Historical Sailor Moon Viking Hairstyles?! Hairstylist Tries Accurate Medieval Hairstyles
- Posted on 21 October, 2022
- Bob Hairstyles
- By Anonymous
Historically accurate Viking hairstyles = Sailor Moon hair?! Also, Brooklinen is giving you $20 off any order over $100 if you use my code SnappyDragon at checkout. Click here! https://bit.ly/SnappyDragon_Brooklinen... This video is kindly sponsored by Brooklinen.
After my video on inaccurate Viking hair myths, I got a lot of requests for a medieval hair tutorial on how to do Medieval and Viking hairstyles that are actually supported by historical evidence. Jackie of @Rigr Crafts, who is an expert in historical hair care, joined me to demonstrate some historical hair techniques, and it turns out one of them is a Sailor Moon hairstyle from the Viking age! We also tried several other Medieval hairstyles including lots of medieval and Viking braids, and chatted about medieval haircare and what we can learn from it.
While medieval people didn't wash their hair the way we do, they did have careful and effective hair care routines to keep their hair clean and healthy. Medieval hair care relied on combing, braids, and caps or veils to care for hair without modern technology or products, and there's a lot we can learn from it! Jackie and I tried several Medieval hairstyles documented by historical evidence, including different kinds of hair taping, easy two braid styles, and some more exciting Viking hair including the Sailor Moon space buns! Plus, we tried some more intricate and complicated early middle ages hairstyles, including the Elling Woman's five-strand braided bun and the Hammerum Girl's tiny, delicate accent braids. These historical hairstyles can be very useful for camping, dressing up, re-enactments, and more! This tutorial should be a helpful resource for medieval hairstyles for curly hair, as Jackie and I are both curly girls.
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Chapters :
0:00 You asked for accurate medieval hairstyles?
0:32 Meet Jackie from Rigr Crafts!
1:31 What Hollywood gets wrong
3:14 Headscarves were for everyone'
4:33 A word from our sponsor, Brooklinen
5:48 Medieval hair care tools
8:17 Braiding techniques
10:15 Medieval two-braid hairstyles
14:08 the Valkyrie knot
15:38 Viking Sailor Moon hair?!
16:32 Elling Woman's five-strand braid
19:35 Hammerum girl's tiny accent braids
21:03 Historical hair care in a modern world
23:33 Something new coming soon?
It'S from a pendant from the Viking age and it's not even just medieval space buns it's sailor full-blown in my video about all of the things that Viking hair historically was not. We got a wonderfully large number of comments from people asking about accurate evidence, supported non-appropriative medieval European and Viking age hairstyles, especially ones that would be adaptable to the modern day. So I have with me an expert on this subject. She is here to teach us that not all medieval hairstyles are as silly as this Jackie from rigor crafts, hello, I'm a jeweler by trade and also a reenactor. I tend to do more of the medieval time period and the Viking age. I like to look a lot into medieval Hair Care hygiene and makeup and how they would have actually looked as opposed to what Hollywood wants us to think they look like before. I was a historian and a YouTuber. I was a hairdresser for several years. A lot of the fun is seeing how the medieval Hair Care methods are like supported by what we know today from the the science of how Hair Care works. So some of these Styles can be incredibly useful in a modern setting. If you find washing your hair to be a lot of trouble, if you end up in like this situation, I did where I didn't have hot water in my house for a few weeks, and they can also be very good for keeping your hair protected and cared For and contained, if you are trying to grow it longer or if you just want it out of the way my knowledge base is solely from research and what I call experimental archeology on my own hair, so shows like the Vikings and the last Kingdom, like every Reenactor'S favorite, slash least favorite um, have, I guess, really sort of confused our our visual idea of what historical hairstyles are accurate. They tend to lean a lot into historical fantasy. They tend to use a lot of modern Trends and in some situations they also tend to appropriate from Traditions that are not accurate to Medieval Europe as a setting um. Some of them will straight up appropriate African braiding tradition. Let'S talk about some accurate evidence-supported, medieval and Viking age, European hairstyles that are maybe not going to look as weird for the modern person as the cornets and possibly we'll have a little bit of that, like fantasy Flair. The main basis for a lot of these hairstyles was braids, but not in the sense that Hollywood tries to portray it. The basic three-strand braid is simple easy to do, and it was a good protective hairstyle to not only keep your hair clean but to keep it from breaking as well. What we don't have a lot of evidence for is this right here, just wearing your hair down and loose most of the time when we have art that has women with their hair down, it was usually a mythological creature or goddess, or some kind of biblical person Or allegorical figure like a queen or the Virgin Mary, it's like an illustration of like this is just how Divine or inhumanly powerful this person being depicted is because look she's got her hair out. I don't wear my hair down, because this is way too much to deal with the the other thing they would have done to help. You know protect their hair and stuff is head scarves as well. Today we tend to think of them as being associated with religious modesty or occasionally being associated with protective styles for very, very fragile coily hair in medieval Europe and a lot of other places. In that time period too, they were pretty much ubiquitous due to their sheer practicality. Part of the way headscarves got codified into religion. The way they did. It was just practical that you covered your hair, so it became written into the religious Customs that generally everybody um. Should have some kind of head covering, but married women, especially, Were Meant to cover up all of their hair, unmarried women. On the other hand, you do what you want, although um, you would probably still have something on your head for practicality, because linen head scarves, especially, are really really good at keeping the hair clean it moisture Wicks without drying the hair out the way cotton does and The smoothness means you're not going to get a lot of frizz a lot of curly-haired folks like to use silk. Pillowcases people in medieval Europe were not really using silk as head wraps. Unless you were really really rich. The linen pillowcases I have from Brooklyn and are just about as good as any silk pillowcases I've ever used, which makes it a good time to mention Brooklyn is giving you 20 off any order over a hundred dollars. 