Pharaonic Dresses and Hairstyles Gods, Goddesses and Pharaohs

The most authentic available information on the ancient Egyptian costumes comes from the study of sculptures and paintings of those times. These images were not a reflection of mere imagination of the artist rather than of conventions and customs. This can be deduced by their uniform style. Many of the images are of gods and goddesses and of rulers dressed as gods. But as the conventions of these times were, those gods are embodied in the form of humans. Thus, they give us a portrait of those people who worshipped their deities along the successive generations.

1.1- Ptolemy Piladelphus, wearing a tall mintre bearing the royal cobra and a lioncloth, called a 'Schenti', a wide necklace and a bracelet. Ptolemy wears an apron that appears to be made from leather and points outward at the front. This is tied on the body by cords that were held together either by canes or by metal bands.

1.2 - This Cleopatra, one of the six Egyptian queens who bear that name, has plaited her bound by a ribbon bearing the royal Cobra. The two feathers of the headdress denote the highest rank, while the sun, the globe and the ram horn are symbols of life.

2.8 - Queen Nevertary, wife of Ramses II. This fragment shows an Egyptian woman in her best finery, with a transparent dress and an eye enlarged with Kohl. 2.12 - Amun-Ra, the supreme god, with his distinguished headdress of two long, straight feathers. The sceptre with the hound head is a symbol of life.

2.13 - Khnum the 'maker of gods and man', who fashioned nature and mankind in the small bowl in his right hand and in his left hand.


Headdresses and Hairstyles

Ancient Egyptian dress styles were designed to a great extent to suit the hot climate and the burning sun. Women often wore only a girdle and a Klaft to cover the head. The Klaft was generally made from a thick, striped material and was fixed at the temples. It fell in folds over the shoulders, sometimes covering the ears and sometimes revealing them. Some women, though, wore headdresses that had been specially designed to show off the shape of their heads.

Egyptian women oiled their bodies in order to keep their skin supple in the intense heat, and also they used quantities of cosmetics. They coloured their eyeslids green or black to make their eyes appear larger and their cheeks white and red. The veins on their foreheads were traced in blue while carmine was put on their lips while their fingers were dyed an orange- red colour with henna.

White in all its shades was the most usual colour of clothes while headdresses were made of striped or embroidered material. Cotton, linen and wool were all used. Necks and ankles were normally bare, but adorned with richly worked necklaces and bracelets, made from gold, coral, pearl, agate, onyx and chalcedony.

The main figure in (2) is of a woman playing a mandola - an ancient stringed instrument - taken from the Necropolis at Thebes. She is wearing a collar formed from six strings of beads, and has two bracelets on each forearm. Her dress, which reaches to the floor, is made of linen, and is so thin that it may well have been made in Asia rather than in Egypt.

The main figure to her right is that of Ramses II, king of the 19th Dynasty. His crown is decorated with a cobra, a sign exclusive to Egyptian kings. The headdress in (1) hides the hair, but those in (2) generally reveal it. Egyptians took great trouble over their hair, often plaiting it intricately and adding artificial hair, or wearing it in ringlets. The rich wore wigs of natural hair, while the poor made it of wool.


Ramses and the lady to the left of the mandola player both have thickly plaited hair that volume probably increased by the use of hairpieces. Sometimes the additional hair was attached to the headdress as is probably the case with the figure to the right of Ramses, where the headdress is similar to a small skull-cap. On other occasions, the additional hair is attached to the natural hair, as in the figure at bottom centre, where the headdress is a pointed hood, completely independent of the plaited hair.

Immediately above this figure is a different hairstyle that may show either ringlets or very fine plaits. In the bottom left hand corner, the hair is long smooth, showing that Egyptians who wore their hair short had it cut severely.

Egyptians at War

The warrior kings of Egypt led their armies into battle personally, riding on chariots and brandishing bows, arrows and battle-axes. A tame lion, dressed for battle, normally ran in front of or behind the king's chariot.

1- Ramses II, wearing a helmet decorted with the royal Cobra and encrusted with precious metals. Wide ribbons flow out behind it.

His body is covered with a leather-lined bronze cuirass, and a metal gauntlet protects his forearm from the sting at the bowstring. His six-ringed collar supports an enamelled pectoral.

A typical war chariot has two wheels and is open at the back. In this picture, however, the sides are open. The chariot is probably made of bronze, as is Ramses bow and arrows, while the arrow heads are iron.

Normally the warrior had a charioteer on his left, but here he has the reins attached to his own body. The horses wore a fringed headdress half-way down the neck and a tasseled coat, tied at the chest. This coat was often woven in colours in the Babylonian style and sometimes embroidered.


The other figure in (1) shows various different headdresses and hairstyle :

some have loose hair; others have plaited hair with metal or leather coverings.

2- The absence of cavalry in the paintings and the bas-reliefs of Egypt suggest that there was not a cavalry forces as such. The mainstay of the army was infantry, protected by chariots posted at the front, back and sides of the marching body.

Here the chariot carries an ensign. Each corps had one placed high on a pole so as to be visible to all around. The emblem was usually religious and the god was represented either in human form or by the appropriate animal emblem, such as a sparrow or a lion. In this picture the royal standard is a vulture, and to the left of the chariot there is a priest burning incense.

The soliders accompanying the chariot are heavily armed. Their shields have small peepholes, so that the soldiers can see out without showing their faces. Their white tunics are tied at the waist and their heads are bare. Their toes, however, are protected by pointed shoes called tabteds made from plaited palm leaves tied with cords.