Cleopatra also probably often wore the melon hairstyle in Egypt, where she had many slaves to attend to her appearance, including some that were responsible for maintaining the royal wigs. The Egyptian queen extensively travelled, and did so in style.
Cleopatra's original raven-coloured block of braids was in fact a wig, worn by the gentry of ancient Egypt as a regal status symbol. Heads were shaved for cleanliness and the freshly cut hair was woven into an angular bob before being decorated with turquoise beads and ornate gold pieces.
Cleopatra Coin
She wears her curly hair not in bangs but in the popular melon style of the time, tied in a bun at the base of her skull. Even these coins come with red flags, though. During her marriage with Mark Antony, a silver denarius coin was issued to pay his troops.
In contrast to the romanticized portrayals of Cleopatra, the extant artistic depictions and coinage of her profile provide a more realistic, albeit stylized, representation of her appearance. Coins minted during Cleopatra's reign depict her with a prominent nose, a strong chin, and deep-set eyes.
Transformation of Hair Fashion Throughout Ancient Egypt
During this period, men and women wore their hair short and often shaved their heads. Some men wore small tufts of hair at the front of their heads, while women sometimes wore braids or a simple bob.
The oldest known depiction of hair styling is hair braiding which dates back about 30,000 years. Women's hair was often elaborately and carefully dressed in special ways, though it was also often kept covered outside the home, especially for married women.
As well as styling their own hair, the Egyptians also employed false hair. The earliest known example is a set of hair extensions from c. 3400 BC, discovered in a plundered female burial at Hierakonpolis (Fletcher 1998).
Cleopatra's eye makeup style
She wore golden-flecked bright blue eye shadow on her top eyelids and green paste on her lower eyelids. She used deep black kohl to make her eyelashes longer, darken her eyebrows, and accentuate her eyes.
The cat-eye can be traced all the way back to Ancient Egypt, where Cleopatra would don thick, wrap-around liner around her eyes. Produced using a variety of minerals, including copper ore and malachite, women drew thick, green, and black flicks that dramatically framed the eyes.
In Greek dress, she would have worn a chiton, a type of tunic made from a single piece of fabric that was draped and pinned around the body. In Egyptian dress, she might have worn a kalasiris, a close-fitting linen garment adorned with jewellery and embellishments.
When you picture ancient Egyptian beauties such as Queen Nefertiti or Cleopatra, they're probably wearing dramatic black eyeliner. Ancient Egyptians believed that eye makeup had properties bestowed by the gods protected the wearers from illness.
Cleopatra used egg as a natural shampoo to make her hair soft, beautiful.
Krishna has curly hair. The Goddesses Lakshmi (consort of Vishnu), Saraswati (consort of Brahma), and Durga (or Shakti, the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as “The Great Divine Mother”) have loose, unbound hair.
A face mask with green grapes and honey
Cleopatra's Kosmetikon is a papyrus found by archaeologists that records all her beauty secrets. It contains the recipe for Cleopatra's face mask with green grapes and honey. This treatment rejuvenates skin cells thanks to the antioxidants in the grapes.
Later, a very distinct youthful style was in fashion, the so-called “melon”, named because the hair was divided into a number of segments running like the ribs of a melon from the forehead to the back of the head (Hurschmann, 1998).
The Egyptians, and in particular Queen Cleopatra, were famously known to bathe in sour milk to improve the look and texture of the skin. Today, we know that sour milk contains lactic acid, a naturally occurring AHA.
This was usually done with the use of red ochre. Cleopatra wore a unique red lipstick created from flowers, red ochre, fish scales, crushed ants, carmine, and beeswax.
She darkened her eyebrows and lengthened her eyelashes with black kohl, a mixture of powdered lead sulfide and animal fat. And for lipstick and rouge, Cleopatra used red ochre, a type of clay colored red by iron oxide.
Lipstick History in Ancient Egypt
Cleopatra was said to have used a lipstick that was a red color that was obtained by crushing carmine beetles and ants. An interesting fact about ancient Egyptian lipstick—and makeup, in general, was that it was believed to have healing powers.
According to ancient Egyptian manuscripts, the eye makeup was believed to have a magical role, in which the gods Horus and Ra would protect wearers against several illnesses.
Kohl has been a popular cosmetic in civilisations across the world since prehistoric times, but its association with ancient Egypt is most well-known.
Historians say she used herbeuty to seduce Roman Emperor Julius Caesar and his leadinggeneral Mark Anthony. But a new exhibition at the British Museum in London nextmonth, which features 11 statues previously thought to portrayother queens, will show Cleopatra as plain-looking, about 5 feet tall and apparently plump.
In Ancient Egypt, body hair, especially pubic hair, was a symbol of the uncivilized, depicted as dirty and unhygienic, hence why many women opted for hair removal. They also followed the trends set by Cleopatra, who removed all of her body hair, including from the top of her head, to signify social class.
The wearing of wigs dates from the earliest recorded times; it is known, for example, that the ancient Egyptians shaved their heads and wore wigs to protect themselves from the sun and that the Assyrians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans also used artificial hairpieces at times.
The Egyptians may have been the forerunners of many beauty rituals, but they invested the most time into hair removal. Women of ancient Egypt removed all of their body hair, including that on their heads, with tweezers (made from seashells), pumice stones, or early beeswax and sugar based waxes.