Hair Dye History: Crazy Ways Ancient People Colored Their Hair (2024)

FAQs

Hair Dye History: Crazy Ways Ancient People Colored Their Hair? ›

They would use henna to camouflage gray hair (yes, the preoccupation with grays dates way back). "Plants like indigo and turmeric were also the main ingredients in dyes," says hair artist Gina Rivera. Years later, the Greeks and Romans used plant extracts to color their strands.

In Europe, women often used herbal concoctions and vegetable extracts to achieve various shades of blonde and red. The use of alum, sulphur, and honey was common to create lighter hair colours, while henna and madder root were used to achieve darker shades.

The earli- est records of the use of henna for hair pigment come from Ancient Egypt, where mummies were found to have henna-dyed hair and fingers [1]. Microscopic analysis of mummies has confirmed the presence of hydroxynaph- thoquinone, the active pigment ingredient of henna [2].

Pliny the Elder wrote that Germanic people made soap by cooking ashes and animal fat and that it bleached the hair when used. Such soap is very basic and will indeed bleach your hair if you use it.

Hair Color History

In 1907, French chemist Eugene Schueller took PPD and created the first hair color for commercial purposes, dubbing the new product Aureole, which soon became known as L'Oréal, as was the company that Schueller founded.

For a darker hair colour, the Aztecs would get some black clay, and mix it with the powdered bark of a resinous tree called uixachin – or, as we know it, Acacia farnesiana.

Mountain alder (Alnus incana)

Outer bark was used to make a flaming red hair dye. Some tribes mixed this species with grindstone dust or black earth to make a black dye.

Romans used a variety of methods and ingredients for dyeing their hair. Some used henna, a plant-based reddish brown dye, and others used berries, vinegar, or crushed nutshells. Perhaps the strangest hair dye was a preparation used to turn the hair black that was made from leeches mixed with vinegar.

Years later, the Greeks and Romans used plant extracts to color their strands. They also created a permanent black hair dye. However, when they discovered it was too toxic to use, they switched to a formula made with leeches that had been fermented in a lead vessel for two months.

There is even recorded evidence that Egyptians have used henna as a coloring agent as early as 1500 bc. Hairstyling was introduced to Roman society around 300 bc, with noble women dying their hair red after seeing it on Gaul traders, whom also dyed their hair red as a symbol of status and rank.

What color of hair did the Norse people have? ›

Red- or blonde-haired Vikings? Genetic research has shown that the Vikings in West Scandinavia, and therefore in Denmark, were mostly red-haired. However, in North Scandinavia, in the area around Stockholm, blonde hair was dominant.

For women, the most common coiffure was a long ponytail, coiled into a knot close to the head, sometimes called the 'Irish ribbon knot' (Hedeager 2015, 134). Occasionally the ponytail was plain. Next in popularity was the topknot.

It is now almost certain that native Irish and Scottish Celts were taken (probably as slaves) to southwest Norway by the Vikings, and that they increased the frequency of red hair there.

The rarest natural hair colour is red, which makes up only one to two percent of the global population. You commonly see these hair colours in western and northern areas of Europe, especially Scotland and Ireland. However, natural redheads may not exist for much longer.

Some archaeological evidence suggest humans may have used dye on their hair as far back as the Paleolithic Period (a.k.a. the Stone Age, as in millions of years ago). Their preferred source: reddish iron oxide, which they found in the dirt and used to adorn their skin, their abodes—and their hair.

That invention was Tyrian purple, otherwise known as shellfish purple. But though this noble pigment was the most expensive product in antiquity – worth more than three times its weight in gold, according to a Roman edict issued in 301 AD – no one living today knows how to make it.

Bands made of cloth, leather, or metal held the hair in place, as did elaborate hairnets. A variety of braids were used including the fishtail braid (two “legs”) worn by the Caryatids or maidens from the Erechtheion on the Athenian Acropolis.

A Bit of History

Historically, dyes came from nature, with primary sources consisting of animals or plants. The majority of these came from roots, berries, bark, leaves, wood, and other organic, naturally occurring substances such as fungi.

Ancient Greek not only used olive oil for cooking purposes, but also to condition their hair. Additionally, lotions, ointments, and bee wax were applied to make the hair brighter.