Models on the runway for Alexander McQueen's FW 2018 show with long braids Braid patterns or hairstyles can be an indication of a person's community, age, marital status, wealth, power, social position, and religion. In many African tribes, hairstyles are unique and used to identify each tribe.
Other styles informed others of an individual's status in society.Īfrican people such as the Himba people of Namibia have been braiding their hair for centuries. Certain hairstyles were distinctive to particular tribes or nations. Braids were a means of social stratification.
At a glance, one individual could distinguish a wealth of information about another, whether they were married, mourning, or of age for courtship, simply by observing their hairstyle. In some regions, a braid was a means of communication. There has also been found bog bodies in Northern Europe wearing braided hairstyles from the Northern European Iron Age. The Venus of Brassempouy is estimated to be about 25,000 years old and ostensibly shows a braided hairstyle.Īnother sample of a different origin was traced back to a burial site called Saqqara located on the Nile River, during the first dynasty of Pharaoh Menes, although the Venus’ of Brassempouy and Willendorf predate these examples by some 25,000-30,000 years.ĭuring the Bronze Age and Iron Age many peoples in the Near East, Asia Minor, Caucasus, East Mediterranean and North Africa such as the Sumerians, Elamites, and Ancient Egyptians were depicted in art with braided or platted hair and beards. It has been disputed whether or not she wears braided hair or some sort of a woven basket on her head. The oldest known reproduction of hair braiding may go back about 30,000 years: the Venus of Willendorf, now known in academia as the Woman of Willendorf, is a female figurine estimated to have been made between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE. 1818 – 1868 CE), Emperor of Ethiopia, depicted in Histoire de l'Ethiopie d'Axoum à la révolution (1998), wearing braided locks.