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If you have the opportunity to come in person to Calgary and take in our courses taught at our school, you'll hear more information, on the Celts and the Vikings, not shared here, as well as live music. We'd love to hear your stories too!!

We Northern European Celts and Vikings are waiting for you.



Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Ancient Celtic & Viking Hair Styles and Decoration

Now we always see in many depictions of Celts and especially the Vikings, that they were filthy and uneducated.  This is far from the truth.  In fact wer have much proof from archeology grave sites and many ancient writings from persons not at war with the Celtic tribes.

Celts even had particular written laws when it came to bathing and personal grooming.  They even took the time to create elaborate hairstyles.  The Danes we know took baths on Saturdays and combed their hair and changed their clothes often and an English cleric complained of this because they would also intice their own women.  Another Arabian scribe writes that the people of the Norway have a serving girl bring a basin of water every morning where they wash their face and hair then clear their nose in it and split.  The only reason this author is disgusted is because in their culture they did not bath as often as they could only bathe in running water. 

Lets consider more evidence if we can;

The Celtic tribes of England were written about by Ceasar but the negative things we must take with a grain of salt as he wanted their land and he needed to justify his wishes to his people by making them sound uneducated and barbaric.  The people there claim, on the strength of their oral tradition, to be aboriginal.  They were immigrants of Belgic tribes and most of these people even retained their original tribal names.  They have bronze and gold coins, iron ingots of fixed weights, imported copper and used tin as well.  From these things we can tell that they were very educated people.  These tribe had laws about everything and even thought it unlawful to eat geese, hares and fowl as they were to be raised for pleasure and amusement.  He goes on to say how they wore skins, dye their bodies with woad, and have long hair but shave their entire bodies except head and upper lip.  Long hair we know was worn by the freemen or commoners who owned land.

As for their hygiene, it was the Celts themselves who introduced soap to the Romans.  The Celts bathed frequently and it is even written in the law books that their warriors bath prior to the evening meal along with clothing washing laws are detailed from nobles to common foster children.  They even discuss brushing ones hair daily, fingernails and makeup.  Some reports say they invented soap.

The Vikings too, had to wash their hands prior to meals.  In some of the stanzas written it also speaks of bathing.

Many bone combs have been found or ones of ivory.  Also other grooming tools such as ear spoons, tweezers ad razors.

neither the Celts nor the Vikings had one specific hairstyle.  This too was based on the tribe itself mostly.  In Vikings the salves had their hair short and the others had medium to long hair.  The tribe that Pliny speaks of apparently the men bleach their hairmore than the women.

The Gaulish tribes reddened their hair and of course the Germans close to this area.  One carving, in a Normqan grave, shows an almost goatee style of beard with a really short bowl cut on top of head.  Some statue carvings show bangs, others not.  Some with waxed look pointed mustache ends curved upwardss.  A bronze head of odin also shows this.  Many vikings in fact have full moustaches and clean shaven chins.  For Viking women, they seemed to favour the blonde hair.  The women servants also wore short hair.  Some say the married women wore a cap over their locks and had to wear their hair up in a knot.

There was a burial site found where a Celt wore a mohawk.  others have been described as having scary white cones that stood up, much like the kids today with their gel.  We also know they wore elaborate braiding styles especially on good occasions.
There have been numerous styles of hair ornaments were used;

1) Hollow golden balls worn worn at the ends a tress of hair just like we have beads today in the famouse Bo Derek look.
2) The mytholgies write about gold, silver, or bronze hair ribbons and circlets or fillets, some with gold plates that charioteers wore on their forehead.
3) Hair combs and Hair pins were also used.  They were made of metal, bone, glass beads, stone gems, or horn.  Metalwork adorned most all.
4)  Women carried a comb bag with these cherished items.  Some included razors and mirrors.  Hairdressers or Barbers were wonderful and hired by Chieftains and Royalty.

Ancient England - Nigel Blundell and Kate Farrington.

Copyright Notice:
The Author of this work retains full copyright for this material. Permission is granted to use this material to distribute for non-commercial educational purposes provided the copyright notice is and my permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Ancient Celtic Hair Styles and Decoration - Copyright 2010, LaurieLee Mills August 4th, 2010.  Cannot be used without permission from Author.

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