14 DAY TRIAL // A recent paper in the Journal of Egyptian Archeology announces the discovery of the 3,300-year-old remains of an Egyptian woman in a cemetery that is part and parcel of a site that is currently being excavated and that researchers refer to as Amarna.
What's interesting is that, unlike many other ancient Egyptians, this woman was not mummified before being laid to rest. However, it appears that whoever was in charge of getting her ready for the afterlife paid very close attention to her hairstyle.
A fairly peculiar ancient hairdo
Writing in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, researcher Jolanda Bos and colleagues explain that, while closely examining the remains of this woman, they found that, at the time she was buried, she had several hair extensions attached to her head.
More precisely, the archaeologists say that, when laid to rest after first being wrapped in a mat, the woman had as many as 70 extensions adorning her head. As noticeable in the photo accompanying this article, the extra hair was arranged in a rather complex coiffure.
Thus, evidence indicates that whoever prepared this 3,300-year-old woman's body for burial took their time braiding her hair. Some of the braids are visible in the photo shared with the general public. As detailed by Jolanda Bos and fellow researchers, the majority comprise just three strands.
Since ancient Egyptians did not have all that many hairstyling products to pick and choose from, the braids and the loose stands of hair were smeared in fat to ensure that they would stay in place and not move around. Whether or not the fat came from animals remains a mystery.
Not the only bizarre hairstyle in town
Several dozen other bodies have until now been recovered from this cemetery, and archaeologists say that, of the people whose remains have so far been unearthed, many sported intricate hairdos when put to rest. Interestingly enough, it looks like the residents of this ancient city in Egypt were all quite fond of braids.
“All braids found in the coiffures were simple and of three strands, mostly 1 cm [0.4 inches] wide, with strands of approximately 0.5 cm [0.2 inches] when tightly braided,” the archaeologists behind this research project write in their paper, as cited by Live Science.
“Braids were often not more than 20 cm [7.9 inches] long, leaving the hair at shoulder length approximately. The longest hair that was found consisted of multilayered extensions to a length of approximately 30 cm [11.8 inches],” Jolanda Bos and colleagues go on to detail.
Hairstyling might not have been just for the dead
This is yet to be confirmed, but archaeologists in charge of excavating this Egyptian cemetery suspect that the folks who lived in the region thousands of years ago did not have to wait to die to get the intricate hairdo that they had been dreaming of ever since they first saw it in some ancient, papyrus-based edition of Cosmo.
On the contrary, it is believed that they wore hair extensions when going about their daily routine as well. What's more, traces of orange coloring found in one other woman's hair indicate that ancient Egyptians in Amarna were no strangers to dying their hair to conceal gray strands and appear younger.