Clothing and fashion

## Facepaint,Warpaint, Makeup

Celtic Tribes:

The early Britons in Caesar's time had used bodypaint in war as well as on festivities, possibly for ritual reasons.The Picts also very likely knew permanent tattoos.Both reportedly used woad and as such possibly a type of blue though greens are also debated.Nowadays woad is also contested as a bodycolour in general to it's potentially toxic nature, though that might be reduced by usong the pigments with earth, milk, clay or oils, romans likened these look to Aethiopians , blue and green bodypaint can be found in parts of traditional ethiopia til today.In irish mythology there are several descriptions of unusual patterns and colors on bodies and faces which might hint towards bodypaint and make-up as well, though the mentioned colors are strange and may rather suggest supernatural beings.

In roman times there is not much evidence for Warpaint and other bodypaint anymore, it seems to have been largely abandoned due to romanization, though some more backward tribes might still have practiced it.Most Romano-british however probably had adapted the contemporary roman make-up fashions.

Germanic tribes:

There is a little evidence that earlier germanic tribes used warpaint, but the only real historic example we know of are the Harii mentioned by Tacitus who painted their bodies black in war, we don't know how they did it, but they might have used coal or ashes.There are also some hints that sacrifical blood was somehow used to mark sacrifice participants, most likely by just spattering it on them.

The much later skandinavian Vikings did use make-up, males as well as females, but we only have evidence for use of eyeliner-like kohl and possibly powder (similar to mediterranean women), but these may have been fashions importedvfrom the mediterranean ratherbthan old indigenous traditions, though older roman sources also emphasize the "big black eyes" of the germans, possibly hinting to more than just natural blue eyes.The Rus Vikings also maybe tatooed their bodies with forms of trees,leaves and figures, they may have used the color green, or it may have been a type of bodypaint instead of permanent ink.However there is not much evidence that either face/war-paint or tattoos were very common or widespread among the germanic, the Rus' "body-trees" might be slavic custom or particularbto that local warrior subculture..

possible norse facepaintpossible irish facepaintpossible pictish facepaintscythian tattoosCu chulainn facepaint studypictish facepaint study
## Haircuts

In arthurian times probably most romano-british men would have worn their hair roman-style, that means short or mid-short "cesarian cut".Older hairstyles like the combed back or spiky celtic style may habe still existed in some more backward regions, perhaps even mixed forms such as shorter, combed back hair.Celtic coins probably do not depict cornrows or sidecuts but more likely indicate different layers of hairlength, such as we know from mediterranean female hairstyles where the hair was about mid-length around the head but long in the neck and the back of the head. Roman female hairstyles were many, very elaborate and are well documented.Besides the Britons possibly also the Franks, Gauls or Gallo-romans and many other peoples from the former roman empire would have had such roman-inspired looks.

Possibly also the Saxons and many other southern germanic people sported such looks, but besides the typical germanic male haircut at the time may have been mid-long or neck-long hair, short or well-trimmed beard, possibly the page-boy and pot-cut as well, with hair short or shaved around the ears.Female hairstyles for this period are harder to identify, but may have included longer braids and pigtails.Maybe the suebian knot or similar hairstyles also continued to exist as these are very practical ways to arrange long hair in combat or other situations where long hair may be in the way or even potentially dangerous. We do not know much about norse hairstyles, most what we have is from the much later viking age and shows men wearing pageboy and pot cuts along with long hair, pinty goatees or chin-beards and what might be combed back mid-long hair with shorter or even shaved hair around the ears and hair that was longer and sometimes curled in the neck and back of the head and shorter on front and sides (like a mullet or guys in the 60ies and 70ies, a somewhat longer beatles-cut).Female styles also have many braids and long pigtails as possible interpretations. The short-neck long-fringe look most likely is later and has frankish or maybe swedish origins.

The Old Irish are often as well thought to have had a long-bangs, long-fringe, shorter or shaved neck hairstyle, but this also possibly is rather high medieval.For earlier times long hair and maybe variants of dyed spiky celtic cuts are possible. The picts most likely wore their hair very long, with pointed berads, though some pictish stones also show shaved heads, under-cut like curled pot-styles and maybe even braided long hair with shaved sides, perhaps even dreadlock-like hairstyles, though no mohawk-like cuts.Hair combed back and multi-braided in the neck also seems likely.The so called celtic-tonsure, it's look, perhaps a shaved forehead or half-shaved head with hair long in the neck , is debated, it's origin, age and looks are unclear.It could have been worn by medieval welsh and irish clergymen, but it is in no way indicated to have been a traditionally celtic "Druidic" hairstyle.

germanic malesnorse femalegreek femalesroman femalesroman femalesroman femalesPictsirishirishirishirishirishGermanic HairstylesGermanic HairstylesNorse HairstylesRomand/Africanspictish hairstylesCeltic HairstylesCeltic HairstylesCeltic Hairstyles
## Clothing

Romano-britishromano-britishscotianirishirishAnglosaxonSaxon womanRomanRomansIrishBritonsRomano-British womanRomano-britishRoman WomenRomansPicts