Roman Woman statue detail Istanbul Archaeological Museum - inv

Janet Stephens (née Scott) is a hairstyle

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

who studies historical hairstyles, aiming to prove that they were not achieved by using

wigs A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Veron ...

, as commonly believed, but by styling the person's own hair.

Early life

Born Janet Scott, Stephens grew up in

Kennewick, Washington Kennewick () is a city in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located along the southwest bank of the Columbia River, just southeast of the confluence of the Columbia and Yakima rivers and across from the confluence of the C ...

Interest in ancient hairstyles

She first became interested in ancient hairdressing styles in 2001, when she visited the

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934. It holds collections established during the mid-19th century. The museum's collection was amassed ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

and saw some statues from the Greek and Roman collections that included busts that could be viewed in the round, from all directions. Stephens said,

I had never seen the back of a Roman statue before—they are usually placed high on shelves/pedestal with the backs tight up against a wall. As I circled the portraits I saw the logic of the hairstyles and determined to try some at home.

In research she conducted, she found that scholars mainly believed that elaborate ancient hairstyles, depicted in artworks of the times, were wigs. Believing otherwise because of her observations, Stephens set out to do her own research. In 2005, while studying translations of Roman literature, she realized the Latin term ''acus'', which has several meanings including a "single-prong hairpin" or "needle and thread", was being mistranslated consistently as "single-prong hairpin" in the context of ancient Roman hairdressing. While single-prong hairpins could not have held up the elaborate hairstyles of ancient Rome, a needle and thread could have. In 2008, Stephens published this theory as "Ancient Roman Hairdressing: On (hair) pins and needles" in the ''Journal of Roman Archaeology'', Vol. 21. In 2012, her video ''

Julia Domna Julia Domna (; – 217 AD) was Roman empress from 193 to 211 as the wife of Emperor Septimius Severus. She was the first empress of the Severan dynasty. Domna was born in Emesa (present-day Homs) in Roman Syria to an Arab family of priests o ...

: Forensic Hairdressing'' was presented in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sin ...

at the annual meeting of the

Archaeological Institute of America The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America's oldest society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and AIA has established re ...

. In 2013, she became the first to recreate the hairstyle of the Roman

vestal virgins In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( la, Vestālēs, singular ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame. The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty ...

on a modern person.

Modern hairdressing career

Stephens works as a hairdresser at her salon in Baltimore, Studio 921 Salon and Day Spa.

Selected publications

* �
Ancient Roman Hairdressing: on (hair)pins and needles
�� (scroll down to read full text)

Journal of Roman Archaeology The ''Journal of Roman Archaeology'' (JRA) is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the archaeology of the Roman empire. It was established in 1988 and the publisher and editor-in-chief is J.H. Humphrey. The journal was originally published ...

vol. 21 (2008) 111-133. * �
Recreating the Fonseca Hairstyle
�� EXARC (the online Journal of Experimental Archaeology) January, 2013. Print version, Exarc Journal Annual digest, 2013.
Becoming a Blond in Renaissance Italy
�� Journal of the

74 019

References

External links

Janet Stephens's YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Janet Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American archaeologists American hairdressers American women archaeologists 21st-century American women writers People from Kennewick, Washington People from Baltimore Historians from Washington (state) Historians from Maryland