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Both men and women routinely completed their ablutions by massaging moisturizing oils into their skin. These reduced the ageing effect of the hot and dusty climate and the drying ‘soap’ whose main ingredient, natron, was the principal dehydrating agent used to desiccate dead bodies during mummification. The use of oils was believed to enhance skin condition and prevent wrinkles while partially concealing the after-effects of disfiguring diseases such as smallpox and leprosy; the Ebers Medical Papyrus certainly promoted their use with all the enthusiasm of a modern advertising campaign:
To remove facial wrinkles: frankincense gum, wax, fresh balanites oil and rush-nut should be finely ground and applied to the face every day. Make it and you will see!
While the lower classes had to be content with using simple castor or linseed oil, the upper echelons of society imported luxuriously scented unguents from the east; these had the added benefit of leaving the smooth body sensuously and expensively perfumed. As with many modern moisturizing creams, however, it would appear that the difference in actual effect would have been minimal, the difference in price and perceived value extreme, and it seems highly likely that the scent was added as much to mask potentially rancid smells as to delight the purchaser. No fashionable Egyptian man or woman would be caught dead without his or her preferred skin lotion, and Tutankhamen’s funerary equipment included a large jar of his favourite brand. Similar oil-based unguents were used by pregnant women wishing to prevent the formation of disfiguring stretch-marks across the stomach, and these oils were often stored in special jars shaped like a naked pregnant woman holding her swollen stomach. That these luxury cosmetics could be very costly indulgences is beyond doubt. Indeed, Diodorus Siculus believed that the taxes paid by the fishermen licensed to fish in Lake Moeris, a huge annual income, was allotted to the queens of Egypt to enable them to purchase their cosmetics, perfumes and other toiletry items.
Place myrrh upon your head, dress yourself in the finest of linens.
New Kingdom poem
A wide variety of perfumed conditioning oils was also available for rubbing into the scalp after shampooing, again with the aim of protecting the hair from the harsh climate. During the New Kingdom this practice was extended to include the fashion, rather bizarre to modern eyes, of wearing perfumed lumps or cosmetic cones of fat balanced precariously on the head during social occasions. These unusual party hats were made from tallow impregnated with myrrh, and were designed to melt slowly as the festivities progressed, releasing their perfume and allowing a thin and presumably refreshing trickle of wax to run down the hair and face. As the heat of the party made the fat melt away it was topped up by a servant. The cones appear to have been provided by the host for both his guests and the attendant servants, and tomb scenes indicate that no dinner party would have been complete without them. They are generally illustrated as white lumps with brown streaks running down the sides, while brown stains shown on the shoulders of white clothing may well represent the greasy drips. No actual examples of perfume cones have survived, and it is now difficult to determine how literally these party scenes should be interpreted.
My heart thought of my love of you when only half my hair was dressed. I came running to find you and neglected my appearance. Now, if you will wait while I plait my hair, I shall be ready for you in a moment.
New Kingdom love song
Many societies exert moral pressure to control the way in which both men and women are allowed to display their hair. Without any clear legal obligation both sexes are expected to observe the conventions of their time, which may for example decree that women must have long hair, that men must not have long hair, or that hair should not be revealed at all by either sex. Deviation from this norm may be seen as in some way threatening to society as a whole. If this view seems extreme it should be remembered that less than a hundred years ago in Europe ‘bobbed’ hair was regarded by many as a sign of extreme female depravity, while long hair in men is still regarded by some as a sinister modern development indicating that the wearer has chosen to opt out of conventional society. Within the conventions imposed by the community a woman’s chosen hairstyle indicates to others the group to which that woman either belongs or aspires to belong. The punk and the hippy provide extreme modern examples: a tightly permed blue rinse or cascade of artificially golden curls send out equally clear social signals. It is unfortunate that, as with so many aspects of Egyptian life, our knowledge of female coiffure is confined to the more wealthy members of society and their servants, portrayed under idealized conditions. The effect of changing fashions on the village woman is simply not known.