Knightly Hairdos

[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...

[Sir Wolf]

i think it was gerry embleton had a great showing of the different haircuts for the time periods

[Sir Gerard de Rodes]

Hair and beards were definitely a fashion statement and went through trends during the middle ages. Mens hair (head and face) usually followed the style that the current king chose to wear his.

I quite often sport a forked goatie as my king and his son did....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_III_Black_Prince_14thc.jpg

Alas I no longer have the facilities to grow a full head of wavy locks so have decided to go for the soldiers style of choice ( vastly decreasing the chances of becoming a home for lice) a number 1 all over, right down to the wood.

G.

[Ian]

...decided to go for the soldiers style of choice ( vastly decreasing the chances of becoming a home for lice) a number 1 all over, right down to the wood.

G.

Amen brother!

[Stanislaw]

Growth of long hair on my head is something I've been keeping up with for more than a year now. Check these drawings of effigies from around the period I aim to portray:

[Aiden of Oreland]

I noticed that in a lot of theses effigies it depicts people with wavy hair. In fact in a lot of medieval art work I see this. Is it the actual style or just an artistic way to draw hair? If it was the style did people make their hair wavy?

[Don Jorge]

I haven't cut my hair since October 2013 (I did so for my wedding)...I want to see how far along I can get it before I can't stand it and cut it all off...I have very curly hair...right now if i straighten it with my fingers it touches my nose...alas it curls right back into a jewphro...

[Sir Nate]

Im gonna go with short hair.
But a sort of Mustache Goatee style. Or maybe more like a king arthur Beard style.

[Aiden of Oreland]

Im gonna go with short hair.
But a sort of Mustache Goatee style. Or maybe more like a king arthur Beard style.

Copy cat! Preferably and more specificaly the Richard Harris Camelot beard

[Sir Douglas]

I noticed that in a lot of theses effigies it depicts people with wavy hair. In fact in a lot of medieval art work I see this. Is it the actual style or just an artistic way to draw hair? If it was the style did people make their hair wavy?

I read somewhere that they got those curls by braiding their hair, washing it, then unbraiding it when it dried. I actually tried this not long ago with a small section of my hair, and it produced some pretty nice results, though my hair is naturally wavy to begin with. I just wish I could find where I read that; no idea if it's true or not.

[Sir Wolf]

look to the king. he usually controlled fashion. well sometimes.