Cleopatra Worked Her Power Hair

Egyptian queen Cleopatra used her hair designs in calculated ways to enhance her power and fame, according to a book published recently by a Yale art history and classics professor.

Statues, coins and other existing depictions of the queen suggest Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.) wore at least three hair designs, according to Diana Kleiner. The first, a “traveling” hair design that mimicked the hair of a Macedonian Greek queen, involved sectioning the hair into curls, which were then often pulled away from the face and gathered into a bun at the back. Worn different hair designs in different circumstances, playing to her audience

The next was a coiffure resembling a melon, and the third was the regal Cleopatra in her royal Egyptian headdress, complete with a rearing cobra made of precious metal.

Cleopatra did not invent any of these hair designs, but she used them to her advantage, Kleiner indicated in her book “Cleopatra and Rome.”

“From the time of (Egyptian King) Ptolemy I, the Ptolemaic queens wore the ‘melon hair design’ with its segmented sections resembling a melon or gourd,” Kleiner told Discovery News. “When Cleopatra followed suit, she was more traditionalist than trendsetter. These same Ptolemaic queens were also depicted in art with the usual Egyptian wigged headdress that had its origins in Pharaonic times. Cleopatra did as well, so again she followed tradition and did not innovate when it came to hair design.”

“But,” Kleiner added, “Cleopatra appears to have worn different hair designs in different circumstances, playing to her audience, so to speak, in life and in art.”

Memphis hairdresser Larry DeLancey saw plenty at the Chicago Midwest Beauty Show this month including punk hair with rainbow color streaks and eyelash extensions.

But the main message was hair styled in big loose curls, he said, whether they fell over shoulders or were swept up in a messy “bed head” do for weddings and proms. Bobs are going soft curls too.

Soft curls were all over the recent Academy Awards Soft Curls were all over the recent Academy Awardstoo. Salma Hayek liked them long and flowing; Naomi Watts wore them messy at the back of her head.

Memphis is usually a step behind in accepting a new hairstyle, said DeLancey. Teens cling to their straight Gwyneth Paltrow hair; mature women are still doing flippies, a la Halle Berry. Nevertheless “I’ve seen a lot more people wanting soft curls than straight hair,” he said.

Soft curls are created with setting spray and hot curlers or a curling iron with at least 1 1/4 -inch barrel, said DeLancey. Longer hair must be cut in layers to keep the hair from pulling out the curl, he said.

Thick, coarse hair may require a body perm. Fine to medium hair can be coaxed into lasting loose, curls with Texture Fusion by Scruples, a perm done on sponges, he said. You can style it by simple scrunching or you can use a curling iron.

Wavy bobs, a fresh look with movement for short hair, can be created at home using a three-barreled waving iron, he said.

At the beauty show he saw punky mullets streaked in “party colors,” he said, but longer side hair made them not so extreme. Extensions were even more popular, and now eyelashes are being lengthened with synthetic hair bonded to one’s own lashes with bonding glue. It costs from $350 to $550, he said.