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Knightly Hairdos

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Sir Douglas:
This is probably a dumb question, but I was thinking about this today. How much do we know about men's hairstyles throughout the medieval period? Like common styling practices. Has anyone ever done any kind of extensive research on this?

I know the early Normans had that half-shaven thing going on, Henry V (and many knights of his time, it seems) had the bowl cut, Teutonics had to keep it short, curls were popular, and monks were tonsured. Otherwise, it seems that men's hairstyles all over Europe stayed pretty much the same until around the late 15th century: about medium length, wavy-to-curly, and often with a short fringe in the front.

Were there other popular styles? Also, most of the images I looked at were of knights, kings, and noblemen; would lower-class men have worn similar styles as well?

Sir Ulrich:
I keep my hair long akin to a medieval person myself. I would have short hair but I think I actually look better with it long. I also keep a rather unkempt goatee as well. Not sure how period my hair style would be but for the dark ages it would fit right in.

Sir James A:
My knowledge of that is pretty slim, as I looked into possibly doing a medieval style hair cut for Days of Knights 2012. Found pretty much the same thing you've already stated, and primarily by looking at a few pictures. The larger ones that were easy to make out hair styles on (enough to take a picture to the barber and say "do this, and yes I'm mildly insane") were also knights / nobles / upper class. I didn't mind that much since I was portraying a knight. The bowl cut kept screaming "Three Stooges" at me. :(

Sir Douglas:
Hardly conclusive evidence for anything, but an interesting observation from the Maciejowski Bible.

Boys and very young men are shown with short, curly hair -- i.e. young David slaying Goliath, Cain and Abel as children.
Older, but still young men are shown with that jaw-length, curly with the short curled bangs style that you see everywhere. Some are clean shaven, some have short beards -- David after he becomes king, older Cain and Abel, random dudes in general.
Older (or more distinguished?) men have long, wavy hair, parted in the middle, and thicker, fuller beards -- Noah, Jacob, and...um...God.
Beggars and vagabonds also seem to have the same general styles according to age, though their hair is often more unkempt.

It might just be more of an artistic device than an actual practice, but I thought it was kind of interesting.

Don Jorge:
Some effigies make it easy by not having helmets on...This is the effigy I am using as my source and no way I have that hair...mine is way more curly and when grown out (havent cut my hair since Oct) it looks more like an afro mullet...so short cropped hair for me unfortunately...

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