| Fig. 43. | Fig. 44. |
Most commonly, however, in the sixth and fifth centuries men plaited their long hair and laid the plaits round their head. There were two distinct modes of doing this. One was to take two plaits from the back of the head in different directions and fasten them like bandages round the head; the other was to begin the plaits at the ears, turn them backwards so that they crossed each other at the back of the head, then bring them round to the front and knot them together over the centre of the forehead. This is the head-dress of the figure on the Omphalos known as Apollo (Fig. [45]), and the head of a youth (Fig. [46]). There are also many other differences in detail; sometimes
| Fig. 46. | Fig. 47. |
the two plaits were laid across the hair from the parting to the forehead in the form of a fillet holding the hair fast, as in the marble head (Fig. [47]); but sometimes the front hair is laid across the ends of the plait fastened together in front, as in the head from a vase painting represented in Fig. [48]. The head in Fig. [47] also shows a peculiar mode of treating the back hair. The lower part of this is plaited, and the plait turned up again and fastened where the other two braids cross each other. Other plaits also fall from behind the ears in regular arrangement over the shoulders in front, often reaching as far as the breast. The hair on the forehead is dressed with equal care. With this fashion also the regular little curls, arranged in one or more rows round the forehead, are very common. Sometimes they are in spiral form, sometimes in that of “corkscrew” curls, as on the archaic bronze head from Pompeii represented in Fig. [49] and in Fig. [48].
Fig. 47.