Dress, Adornment,
Body Care in Ancient Egypt

Egyptian woman
fathomed cosmetic realm 7000 years ago
Like Egyptian women today, their forebears coloured their nails, palms, soles and sometimes hair also with a paste containing the yellowish-red pigment of henna leaves. Tattooing was also used to enhance feminine charms. The patterns on some predynastic and archaic statues are usually regarded as the earliest examples.
The erotic overtones of the art emerge clearly from the figures of 'brides of the dead' laid in tombs from the New Kingdom onwards; these were decorated with the familiar tattoo motifs.

Even in ancient Egypt a gorgeous complexion did not last forever. To treat wrinkles (and freckles) oil of fenugreek was recommended, a plant freely available because of its use as animal fodder.
No sooner had they stepped outside the dim seclusion of their homes than the Egyptians were exposed to the full impact of the sun. Clouds blowing in from the Mediterranean, to be dissipated later over Upper Egypt, seldom hid the deep blue sky.
The low humidity of the Sahara, the world's largest desert, affected the Nile valley too, so that human body temperature was regulated by the evaporation of sweat even at a time of great physical exertion.

From prehistoric times the climate of the country had forced people to wear light, airy clothes. Heavy perspiration led them to take care of their skin and hair not merely by washing, but by a quite elaborate cosmetic routine.
The pioneers in dress and hygiene alike were understandably the women, who learned to enhance the natural beauty of their dark-haired, dark-eyed Mediterranean kind and the charm of their graceful movements by the tasteful lines of their costume, striking coiffure, relative cleanliness and the use of alluring perfumes.
Textile manufacture and dressmaking were indeed the only areas of the economy that remained predominantly in female hands. These were activities pursued in every household, and women were also for a long time paramount in the spinning and weaving shops incorporated in aristocratic houses.

The most common material for garments was linen, with wool coming second and cotton added in old times. The dressmaking tools were knives (or scissors) and needles. In predynastic times the knives were made of dressed stone and the needles of bone; in the Old Kingdom both were made of copper, gradually replaced by bronze from the Middle Kingdom on.

The eyes of needles, remarkably, were not bored but scratched out with a hard pointed instrument, probably of stone. Thread was made by twisting flax yarn.
Men's skins had since time immemorial been so accustomed to the sun through continual exposure that it represented no problem: they had adapted biologically by increased pigmentation of the lower layer of the skin, acquiring the reddish-brown complexion that became darker further south.
The skin colour of the men is faithfully reproduced in tomb paintings. On some predynastic palettes men are shown naked except for a belt round the loins from which hung either a strip of cloth forming a penis sheath, or else a kilt with a thick fringe made of some plant material.

These were probably worn not out of modesty but simply to protect the organs from the elements. Even in historical times unmarried men still walked around in this garb.
The well-known palette of King Narmer, who created a unified Egypt, is the earliest depiction of a king wearing the short kilt with its two ends crossed over and tucked in at the hips under a belt that is tied into a bow at the front. This was to become standard male wear for thousands of years.
It was at first very short and remained so among the common people, but in higher circles it gradually lengthened to halfway down the calves and in the Middle Kingdom dropped to the ankles. The upper edge sometimes stood out. A Strip of linen draped loosely over the shoulder, which in course of time acquired first short, and then long, sleeves, occasionally supplemented the kilt. Diaphanous cloaks with short, wide sleeves made of special fine linen imported from Syria, became fashionable in the New Kingdom.

 For working in the fields villagers wore a simple apron, made as a plain triangle of material with a wedge-shaped opening in front and the point hanging down behind over the rump. Boatmen, fishermen and papyrus and reed gatherers wore nothing at all. Villagers only donned the kilt when they were bringing their produce to the granaries or to town, or visiting relatives or temples.
They are usually portrayed with kilts, again, when they were bringing funerary offerings. In the course of the Middle Kingdom the kilt became the universal garment in the countryside as elsewhere. During the New Kingdom standard man's dress included a sort of shirt or tunic, very loose-fitting and less easy to see in a picture, but attested by finds and texts.
Textile manufacture and dressmaking were indeed the only areas of the economy that remained predominantly in female hands. These were activities pursued in every household, and women were also for a long time paramount in the spinning and weaving shops incorporated in aristocratic houses.

It was modestly trimmed with coloured braid, ribbons, edging and other embellishments, while metal decorations, embroidery or painted details were added in the Late Period.
The neckline was either deep and wide, or narrow, converging down to the waist. Some dresses covered only one shoulder, the other shoulder and breast remaining bare, except when concealed behind a light veil or the edge of wrap or cloak.
The shoulder-wrap or hip-length cloak ended in a fringe tied into little knots.
Feminine clothing was becoming subtler and unquestionably sexy during this period, while dancing-girls, singers and musicians, like the young waitresses who served at banquets, walked around with no more to cover them than a string of beads round the buttocks and across the pubis, or perhaps a scanty kerchief for modesty.
It would be hard to enumerate all the fashionable accessories that adorned the clothes not only of women, but of men, especially in affluent circles.

Queen Hetepheres, mother of Cheops, was accompanied to her grave by silver and ivory bracelets decorated with butterflies of carnelian, turquoise and lapis lazuli. Simpler folk had to rest content with ceramic of faience beads in white, red and aquamarine.
Women showed more originality in their hair-styles. In their case too the basic preference was for a smooth, close coiffure; only occasionally do we find a natural wave or long ringlets. This applied to all classes insofar as they dispensed with wigs. However, even in Old Kingdom statues and reliefs we find, mainly on noblewomen (but from the 5th dynasty on their maids too) wigs that were usually of moderate length, the hair running from a central parting over the ears down to the chin or to shoulder level.

Egyptian beauties used to darken their brows, eyelids and lashes with the aid of little splints or miniature spoons made of stone, metal, wood or bone, usually tracing lines from the outer corners of the eyes and eyebrows toward the front of the earlobes, where they met.
It seems from all this that the Egyptians had achieved high standards of bodily care and hygiene all those thousands of years ago. Alas, this did not apply to the common folk, especially the very poor.

El-Harawy house (1731) near el-Azhar mosque in the Fatimid Cairo. The house includes three distinguished architectural groups. The main sections date back to (1731), the eastern reception hall daes back to the 16th Century while the second entry at the northern side was added to the house by the end of the 19th Centry. The restoration of this mounumental house started in January 1986 with a French artistic assistance.. Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak imaugurated this house in September, 25 1993 and it is used now as a cultural center.