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These sheets feel like sleeping in a cloud but like a soft, warm Cloud instead of a damp Misty one. I can have my Giant snuggly oversized Bay without overheating, and they keep me extra comfortable on my working from bad days when my chronic pain is acting up. If you, too, would like some beautiful, comfortable and historically appropriate bed sheets use, my code Snappy Dragon at checkout to get 20 off any order of a hundred dollars or more at the link in the description, in addition to covering your hair, to help protect it from Any dirt and things one of the ways that women would have kept their hair clean is combing, and this was everybody. This is one of the most common items found in Viking age Graves is a regular comb. You have a wide tooth side and a fine-tooth side, and this is your detangling side over here and then your fine tooth side is the side that you use for cleaning, so this actually pulls the dirt and everything off of your scalp and helps moisturize the rest Of your hair with your hair's natural conditioner, the other tools that they would have used, the single sided Combs, and these are really common in grapes as well your Ribbon or ties. This is, I use cotton tape for mine because it's easier to clean, uh, hair Bodkin, and this is literally just a stick, and this is used for parting, your hair and, if you're doing an intricate Style with multiple braids or multiple levels, then you'll go ahead and Put your hair up in a bun here and stick this in and that'll actually hold your hair up because they didn't have alligator clips. You also had hair pins. This is a replica of a 14th century hairpin, that's in the museum of London, and these are replicas of a medieval hairpin that we actually have in our artifact collection that we take to events. This is my personal one that I use and it's just a basic u-shaped one, and this is what I do for most of my daily hairstyles as well. This is a replica of the jorvik cap. This one is sewn all the way solid and it's got the nice curve to it in the Viking age. These were a lot more common in finds, and then I have this one. It'S a replica of the Dublin cap and it's a square, but the thing I like about this is the back is actually split. So if I have my hair in a big braid or a big bun at the back of my head, this lets it show a little bit and I tend to go more for veils the sort of Norman uh English uh Jewish sort of 12th century kit that I have you see a lot of like circular veils just draped over the head, or you would also see some people in that period. Who would have a rectangular linen Veil wrapped around and then here's the the one that started it all. This would be um accurate to more like the 13th century, specifically in Italy, there's a circular veil with a double blue border on it that was required as identifying dress for Jewish women in that time and place. How many of these styles are just two braids on either side of the head arranged differently, pretty much all of them. If you can do three basic three or two basic three strand braids, then you're golden you can do most period styles from the Bronze Age up through the Renaissance. I don't like hair taping, but I like the way that it looks so. I actually use my cotton twill and I braid this into my hair to mimic the look of hair taping and it gives me a little bit of extra stability. I'M just gon na do um just a three strand braid on either side of my head in period. We know that the braids that most women had didn't seem to taper what is proposed and what you can do to get that same. Look take bits of the hair out of one strand, move it to the next strand with every single time. So it's kind of like a combination of three strand and fishtail braids, since I'm not uh taping, my braids. What I'm going to do is I'm tying them off with a little bit of linen yarn. This is the same linen yarn that I've used for for tablet, weaving wrap it around a few times, pull it nice and tight and then tie the ends into a little bow, so I can untie it easily later, and this is really good for that too. All I do is, I just tie it off over the end here that way. So, if you're able out, if you're braiding something into your hair, you just tie it off with that same thing and you'll never have to worry about your hair ties falling out. You can use modern hair elastics on the end of these. It does damage your hair, though. So, if you're doing this out of protective hairstyle, you want to always recommend tying it off. If you're doing these kind of period, braiding techniques, where you're going to be wrapping them around the head, it doesn't have to be pretty nope got my two braids. Let'S speed run this the first one I'm gon na struggle with because it works a lot better. With your length hair behind the head, braids literally put your hair behind your head and wrap it around in sticks and pins in it. This is how he ends up underneath oh looks like I missed a strand of hair back here when I did my braids, we'll just tuck that in and then just stick some hairpins in it yep driving some of the scalp hair as well as the braids. I have no idea what this looks like um viewers y'all are gon na, have to tell me if this looks any good down in the comments, because I can't see it, it would have been period with veils, but this one is the jorvik cap. It'S the one. That'S straight back so I'll just tie this fillet on. This is just a band of linen with some Ties on the end, and I can stick some Veil pins in here and there we go what's next over the head. So all you're going to do is go straight over the head and if you've got looser braids like I do right now, I'm just going to give them a little twist to tighten them up and you just go straight over the head kind of cross them at The top my hair is not actually long enough for this and see I've just got my little tufty ends. I would have to tuck these in really carefully and hope for the best or do hair taping, yes or I would have to tape them or just cover it up with a veil, and the the nice thing is. A veil will cover a lot of hair related difficulties. I'Ve got mine to where it goes all the way around, and then I would just tie this off in the back and take my pins and pin it straight through the braid through the scalp hair and that would hold them in place all day drooping over the Head braids, so all you do is pull them up. You can do like and then it covers up your or you can pull them Tighter and hold it in place. Perfect. You can do the same thing, but in a variation where it goes under the back of your hair. So you start at the back and wrap around the other direction. First, it wouldn't work so well on your hair yeah a later uh Germanic style, um from like the mid 1400s to where the braids go straight over your ears and they go right on the hairline. It looks really weird eye, but but there you go yes, but a lot of these you're like adding something next to your ears, because if you've got a veil over your head, that's kind of where you see the hair, that's kind of true with the cornets, the Like not quite Princess Leia, bun situation, you you can pull that up and a lot of them will start at the temple or start a little bit higher or you can pull them straight up and there's a style where you accordy in the hair. Oh wow, I'm not I'm not even gon na attempt that the the other one you basically just sort of roll the hair into a spiral hey. I got it so if you've got this and then you're doing sort of a more 14th century style, especially if you have a wimple under the chin around the braids and you would pin it up at the top of your head. It'S very Princess Leia, yes, but it's cute, and this is how I did my hair for the Renaissance Festival when I went take the hair and instead of coiling it um at like over the top of your head. Like this, you sort of go right back to the crown of the head and you make a nice little circle there. You would have a Bodkin with a split in it. You get a focus camera there. We go. It'S basically like a very large blunt needle and you could put a ribbon or some tape in it and you would sew the braids to the hair at your scalp. That type of uh hair taping goes back even to the Bronze Age. There'S a Danish bog body that actually has her hair when she was buried. Her hair was taped in a really similar fashion. The first one I'm going to do is I call it the valkyrie knot and it's based off of uh several pendants and lots of drawings on like runestones and things in Scandinavia of women that are usually interpreted as Valkyries. They have a knot in their hair. We also have a couple of pendants which make it really obvious how this hairstyle was done, and it's pretty easy to do. You'Re going to pull your hair back, and some of these were done with with it higher on the head and some they're depicted where it's very low. I take and I twist first so I get everything nice and smoothed down and then wrap it around my hand. Here come around the other side, just like that and back through to make a knot, and I'm going to tighten that up like it's, a ponytail, take a hair pin here and just like with any hairstyle with the hairpins, I'm gon na weave it like you're, sewing A little running Stitch between the hair and your head and the hair and the style yep and there it is, if you don't put a hairpin in it, it's probably just going to slide out I've seen some people who have locks in their hair or they have Box, braids or very small braids, and they take those the braids or the locks, and they put them in this style, and it looks amazing. It looks really good with locks. There'S also another variation of this. It'S not even just medieval space buns, it's sailor, full-blown complete with the and it's from a pendant from the Viking age and gon na part. My hair, using my vodka just like before I'm bringing it up and we're doing it like ponytails, and these on the actual pendant are pretty high on her head make my knot here. I'M gon na wrap it around and I'm going to go all the way around. That way, I can get a better knot, but if you have shorter hair, you probably can't wrap all the way around yep and I'm going to pin it there. We go. Oh, that's so cute, so the pendant she's actually like this, and you can't really tell how long the ponytails are, but yeah space buns the appeal of a lot of these um, not very historically accurate, shows in the hair styling we see in them. Is it a sense of fantasy and it's very intricate and it's very cool looking and it's not quite so like milkmaid-ish as this, so there's a couple styles that are a bit more intricate and Fantastical and interesting that are braid based documented for medieval Europe that we Can try the Ellie, woman and she's? Actually a Danish bog body um and she was buried with a really intricate, really pretty hairstyle you're gon na separate your hair into two. So you have a top section and a bottom section start doing a basic three strand braid on that top section of your hair. Get that all the way down to uh the nape of your neck and then, when you get down there, you're gon na add in the rest of that hair and make it into a more complicated braid towards the end. You pick five strand or six strand braid or you can just do a add it to the strands that you already have there and just do it as a bigger three strand, braid strand the way. I know how to do a five strand, braid, it's just weaving over and under so the Strand furthest on the left, goes yeah over and then under and then over and then do this under the tricky part is just not losing track of all of the strands. So the thing about La women's hair, though, is she's dead, she's, a dog body she's, a burial and she's, not just someone who died in an accident and her body was preserved. She was like ceremonially buried with her hair done. Look at this did not have to do this braid on her own head, because she was dead. She wasn't moving. She definitely had somebody do it for her you're getting yours braided all the way to the end, but the thing with her hair is or at some point her hair got Disturbed, but the end of her braid isn't braided anymore. It'S coming unraveled. So when you get to the end you're going to go through that top braid, so it's got kind of like a lyric space between the three strand braid in my head and I'm gon na wrap it around and then the way that we think it was originally Done is: go ahead and wrap that all the way around and make it a bun do like a basic stick pin and there you go yeah. This is not going anywhere, but we didn't find her with a pin and we found her with her hair. Let me find the other kind of unraveled a little bit yeah. We found her with her hair, just wrapped once and the end sort of hanging yep, so you could do like accent, braids or things to Jazz. This up, you could add ribbons or ornaments or things, but this is a perfectly documented hairstyle one of the most, I guess intricate and Fantastical looking ones here is the hammerum girl. We don't have all of her hair. Her hair has partially decomposed one side of her hair. We just we don't have, but the other side of her hair next to her hairline little bitty, three strand, braids, um, they're, just very cool, looking accents and a lot of what we tend to see in these. These Hollywood shows is a lot of very like small, intricate braids done, and this is sort of some evidence of like you can do those and you can have those incorporated into your hairstyle, and you can have that visual interest in texture. You can do it without um, using Traditions that were not appropriate to the period and that are in a modern context, appropriative for for for people to do if it's not part of your background and then the rest of her hair, as best we could tell, was Um just a three strand braid and in a bun. If you are good at braiding, you don't necessarily just have to do three strand braids. We'Ve got a lot of evidence with Romans, doing four: five: six strand crazy braids on the top of their heads, rope, braids and there's different types of four and five and six strand braids you can use it. You'Ve got these just three little accent: Braids by the hairline they're, adding that texture and that visual interest and because we have the evidence of people doing these, like you can do something. That'S in this vein, but not exactly the same. There'S a ton of interest in being able to adapt these historical hairstyles and historical Hair Care methods to the modern day. And yes, a lot of them are really cool. Looking, but they're also really practical. If you're trying to grow your hair out - and you just can't figure out why it's probably getting damaged you know, I have, I have a Jeep. So when I have the roof open, my hair gets crazy damage if I have it up in a ponytail. So this is something you can do to stir your hair up like this. If you have, you know a vehicle or if you do things outdoors, where it's windy, it'll, stop your hair from getting broken and stuff like that, and historical people knew this because, unlike us, they didn't have Alternatives. If, if we're going to take an interested historical hairstyles like we have the research skills to be able to sort of start to figure out the differences between what we see in these shows, that is not necessarily staying true to the source material. That'S giving us this sort of skewed view of where certain hair, styling Traditions came from and a lot of these Traditions that are being borrowed from have a significance. That means it's it's very difficult to borrow from them respectfully in the world, we live in some even impossible, with modern hair care products and everything just because our moms made bad decisions in the 80s with their hair doesn't mean we need to. We don't have to spend hundreds of dollars a year on hair care products. I have a five dollar comb, so you know it's. It'S people in history, weren't stupid they weren't dirty. The great thing about being a modern person. Researching history is you've got options. I was in the military for eight years. I wore my hair up every single day and I did so much damage to my hair. When I got out, I wanted to wear my hair up every day, just because I was used to it, but I knew I was causing damage and getting headaches, and this was a way for me to be able to wear my hair up but still have healthy Hair, what attracts people to these Fantastical depictions in these inaccurate depictions? Is they look much more interesting to us than our idea of what history was really like? They got bored with their hair too. They tried different things. They might have used different methods. They might have been using a lot of three strand braids, but they did have fun hairstyles, just because we have evidence of somebody doing this on their hair with two three strand braids doesn't mean they didn't do different configurations. You saw how many we did in I'm sure that will time lapse out to what 30 seconds super simple. Think of all the ones that we did, that didn't survive for us to find evidence of them. So you've got something new coming out soon that you're gon na announce right. I do follow like everything on our social media, because I am gon na have something special coming out in the next few weeks or so. Where can the good people find you around? The internet uh, it's rigor, crafts r-i-g-r-c-r-a-f-t-s and you can find us on Facebook, Instagram riggercrafts.com, and what else do I have for social media? I think that's it. I'M I'm I'm a boomer, I mean hey. I don't have that much more than that either you can find me on Instagram at Miss Snappy Dragon. You can find me at the shiny, pretty website snappydragonstudios.com or if you want access to the behind the scenes info research notes, um, maybe even a little bit of extra input on the research from Jackie go to patreon.com. Snappydragonstudios also editing view just popping in to thank Brooklyn and for sponsoring this video for sending me truly glorious bed linens and for giving my viewers 20 off any order over a hundred dollars. If you use my code, Snappy Dragon at checkout link is in the description. Tell us in the comments about your favorite historically inspired hairstyle, and we would love to see them too. So hopefully, we'll we'll see a few of you around on Instagram, where we can actually see pictures of you don't forget to like, while you're there and subscribe subscribe for more hair history Shenanigans, we promise there will be more in the future. Thank you for hanging out with us as we braided and braided and unbraided and braided our hair, and we will see you around the web bye. Thank you. Bye.
Comments
Kelly Burds: I now need to see a cosplay of sailor moon as a historically inspired valkyrie.
Ragnhild: Shows like "The Vikings" can probably be described as "every reenactor's favourite nightmare"
Rigr Crafts: Thank you so much for having me as a guest! This was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again!
Ragnhild: Three-strand braids were common because it just _works_ on long, silky hair. And you know my favourite historical hairstyle, it’s the two braids pinned like a wreath.
Sibylle Leon: "Our mums made bad decisions with their hair in the 80s". I was a teenager in the 80s! Startling to think that I could have a kid in her 30s by now (I'm childless though). Wonderful, wonderful video, thank you so much to both of you, for the detailed instructions ❤ Someone needs to do this about men's hair (if it's been done, I'm not aware of it and would be grateful for a link)!
The Intuitive Artificer: Just tried the Elling woman style. This is totally getting added to my repertoire, thanks!
Gabriel Hanssens: The advantage with hair covering being a norm and expected of you is that you can experiment with you hair and have it look really ugly or quirky or plan wierd and you can just cover it and no one is the wiser
Nankita D: I literally started tying my hair in this style yesterday to help it grow and not break. Just a year ago I had a *terrible* disease (chikungunya) that apart from terrible pains that last for *months*, it makes your hair fall like crazy, so now I have full locks of hair that are reaching about above my nape now (the ones on the top) and every time I have to put it in a ponytail they get off really quickly and it looks *awful*, so I decided to do this hairstyles to help those short hairs to grow and not break before they do.
Vamps Rock: PS. It was good to see the randoms strands of air you missed in your braids - that often happens to me so it's always relatable to see a 'professional' can mess up too
Moon Light Selky: So I wonder if the Elling woman's braid was done as part of a burial ritual. Of course it could just be a nice hairstyle, but we probably won't know until we find more evidence
Ash Decota: I love this, I love learning about historical dress and historical hairstyles and I absolutely love that you are doing this for the viking age. I have one request, and I know this will be more difficult, but could you see if you could do this for men's hairstyles from this period?
Books RR4711: The Elling woman’s hairstyle is very similar to a traditional Hungarian unmarried woman’s hairstyle. The difference being the lower braid was not tucked through the top braid as they wanted to show the full length of their hair (hair that reached the hem of their skirts was most desirable and some women added large ribbons for extra length). One black and white photo showing the hairstyle from the back is in a museum and can be found online. Personally I’ve worn this style many times and also find it very comfortable for sleeping.
Margaret Karaba: Uncovered loose hair in medieval history when there were open fires. . . no. Water and stews and raw meat mised with loose flowing hair - eww and add in fire. . .OW. I wonder what the death toll from young women dying of scalp and facial burns from hair catching on fire was? Seems like a very good reason to keep your hair up and out of the way. . .
PrettyWiltsForThee: Well let me tell you i was absolutely GIDDY with delight to see this video pop up in my inbox! Historical hairstyling and hair symbolism/social importance is a niche passion of mine im really obsessed about, so its always much appreciated to see more info on the topic pop up!! Especially so i can aplly it for my myself... ((this video feels particularly relevant beacause i /always/ wear my hair in two three strands braids daily. Its too wavy and textured to comfortably wear it in a smooth bun without a world of pain (freshly washed hair is /hell on earth to comb/) but still to short for me to do a decent single braid: i twist the hairline a la italian renaissance hair rolls, start braiding at the temple, loop and pin the braids up behind the ear! Very medievalcore very fabulous))
kivi: The Lønne Hede graves (1st century Denmark) also had a couple of really interesting hairstyles! The one in grave 1969 is super complex with thin three strand braids and extra hair added for volume, while the other one (in grave number 6) consists of two buns at the back of the head, one over the other. The bottom one is made with a three strand braid, while the top one is unbraided. Thanks for this great video!
The Dress Developer: Ok, I literally DROPPED what I was doing to watch this. Thanks for the insight on Viking hairstyles. Why does Hollywood thinks it needs to invent them if there is so much interesting stuff already existing?
Vamps Rock: This was incredibly interesting, and I hope you continue to do more historical hair discussions. However, it would have been fab to have visuals of all the sources you were commenting on. Also, I've never heard of taping hair before so an explanation of that would have been a good addition too. TFS ☺
Dee Happy: Hoooray!!Thanks for giving us what so many asked for! I’ve been doing protective styles for a couple months on my only slightly wavy hair and its really helping my hair break less!
Bun Helsing's legacy: A few years ago, I discovered finger loop braiding, and I don't think I've had an elastic hair tie in my hair since. Never did the ponytail thing cause my hair's just wavy enoguh to tangle like heck evein in a ponytail so I'd leave it braided, and after I stopped washing my hair daily it just lives in its braid. I go for straight low single three-section braid down the centre but I've tried the double braids wrapped around the head thing (a la Morgan Donner, also where I found finger loop braiding). I knew how to weave a ribbon into my braid, learned that from braiding show horses and would use that trick with just some yarn if I broke my last hair tie, and having been doing it a couple years now, I find it less damaging to my hair than elastics. My hair's still shorter than SnappyDragon's so I need really long ribbons and a slightly different method when I wrap two braids around my head (I start the braids up high behind my ears and don't cross them in the back) but it's longer now than it's ever been in my life, probably because I leave it in its loose braid except to brush it out a few times a week, don't use hair elastics and stopped using shampoo altogether, even permanent hair dye a few times a year hasn't damaged my hair as much as daily shampooing no matter how much conditioner I used. But that's a style I rarely see depicted (though from the front you can't tell what's going on in the back if it's a plain old braid), and I'm always looking for period-appropriate things to do with my hair for when I'm not armouted up at the medieval festivals I go to a few times a year.
Lilas Duveteux: I had about a month ago decided to get the front of my hair cut into fluffy bangs. Zero regret. They don't fall in my eyes as much as one would think, and they made my long hair a lot more manageable. Plus, it's way more stylish. Now, I get why people in the XVIII century got those. They are practical and confortable.
WantedVisuals: I wore (and still wear) a lot of the Elling woman braid while growing out my hair: you don't need all the hair to reach to your nape and still get all your hair in a braid. Before that, if I put my hair in a side twist on each side of my head, I could get a lil bun. And before *that* (kids, if you ever see a 3-12 month lockdown looming ahead, that's the universe telling you to get the buzz cut you always wanted to try) I wore a lot of Jorvik cap-style head coverings and head scarves because summer came early, I discovered my alopecia was worse than originally thought, and I have learned through observation alone that you do not want a sunburn on your scalp. Way easier to stuff a cap in your bag than drag around a sun hat. Historical hair dress works for all lengths, literally all of them.
Echo the Saving Sorceress: I love trying different hairstyles, but basic braids are easiest for me, so thank you for showing us how to do all these gorgeous historical styles! This was so interesting ✨
Kalkail: The wordplay layers of Sailor ‘Máni’ is ripe for cosplay renditions I think. Thank you for your persistence in position, content, and highlighting researchers on the mats discourse.
Aislingeach: This was so much fun to watch. Thank you for showing these hairstyles to us! Now I wish I had long hair to try them. LOL
ted.E: I sleep with my hair in one loose three strand braid to stop it getting tangled, since it's very fine and somewhat wavey I prefer to only brush it before I wash it
Sa Berg: Educational and entertaining at the same time - well done!
Tena O'Connor: Love all the hair styles. I’m letting my hair grow so I can get longer braids. At 58 I don’t have thick hair like i used to but it seems healthier than it did a couple months ago. I bought a wooden combe like yours, its a beard comb lol. I comb my hair twice a day morning/night and I stopped washing my hair. I rinse it out when I take my weekly shower but no shampoo. I do use a detangling brush before i use the comb, it helps with the ends. I use a Scrunchie to put my hair in a ponytail at work and my natural curl tends to make a mess of it by the end of the day lol
Jaye Sudar: I've found many of the same styles, and tried them. I really appreciate this video. I usually braid my hair at the hairline, then do a three strand braid. I often put it up in the Valkyrie knot. Other times, it is simply braided and put in a bun.
Thyra: I'm from England, the braid here is called a platt. We used to have medieval days at school back in the 70s and I love going to Warwick castle that has an ongoing historical experience. I can trace my family back over thousand years, history has always fascinated me and discovering who my Norse and medieval ancestors were has opened up a whole new world for me.
VeretenoVids: As someone who was a teenager in the 80s, I now feel ancient. I keep forgetting that I'm old enough to be the parent of a lot of the YouTubers I follow! Fortunately, I did not fall prey to crazy 80s hair shenanigans in part because I was a swimmer so kept it very short and my hair is curly, so didn't have to shell out for perms when I did grow it out once my competition days were over. I'm so glad I never did the gopher bangs! When I did have it long I mostly wore it down nor in a braid starting from the nape of my neck. I tried to do all sorts of historical buns and such, but I always got bad headaches (not to mention escapee curls), so gave that up pretty quickly.
Josephine Dykstra: I love taping my hair for overnight events- I do it on Friday afternoon, sew the braids to my head with the end of the yarn/ twill tape, wear a cap Saturday, and a hat to go home on Sunday!
Whit Alleys: Yesss more historical hair content! I was raised in a queer owned hair salon and historical hair is how I got into history bounding and historical sewing! Thanks for continuing with this content ❤
Christine G: One of my favorite historical hairstyles that just doesn't work with my hair is one that I saw on a Roman sculpture of a young girl, maybe 8-10, with mid-length curly hair. It was literally just the hair split in two, then the two halves were tied in a square knot. It does require hair that has some curl/texture to it, though, because it'll just slide right out of straight hair.
lavendarcrash: Thirty-something & raised Roman Catholic. Only learned today that the blue-banded veil was required wear for Italian Jewish women. I swear I've seen statues or iconography of the Virgin Mary with a blue-banded veil. For sure there's her with gold-banded veils out there. But fairly positive I've seen blue too.
Jo HexxKitten: It was nice to hear you refer to Jorvik, I’m from Yorkshire, England and I live just 50miles from York / Jorvik the layers of history in just that one town is staggering.
puggirl415 puggirl: Good to know about linen pillowcases. I put mine away when I started to work with my natural texture and got the silk ones. I love my linen sheets and pillowcases so much. Glad to know sleeping on them is good for my hair as well.
Ann Brookens: This was so much fun! It makes me wish my hair was long again. When I was in college in the early 70s, I would braid my waist length hair and put it up using my great grandmother's hair pins or decorative combs. Nowadays, I would have tried hair tapeing
Lisa M: I've been growing my hair (which was very short) since early 2020. My husband calls it my Rona-do. I can't wait until it's long enough to do more than just clip it up. I may get some cotton tape to give it more length to do more.
catsandkittys: Damn i've been doing that Valkyrie knot thing on my own hair for years. I had no idea it was such an old style. I sort of just came upon the style on my own. I have longer hair and I would do it sometimes to give myself a shorter ponytail
Palucu: More than 7 years growing my hair. Braids made a ton of difference. Main reason why i dont want too many layers because it makes it hard to braid.
Eazy8: Actually Viking age haircuts are really fun, and really nice looking, and TV and Movies just can’t be bothered to do even 5 minutes of research, and instead go for modern hairstyles at best, seemingly forgetting that this is supposed to be 1,000 years ago, and don’t seem to want to remember that this is supposed to be historical, and not 2022. Love this video, keep up the great work! SKÅL!
Christina Nielsen: First of all thank you for making this video! I am currently obsessed with the last kingdom and some of the styling has me almost wanting to stop watching, its so frustrating that there are other creative solitions out there. But they are for some reason not used ♀️ I know show production is unfortunately a game against time and people with money calling the shots, doing what you can in those limits and so on. And thats so sad for the creativity and accuracy of media. But still. Some budget for quality experts must be there right..? Right? urgh
Kerrie McKinstry-Jett: Pendants & "bog bodies" are 3D references for hairstyles, but I imagine 2D representations are more common. How can you figure out what's going on with a hairstyle in something like a medieval manuscript or other flat source?
Zuzana Dúbravcová: This is great video, thank you. Much more educational than any movies. Really good, I will definitely try some of them, when my hair grow a little bit
The Gracklepeck: I love the Sailor Moon style! My favorites are always going to be the braids wrapped around the head though. Super comfy and they stay put all day!
Witchydigit: I know you mostly specialize in women's historical fashion, but I'd love to see some stuff on men's hairstyles and headcoverings, as well. Even just external sources to look at. I'm unfortunately abysmal at online research, have no clue where to start other than google, so I tend to rely on secondhand sources like yours.
Library of Lily lol: Okay I literally just have two bits of side bangs that are long hair and the rest is cut short (because masc feelings and fem feelings fight) but I immediately tried all of these (some did not work so much). Loving these so much! Valkyrie knot will be my new go-to pulling-my-hair-back look I think. Sailor Moon knots will be for when I just wanna be extra cute. And I LOVED putting my hair up in a mini Elling braid on the side of my head and also the little zig-zag braid is excellent as well (I call it snake braid). Might do the Elling braid for my job interview idk. It looks very tidy. A low Valkyrie knot might look tidy too.
Seam Allowance: Thank you for this! Very interesting! I'm growing my hair to make a donation next Summer, and now that it's probably at its longest (just past my waist), I get really annoyed with it when I leave it down. I love braiding it and I am thankful to learn some more things I can do with my hair. I often go for a "Fench"-rope braid, as it's quick... you mentioned rope braids briefly in the video: how common would they have been? You also didn't mention French/Dutch braids... were they in general use? I also wanna share 2 channels I found years ago which showed many historical (and historically inspired/shows) hairstyles, among them a Suebian knot which I use all the time: "Silvousplaits" and Janet Stephens. tldr: loved the video, braids are awesome!
Paula Popper: I've really enjoyed this video. I had very long hair (well below my waist) for a very long time and had done very similar things with my braids without really seeing medieval material. Once I began reading material from that time, I did even more. What I found hysterical was learning about the hairstyle for the Elling Woman because I wore my hair in a very similar style with similar technique back when I used to attend punk concerts. I grouped a larger amount in the initial top braid to create a higher style there to give a similar profile to the low spiked "Mohawk" look of my friends. I then did some paint on it because, well, concert. Fun to find out that this style I came up with out of my "need" was similar to a documented style from a very long time ago. Women with long hair have always found ways to create looks and protect their hair.
Chelsae Linehan: I love this so much! Thank you both!
Alexandria: i have the double sided comb from rigr crafts, its wonderful!! i made a little pouch for it with some of my favorite scraps :)
Elizabeth Neff: This was a wonderful video! It's also making me want to grow my hair out
BVoshol: Interesting! Do you know anything about historical evidence for French braids? Or rather braids that add in hair every (or nearly every) "stitch"? Obviously that one hairstyle from the bog body where it had come undone added in hair at the nape of the neck, but I'm curious! (as someone with shorter hair, French braids are really the only kind of braid I can do!)
Rowan L: Really interesting vid! Also, just wondering, have you ever uploaded an everyday hair routine? I think we have similar hair types and I'm really struggling at the moment to get my curls as consistent as yours, would love to know what you do!
Jayne Terry: Thank you Sappy dragon and your guest Jackie! This was super fun and interesting. I plan to try some of those styles lol . I didn't understand when you said bog? I am going to look up Elling woman and Hammerum girl. Tyfs
Rosie Strawberry: when I do too many updos for a period of time, my scalp gets really unhappy and scratchy and I get lots of dandruff. does anyone experience the same/have any advice? currently modern hairstyles where I just let my hair down seem to be the only way I can keep my scalp happy. (for reference, I have white people curly hair.)
Amy: The story of been working on for a while is in a fantasy setting based on late 11th century Europe (well mostly - a tiny bit is actually in an area based more on Northwestern Africa,) and I tried very hard to keep things pretty historically plausible while also accounting for features of varies fantasy species living in it. For instance the elves don't really 'get' sexism so they don't really have much of a taboo against what other peoples in the same region would consider crossdressing which makes them really fun to do character designs for since it gives me more leeway to splice things together. Most of the main elvish characters are actually from a group heavily inspired by the Norse, and one of them (resident healer) actually has a valkyrie knot because it seemed super simple, and that character is extremely overworked and has basically no time to mess with anything more complicated. Another notable female elf actually has more of a men's hairstyle since she's a warrior; I ran across mention that some Norse men would do a small braid on either side of the face to make it easier to keep hair out of their eyes, so that's what she has, with the two braids pulled to the back of her head to keep everything well away from her face. One of the notable male elves has a nice long braid since there's evidence for that, and as a noble who doesn't actually do any fighting he can afford to do something a bit more time consuming. The other guy just has a short messy ponytail because his hair's super curly and he gave up on getting it to cooperate with him and just wants it out of his face. Anywho, sorry about the character design rambling, the video just made me think about it... ^_^"
Jocelyn Palmer: *happy history nerd noises* But seriously, great video! My favorites were the first style, the cornets, the Elling burial style, and then the last style. Thank you so, so much!
Teele Hansen: I love seeing the different ways to shape the braids. I've never seen a comb like that, but I want one now, lol.
Polka Dot: I'm so jealous of people who can grow their hair long. My hair fluctuates between Bob and just above my shoulders depending on how much it irritates me. I love the braidedstyles.
Flutenany Idk: I'm like 21% scandanavian, so this is interesting to me both as a fantasy addict and as a fashion history nerd.
Yolanda Ray: I work in a shipping warehouse and come home full of small pieces of paper all over me and my hair. Adapting these hairstyles would actually be very practical for me. Thank you for sharing this.
Dev H: Do you find it better or easier or more advantageous to braid wet or dry? I frequently rock Heidi braids for helmeted activities (biking, snowboarding, etc) and do a quick twist and claw clip on the regular but I've been thinking of branching out, both for daily wear and for special occasions.... (I have SUPER thick curly hair)
triloization: I love braiding with silk ribbons. It makes so much fun :)
Emily Rose Lacy-Nichols: In college I had long hair and always wore it in two braids to keep it from tangling when I biked between classes. Very practical, minimal effort. Nowadays I have basically a pixie cut cuz I get hot easily and have to wear my hair up but then it gives me a headache and… I can't be bothered lol.
Tired of Trolls: I can verify that the Brooklinen is fantastic.
shimaspawn: My daily hairstyle is a combo of one and two. I do the second style of wrapping it around my head and then take the last foot or so of braids I have in the back and turn them into a bun. Glad to know it’s historical.
Erin B: If your hair is long enough, cross the braids behind your head before doing the wreath style. It looks much nicer!
Paula Popper: An additional comment on the Hammerum girl section, is that those small braids near the front crown area also work well for keeping your hair out of your face without needing lots of pins, clips or product. When I had my long hair, I very rarely had bangs as well. When I needed to control the hair or was doing a lot of outdoor work (gardens, hiking, etc), I would do a few small braids toward the front and then a larger braid that was looped and clipped up with a scarf or hat of some sort over top. This kept the hair out of my face, off my neck and protected from the dirt, dust, bugs, leaves, etc. Hairstyles were often super practical and we need to remember that, as you often point out.
Asia HeartMan: When my hair was longer I used to knot it too, but I didn't use any pins. They would just stay up. Also, my boyfriend's hair is getting desperate. We both don't know if it's alopecia or bad, bad stress damage (and/or damage through external factors, which could very well be because he has been working in a factory for a year and a half, and his hair was starting to get way better before coming to the job. Also, yes, this problem has been going on for some time) to the hair. I might talk to him about protective hairstyles and massages that might help.
Abigail Mahoney: these are so cute- but what about hairstyles for men, or for shorter hair? I currently have hair just above shoulder length, and I am trying to keep it in passable condition (I am Jewish and my hair is prone to randomly becoming Dandelion Floof, or just straight-up felting). Also, I too have chronic pain, and sometimes showering is really hard. tldr does this exist for hair above shoulder-length?
Khazer Mashkes: I will try these once my hair grows out!
Diana Greene: TIL I've been doing historical hairstyles (mostly the Valkyrie Knot) for about 25 years.
Xaneria Ann: Can you cite historical evidence when giving these definitive rules? Can you provide people with the research or at least point them in the right direction? Give people an idea of where to go for documented imagery and historical documentation? Not everyone has the resources (be it access or time) to do the research, and since you have these videos up, you've done the research. Asking as an inquiring mind who struggles to dig through the false information.
Sarah Watts: I'm loving these hair videos! What would Viking men do? High and tight? More braids?
Heather Hoven: This was wonderful! I loved the tips for protection. I think the lack of it in my routine is why I can't get below my shoulders before it looks and sounds like burnt hay. Two questions if you don't mind: Is it acceptable to wear the braids to bed? What about using oils? Are there any historical recipes?
Angela D: Looks awesome! I might try lose braids I heard it helps broth but idk so far but I’ll see again
Ricky: As a person who is bald up top but has a quite sizeable beard, I was wondering if you had any sources on medieval and viking age beards, not just styles but hair care. I know it's something else that has been very hollywoodized. I've done some research, but couldn't find a whole lot. Though I did find that viking beard beads weren't a thing.
G.S.: Hi, snappy! I'm sephardic with family from lybia, italy and the caucuses. Do you have any insights on historic sephardic hairstyles?
mar1na1993: I'm traveling for work right now, and I'm kicking myself for not bringing bobby pins because I would LOVE to try some of these while traipsing around Italy with my student group xD Oh welllllll....
liadanducky: Oh boy looks like I’m playing with my hair today lol!
Karen Ritter: Don't have a favorite hairstyle. Personally I tend to wear mine undone or with a few tiny decorative braids in Ren Faires or other events.
BrownEyedGirl922: I love braids, but I am so basic with what I can do. My extent is three-strand braids, but I want to learn more.
Jennifer Bishop: I know the 12th century Normans (French, English) wore thick braids, hanging down. many times these were stuffed with wool or hair to make then look bigger. Think the style you see with the Bliauts. I'm not entirely sure how they did that. I think they may wrap the entire braid with cloth.... I'm not entirely sure and I'm sorry I don't remember where I found/heard the info.
Stefan: Do you know someone who has the same expertise but for male hairstyles? Especially for Europe. I want to connect to my ancestors but since im german i want to go back quite a long time so that the human right violations aren't so obvious.
Hella Péter: I got into the good old "wrap two braids around your head, pop a headscarf on top of it" when doing 12hr forest fieldwork shifts, and it really does work as intended... My hair didn't get greasy or dirty that fast, it was protected from twigs, branches, dust, pollen, etc, and it minimised breakage too. Loved to see alternative ways to arrange the classic two braids, will def try some of them out
Sian Lewis: Not all cultural hairstyles have been documented. It is impossible to determine whether a hairstyle is really ‘cultural appropriation’. Can we assume with confidence that no European person ever wore their hair in ways that are now associated with black culture?
nina schust: You are so lovely and I love your guests.
Arwen Grune: love it!
Iflie: Back then a woman who was married had a lot of works to do, they were cooking with fires, the smoke, the sparks, it would make zero sense for them to have loose hanging hair. And washing would be hard, if you are out milking a cow, flying cowpoo was part of the week. Slaughtering animals. Even bugs. All reasons to keep your hair under a wrap.
Lillith Lochwoode: The firt time i ever tied my hair in one knot i thought oh! What about 2? And i love sailor moon!
Noririn: Could it be that with the buried woman's hair style, that it was wrapped around in a sort of basked to keep her head up/lay her head in? It wouldn't need a pin in that case and could have shifted over time
winterburden: Very cool, thank you!
Ole Joergen Malm: Just waiting to hear from someone who thinks that that figurine is just showing a woman ritually kneading bread or carrying something on her shoulders.
Nattravn: as a full-blooded Scandinavian I just find all these shows fantasy or drama about the vikings or viking themed to be really cringe
Karin: You had me at Sailor moon.
Allie Greenwold: Nah - at least in big parts of Scandinavia, only married women could (should) cover their hair. ”Virgins” showed their hair.
Joan S: Where can I find a double sided comb like shown in the video?
Söckchen: Love love love. You two are wonderfull
Chris Dale: *makes you look good* Thank you camera Viking!!!