissance histories of fashion, politics, religion, gender, science, medicine, art, literature, and material culture. A necessarily interdisciplinary study, A Cultural History of Hair in the Renaissance explores the multiple meanings of hair, as well as the ideas and practices it inspired. Separate chapters contemplate Religion and Ritualized Belief, Self and Society, Fashion and Adornment, Production and Practice, Health and Hygiene, Sexuality and Gender, Race and Ethnicity, Class and Social Status, and Cultural Representations.

How have our attitudes to hair changed over time? In what ways have new technologies influenced hair-related practices and beliefs? Is hair just about fashion or does it express social, spiritual, and cultural meanings? In a work that spans nearly 3,000 years these ambitious questions are addressed by 60 experts, each contributing their overview of a theme applied to a period in history. With the help of a broad range of case material they illustrate trends and nuances of the culture of hair in Western societies from ancient times to the present. Volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make the set as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the reader the choice to gain an overview of a period by reading one volume, or to follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume.