The ancient Egyptians were conscious of their appearance and had very clear ideas of beauty and how to obtain it. The New Kingdom love poetry described the ideal body shape:
Upright neck, shining neck,
Hair true lapis lazuli;
Arms suppressing gold,
Fingers like lotus buds.
Heavy thighs, narrow waist.44
This description resembles the figures portrayed by so-called concubine or fertility figures, which all have curvy hips, small waists and large buttocks. This was considered a healthy shape for childbearing and therefore the ideal shape of a potential partner.45 This ideal body shape and idealised beauty all centre on the lower parts of the anatomy, bypassing the breasts, which are a modern focus of sexual attraction. Breasts were considered an important aspect of motherhood and milk provision, and were therefore not considered erotic. Instead hands, eyes, hair,46 legs and a narrow waist were the focal points of erotic thought. The Egyptian idea of sexuality was more about tantalising glimpses of the body through fine, see-through linen, rather than full nudity.47
Diets were unheard of in ancient Egypt, no doubt because famine was a very real threat. There are some rather realistic images of famine depicted on the Old Kingdom causeway of Unas at Saqqara. The people are emaciated and some of the children have distended stomachs, which are common with malnutrition. It is generally believed the image itself does not represent Egyptians but instead shows how Unas helped another country in distress. However, the image demonstrates that the Egyptians had certainly witnessed, if not experienced famine. Furthermore it is recorded that they were also aware of the effect diet had on overall health, and believed many illnesses were due to indigestion and excess in eating.48 Herodotus describes how ‘every month for three successive days they [the Egyptians] purge themselves for their health’s sake, with emetics and clysters, in belief that all diseases come from the food a man eats’.49 This appears to be describing a detoxifying period where certain food was avoided for three days a month.
Although diets were unheard of, most people are shown as slim, the women with curving hips and large breasts. The exceptions are men of official status who are shown with stylised rolls of fat, as are blind harpists; in the New Kingdom tomb of Tjanuny, five Nubian mercenaries in the Egyptian army have podgy stomachs,50 which are representative of a settled and rich life. Furthermore, mummies have provided evidence that obesity was not unheard of. One mummy, that of Horemkenisi – a scribe and chief workman at Deir el-Medina, and part-time wab priest at the temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu during the reign of Pinedjem I (1070–1032 BCE) – had numerous folds of skin, which could be indicative of obesity. As discussed in chapter eight, it was unusual for Egyptians to have tooth decay due to a lack of sugar in their diets other than honey, but Horemkenisi had two caries which, coupled with his obesity, could indicate over indulgence in honey cakes.
Horemkenisi was not the only one; another mummy, Masaharta, also from the Third Intermediate Period, was so fat when he was embalmed that his hands could not be crossed over his pelvis, as was traditional, as they did not meet.51
Greek travellers to Egypt commented that Egyptians were very clean and bathed every morning after rising and often also after meals,52 which, as discussed in chapter one, was necessary considering the lack of cutlery. They were also well known for using purgatives and enemas.
In Graeco-Roman Egypt a common sign of mourning was to deny oneself the luxury of bathing and adornment. In a letter of this period to a woman called Isidora from her husband, Serenus, whom she has abandoned, he writes, ‘I have not bathed or anointed myself for a whole month.’53 In the earlier periods of Egyptian history professional mourners threw dirt over their faces and pulled at their hair and clothes, showing themselves as dishevelled and dirty.
Herodotus records, ‘Egyptians who shave at all other times, mark a death by letting the hair grow both on the head and on the chin.’54 Just as washing and cleanliness were important, so was the removal of body hair for both men and women, and to abandon this practice was a sign of neglect and a suitable demonstration of grief. In the Middle Kingdom story of Sinuhe, when he was reinstated in the Egyptian court he claims, ‘I was shaved and my hair was combed. In this may my squalor be returned to the foreign land, my dress to the Sandfarers. I was dressed in the finest linen. I was anointed with perfumed oil and I slept on a real bed.’55 Sinuhe had been living in Syria as a tribal leader, and therefore the message he is giving here is that being clean, shaved and anointed was a luxury of the Egyptians. It was generally believed that the long beards and hair common to Asiatics was a sign of barbarianism and uncleanness.
On a daily basis the removal of body hair was important, both for hygiene and for ritualistic purposes. Tombs of both men and women have included knives accompanied by miniature whetstones, razors and tweezers. The razors were generally made of flint or metal, were kept in a sheath of bone or wood or a leather pouch and were stored with other cosmetic items.56 As in the modern world, shaving was not for everyone and there are recipes for hair removal creams made from the boiled and crushed bones of birds, fly dung, oil, sycamore juice, gum and cucumber. It was heated up and applied, then ripped off when it had cooled.57 The Egyptian priesthood, as part of their elaborate cleanliness rituals, shaved off all body hair, including their eyebrows, every three days, which ensured they were free from lice when entering the temple and the domain of the gods.
Keeping clean was important to people of all classes and some houses at El-Lahun and Amarna have separate bathrooms. Poorer people did not have such luxury and washed in a basin or in the Nile. Most people had washbowls in the house with matching jugs made of bronze, alabaster or pottery, depending on wealth.58
Soap was made from natron, soda and ashes, or niter (a type of potassium). Oil and lime were added to the water, which had the effect of soap but no doubt irritated and dried the skin. There were more than thirty types of oil designed to anoint the skin which may have soothed it, made by mixing vegetable oil with milk, honey salts, fragrant resins and aromatic flowers.59
Perfumed oils were considered such a necessity that they were included in the rations of the Deir el-Medina workmen.60 The production of perfume oil is depicted in numerous tombs, including the fifth dynasty tomb of Iymery at Giza, and shows plant parts being crushed in a bowl before being placed in a cloth with two loops at each end. A rod was put into these loops and the cloth was twisted until all of the liquid had been squeezed out of the plant pulp.61 This method only uses part of the plant and the perfumes, especially those with lily extract, had a shelf life of as much as twenty years. Myrrh-based scents lasted ten years and cinnamon and cassia lasted a little less.62
Like any modern individual, the Egyptians were concerned with growing old and oils were prescribed in the Ebers Medical Papyrus (1500BCE) as a cure for wrinkles: ‘To remove facial wrinkles: frankincense, gum, wax, fresh balanites oil and rush-nut should be finely ground and applied to the face every day. Make it and it will happen!’63 In order to improve the appearance further, cosmetics were a regular part of the daily routine for rich and poor alike, from as early as the Badarian Period (4000 BCE). In the temple cults where the statues were ritually washed and dressed, eye make-up was regularly used to give them a lifelike appearance.64
A New Kingdom love song demonstrates the extent make-up played in everyday life, as it is listed among the daily rituals of getting dressed and perfumed:
When I think of my love of you, it makes me act not sensibly,
It leaps from its place, it lets me not to put on a dress,
Nor wrap my scarf around me:
I put no paint upon my eyes,
I’m not even anointed.65
Eye make-up also had a medical function, as it repelled flies (which carried diseases), prevented the delicate skin from around the eyes from drying out and also reflected the glare of the hot desert sun. On some New Kingdom kohl pots, which were used for storing eye make-up, there were
inscriptions like ‘good for the sight’, ‘to staunch bleeding’, ‘to cause tears’ or ‘for cleaning the eyes’,66 identifying their medical properties.
From the Pre-Dynastic Period to at least the nineteenth dynasty, green malachite was popular, and then dark-grey galena, a lead-based mineral, was used for eyeshadow. Both minerals were imported from the Sinai, and malachite was also mined in the eastern desert. In later periods kohl was used, which was made from sunflower soot, charred almond shells and frankincense, and is still used in some areas of the Middle East today. The powdered minerals were mixed with water and resin and stored initially in shells and then later in elaborate kohl pots until it was needed. To apply it the kohl was dropped into the eye and the tear spread it to the underside of the lashes.67
In the New Kingdom the eyes were sometimes shaded with two colours, green applied to the brows and the corner of the eyes and grey to the rims and lashes. A dark line was drawn from the corner of the eye to the hairline and the eyebrow was extended to parallel this line.68 New Kingdom tomb paintings also tell us that black galena was used on the lids and upper eye and green malachite was used on the lower eye as a defining line, as portrayed on the Old Kingdom statues of Nesa in the Louvre Museum, Paris.
In addition to eye make-up, the Egyptians also wore rouge and lipstick. The Turin Erotic Papyrus shows one girl applying lipstick with a lip brush while looking into a hand mirror, and the painted bust of Nefertiti shows her lips as distinctly darker than her face, which some have identified as the use of lipstick.
Rouge was made of hematite and red ochre mixed with vegetable oil or animal fat, and examples have been found in a number of tombs. The Ebers Medical Papyrus suggests a similar recipe to disguise the appearance of facial burns, indicating it was a cosmetic for the face. The tomb of Nefertari is the only tomb that clearly shows cheeks as a darker, circular patch indicative of rouge, although a relief from the Middle Kingdom which is now in the British Museum (1658) shows a woman wiping her face with a small pad, which could be the application of foundation or rouge.
A cleanser was discovered in the eighteenth-dynasty tomb of three princesses, comprising sediments of fat mixed with lime or chalk, and likely used to clean these cosmetics from the face. This cleanser probably caused as much damage to the skin as the cosmetics. In order to counter dry skin the Ebers Papyrus recommends ‘gall bladder of a cow, oil, rubber and flour of the ostrich plume. Thin with plant oil and wash the face with it daily’.69
In order to complete a well-planned, fashionable ensemble the Egyptians dressed their hair. Hair was particularly important and had aesthetic, social and ritualistic importance. The ritual started in childhood, as heads were shaved except for a lock of hair on the right hand side as a sign of their infant status. All children, regardless of sex or class, wore the side-lock. The daughters of Akhenaten are all shown with side-locks, with the oldest having the longest and thickest one.
The king is often depicted as a child being suckled by Isis while wearing the lock of youth, showing that he is the divine son of the goddess, and in the Valley of the Kings the mummies of two princes were discovered with the side-lock still in place. One was the son of Amenhotep II, aged about eleven years old, and the other was a son of Ramses III, aged about five years old. When the child reached adolescence the side-lock was shaved off, perhaps in a coming of age ceremony (see chapter five). Sometimes this side-lock of hair was kept and in the British Museum (EA 62500) there is a plaited side-lock which was discovered in the sixth dynasty grave of a child.70
In adulthood many people shaved their heads to prevent lice, as well as to keep cool in the desert climate. During the day they wore simple linen headdresses (as discussed above) to protect their shaved heads from the sun. However, for banquets and memorable occasions elaborate wigs were worn. They were made of human hair, horse hair, sheep wool or plant fibres, depending on budget. The best quality wigs consisted of up to 120,000 human hairs woven into a mesh and glued into place with bees wax and resin, whereas wigs of poorer quality were made of red palm fibre.71
Artistic representations often show the wearer’s natural hair line, which tells us that wigs could be worn over natural hair, should they have their own hair, or over a shaved head. The style of wigs changed over the millennia from the short-cropped, curly wigs of the Old Kingdom, which were constructed of small overlapping curls in horizontal rows over the forehead,72 to the long, full wigs of the New Kingdom, which consisted of the hair separated into three sections, with one over each shoulder and a long, thick section down the back. In the eighteenth dynasty it was fashionable for royal women to wear Hathor wigs, which saw the hair divided into two even sections, which were brought to the front and bound with ribbon wrapping them around two flat discs. New Kingdom wigs were generally varied and complicated, with designs of curls and plaits.
While the majority of wigs were black, some were dyed a vibrant blue, green,73 or red and yellow as depicted in the Old Kingdom tomb of Merysankh III on the queen’s short wig.74 Henna was a common means of dying the hair, hands and nails, and can be seen on mummified remains.
While greying hair is a simple fact of life, in ancient Egyptian art it is rarely depicted. In the tomb of Pashedu (TT3) at Deir el-Medina and the tomb of Ipuy (TT217) there are some unusual images of the tomb owner and family members with white hair, grey hair and salt-and-peppered hair. Although the hair is grey and denotes age and wisdom, the faces and the bodies are youthful. The Hearst Medical Papyrus includes a remedy to prevent hair from turning grey, which suggests cooking a mouse in oil and applying it to the greying hair,75 whereas the Ebers papyrus recommends the placenta of the cat for the treatment of the same issue.76
Some people were also unlucky enough to lose their hair, and while it was fashionable to shave the head and wear a wig there were also remedies to prevent hair loss, which included one of a mixture of the fat of a lion, hippopotamus, crocodile, cat, snake and ibex: ‘Mix as one thing, smear the head of the bald person with it.’77
In the New Kingdom, while wigs were popular, some people maintained their own hair and added hairpieces to thicken it, to both appear fashionable and to enhance thinning hair. A number of hairpieces have been found in funerary contexts. Wigs and hairpieces were a major part of everyday life for most Egyptians and archaeologists discovered a wig workshop in a room near the temple of Deir el Bahri. This has provided information regarding the care and manufacture of wigs, as many were in various stages of completion. Remnants of a waxy soap was discovered, which was probably used for washing the wigs and hair. It was made of natron and soda, and was very good for removing fatty substances like the perfumed cones. A dark brown substance of bicarbonate of manganese and quartz grains gave the hair body and shine, and if mixed with a waxy substance could have been used as a dye.78
Elite and royal women had servants to dress their hair, and there are images in tombs of wigs being rearranged by female servants. For example, in the Cairo Museum there is a sarcophagus belonging to Kawait, priestess of the goddess Hathor; on it she is depicted sipping from a cup and holding a mirror in her hand while a servant curls her hair. Hair curlers were included in numerous tombs, as were hairpins and wooden or ivory combs.79 In the eighteenth-dynasty tomb of Userhat (TT56) there is an image of a number of young men waiting to have their hair cut outdoors, indicating barbers worked in the open and travelled around different villages. However, being a barber was not considered a very good job, as the Middle Kingdom ‘Satire of the Trades’ describes.
The barber barbers until nightfall.
He betakes himself to town, he sets himself up in his corner,
He moves from street to street looking for someone to barber.
He strains his arms to fill his belly,
Like the bee that eats as it works.80
Hair was seen as more than just a means of enhancing beauty; it was considered erotic, and was often used in literature and love poetry to symbolise sexuality. In the ‘Tale of the Two Broth
ers’ the younger brother interrupts his sister-in-law as she is braiding her hair, which at the time was as erotic as being caught in a state of undress. She propositions him but he refuses as he is loyal to his brother. However, she lies to her husband, claiming his brother had propositioned her and said, ‘Come, let us spend an hour lying together: loosen your braids.’81 This final line has also been interpreted as ‘don your wig’82, but both connect hair and sex. The act of braiding one’s hair is also mentioned in a New Kingdom love poem.
My heart thought of my love for you, when half of my hair was braided;
I came at a run to find you, and neglected my hairdo.
Now if you let me braid my hair, I shall be ready in a moment.83
Hair was also used as a sexual tool by erotic dancers and acrobats. They wore long wigs that were weighted at the bottom, enabling them to swing their hair in an arc while dancing,84 which focused the attention of the men watching. In one Middle Kingdom story that describes an encounter between a herdsman and a goddess, the herdsman describes his awe:
See, all of you, I went down to a pool which is close [to] this lowland, I saw a woman there, whose physique is not that of [ordinary] humans; my hair went on end as I stared at her locks (?), for the smoothness of her skin I would never do what she had said (otherwise but) awe of her pervaded my body.85
The mere sight of the heavenly woman with her flowing hair rendered him immobile. Although this describes a goddess the description is one of eroticism, and conveys the ancient Egyptian idea of beauty to us.
Lost Voices of the Nile: Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt Page 6