Ancient Egyptians used 'hair gel'

[Tukuler al~Takruri]

doi:10.1038/nmiddleeast.2011.110; Published online 23 August 2011


News
Ancient Egyptians used 'hair gel'
Mummy analysis finds that fat-based product held styles in place.
Jo Marchant for Nature magazine

The ancient Egyptians styled their hair using a fat-based 'gel', an analysis
of mummies has found. The researchers behind the study say that the Egyptians
used the product to ensure that their style stayed in place in both life and death.

Natalie McCreesh, an archaeological scientist from the KNH Centre for Biomedical
Egyptology at the University of Manchester, UK, and her colleagues studied hair
samples taken from 18 mummies. The oldest is around 3,500 years old, but most
were excavated from a cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis in the Western Desert, and
date from Greco-Roman times, around 2,300 years ago.

They include males and females ranging in age from 4 to 58 years old.
Some were artificially mummified, whereas others were preserved naturally
by the dry sand in which they were buried.

Microscopy using light and electrons revealed that nine of the mummies
had hair coated in a mysterious fat-like substance. The researchers used
gas chromatography–mass spectrometry to separate out the different
molecules in the samples, and found that the coating contained biological
long-chain fatty acids including palmitic acid and stearic acid. The results
are published in the Journal of Archaeological Science[1].

McCreesh thinks that the fatty coating is a styling product that was used
to set hair in place. It was found on both natural and artificial mummies,
so she believes that it was a beauty product during life as well as a key
part of the mummification process.

The resins and embalming materials used to prepare the artificially
mummified bodies were not found in the hair samples, suggesting that
the hair was protected during embalming and then styled separately.

"Maybe they paid special attention to the hair because they realized
that it didn't degrade as much as the rest of the body," says McCreesh.
The product was found on both male and female mummies, showing
that both sexes cared about their eternal hairdo.

High-status hairstyles

John Taylor, head of the Egyptian mummy collection at the British Museum
in London, describes the idea as feasible. "Hair was a status symbol," he says
— elaborate styles signified high standing.

Egyptian texts and art contain no mention of hair products, he says,
although ancient Egyptians are known to have used scented oils and
lotions on their bodies.

"The best clue comes from Egyptian wigs," says Taylor. "The hair is
often coated with beeswax." Such wigs, which have been found in
Egyptian tombs, would have been expensive and probably restricted
to the nobility, says McCreesh. "The majority of the mummies I've looked
at have their own hair," she says.

The Egyptians might have also used beeswax on their own hair. The
wax contains fatty acids such as palmitic acid, although McCreesh says
that her results so far don't show any evidence of beeswax. "It was a
fat, but we can't tell you what type of fat," she says.

She points out that beeswax would be difficult to wash out of hair, compared
to, say, animal fat. She now plans to analyse the samples further, to try to pin
down the hair-gel recipe.

The mummies' hairstyles varied, both long and short, with curls particularly
popular; metal implements resembling curling tongs have been found in several
tombs. Once the hair was styled, the fatty gunge would have held the individuals'
curls in place.

"You can almost imagine them when they were alive," says
McCreesh, "tending their hair and putting their curls in."

This article is reproduced with permission from Nature 19 August 2011
doi:"10.1038/news.2011.487":http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/news.2011.487


References

1.McCreesh, N. C., Gize, A. P. & David, A. R..
Ancient Egyptian hair gel:
New insight into ancient Egyptian mummification procedures through chemical analysis.
J. Archaeol. Sci. doi:j.jas.2011.08.004 (2011).

[anansi]

Interesting Bees wax is what some of us used today to make dread Locs the more thing change the more they remained the same.

[locdiva]

If anything shows the black race of the Kemetians it's the hair. The mummy in this thread has twists. In fact, the wig Elizabeth Taylor wore consisted of black twists from tacky wefts. Also, they wore cornrolls and were the 1st to die their hair and paint their nails.!!!

[Tukuler al~Takruri]

In the article British Museum's mummy collection chief John Taylor
says "Egyptian texts and art contain no mention of hair products,".

But is that so?

I seemed to recall something about hippo fat. Looking into it,
the 110 page misnamed "Eber's" papyrus -- besides its famous
contraceptive vaginal suppository -- lists these fat ingredients
in a baldness remedy preparation:
* hippopatamus
* crocodile
* tomcat
* snake
* ibex
* make into one and rub into the head of the bald one therewith.



Also, the controversial so-called "Hearst" papyrus has an
ointment made out of the fats of gazele, serpent, crocodile,
and hippopatamus used to make the hair grow.


Natalie McCreesh may want to analyze those fats to see which
may be sources for the "biological long-chain fatty acids including
palmitic acid and stearic acid" found in natural hair of the mummies
she examined.

[anansi]

Would be of interest to see if a lab tech or scientist would run an experiment using the ingredients above.

[truthteacher2007]

Aug 28, 2011 18:38:20 GMT -5 locdiva said:

If anything shows the black race of the Kemetians it's the hair. The mummy in this thread has twists. In fact, the wig Elizabeth Taylor wore consisted of black twists from tacky wefts. Also, they wore cornrolls and were the 1st to die their hair and paint their nails.!!!

Actually the mummy in the picture is wearing individual braids identical to the extensions that women still wear today. I got to see them up close. However, you are quite right in that they also wore 2 strand twists as well. You can see them on statues in various lengths from short to long. In the Old Kingdom short styles with twist were very popular.

They were also very fond of coils. They try to imply that they did not have kinky hair by mentioning rollers. Well the fact of the matter is you can go on youtube and see dozens of videos of black women with natural hair setting curls with various types of rollers.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2GodjFkzGc

The problem is that so many people think that kinky hair is tough, steel wool, hard, when in fact it is very versitile and maliable and can be shaped in a variety of ways. Honestly, if they would stop trying to deny Egypt's Africanity and just look at hair care and styles in neighboring regions of Africa, they would know what we've all known all along.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF4qq-juoQ4

We've all known that the styles we see on paintings and statues were set with fats and other substances because we still do it now. The Egyptians would have used bees wax on wigs. On their own hair they could have used diluted wax, which would be a lot easier to wash out. They also had access to butters, animal fats, gels from flax seeds and aloe vera.