Posted: 6/9/2019 8:35:47 PM EDT
[#14]
Side issue, purely for academic reasons, it seems that the Vikings were come of the cleanest peoples in that time period. They bathed at least once per week, they combed their hair every day, and washed daily and before meals. It seems evidence indicates that they had long hair that they were proud of and combed daily, not shaven--shaved heads were for slaves, not warriors.
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/hairstyl.shtml
There is no one "Viking man's hairstyle". The Viking Age peoples had a wide variety of hairstyles, just as we do today. Some may have been most common in a particular region, or profession may have dictated hairstyle.
Usually only thralls (slaves) wore very short hair17. Probably the average man wore his hair about collar or shoulder length, and his beard as long as was comfortable for him. A professional warrior might make other choices for hairstyle to minimize the hazard of having hair or beard grabbed in combat.
The Arabic observer Ibn Fadlan noted that men of the Rus bleached their beards to a saffron yellow. Some scholars therefore believe that it is likely that they bleached their hair as well. This bleaching was accomplished using a soft, strongly basic soap, where the excess lye in the mixture provided the bleaching action18. Pliny the Elder noted this practice among the Germanic tribes, and states that men were more likely to bleach their hair than women:
Prodest et sapo, Galliarum hoc inventum rutilandis capillis. Fit ex sebo et cinere, optimus fagino et caprino, duobus modis, spissus ac liquidus, uterque apud Germanos maiore in usu viris quam feminis.
Soap is the invention of the Gauls and this is used to redden the hair. It is made from fat and ashes -- the best is beech wood ash and goat fat, the two combined, thick and clear. Many among the Germans use it, the men more than the women.
(Pliny the Elder Historia Naturalis)19 View Quote
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