18th Dynasty Wig
This wig made of human hair, also referred to as a “double/duplex wig” due to the two contrasting styles in one piece, would have been worn by a male of elite status in New Kingdom Egyptian society and was discovered in Thebes.
The wig is made of real human hair, plaited and tousled, and its style has been secured via beeswax and resin.
The curls on top are artificially curled, most likely using a pin curl technique. Below the tousled top, several hundred thin plaits hang from ear to ear around the main wig’s neck.
In general, Ancient Egyptian wigs were made of diverse materials, including human hair, wool, plant fibres, and horsehair. The most expensive wigs were made of either human hair, black sheep wool, or both. In addition to fake or human hair, Ancient Egyptians utilised beeswax and resins to secure the style on a mesh cap, and as previously stated, such a practice was used upon this wig (British Museum. EA2560) too.
The Egyptian Museum catalogue describes it as “human hair from a mummy” (1852, p. 13, no. 130). Professor Newberry described it as a “mummified human head with hair plaited and plain” around 1910. In the 1928 Mayer Inventory, it was described as “Portions of Human Hair, plaited and plain”.
National Museum of Liverpool. M11139
False plaits, better known today in the hairdressing world as “extensions”, date back to the Predynastic Period, and a number of wigs and additional hairpieces were discovered in Twelfth Dynasty tombs at Lisht.
To see how such pieces of hair were added to hair and/or wigs, you can have a look at the limestone fragments in which royal hairdressers are depicted attending to Queen Neferu.
Wigs were worn in Ancient Egyptian society for numerous reasons, including hygiene (heat, lice) and fashion and extravagance. The grander your wig, the more impressive you would appear.
Wigs may also have a symbolic function: there are numerous literary allusions in which hair and wigs are invoked in a sexual context, one of the most well-known being the seduction scene in the literary piece known as the Tale of the Two Brothers (British Museum. EA10183). In Egyptian philosophy, sexual activity and reincarnation after death were inextricably intertwined, therefore the appearance of a wig in a burial could be an allusion to expectations for rebirth as well as the inclusion of valuable things in the tomb.
The wig itself was acquired by the British Museum in 1835, via Sotheby’s and was once a part of the collection of Henry Salt (1780-1827).
Interestingly, the British Museum writes that in preparation for a temporary exhibition of the wig in September of 2013, “It was requested that the white bloom on the hair was examined and analysed. The box was opened to allow close examination. A strong smell was released. One of these were taken for analysis, as they also had a bloom. The bloom is white and more evident in some places than others. It was magnified and seen to consist of small white crystals.“
