Slab with epitaph of a hairdresser
Slab with epitaph of a hairdresser
Female portraits reveal the Romans’ great attention to hairstyles, whose changes over time offer valuable dating elements. Roman matrons had scores of servants dedicated to dressing their hair every morning; these included the ornatrix, who created the hairstyle by combing locks and fixing them in place with pins brought by a second servant, while a third held the mirror. Combs, pins and needles (examples of which have been found in archaeological excavations) are depicted at the sides of the tombstone of the praiseworthy Cypare, buried by Polydeuces, possibly her husband. We do not know if she worked in an important domus or autonomously, like other ornatrices who carried out their work in Rome, such as Pollia Urbana in the Campus Martius and Nostia Cleopatra in the Vicus Longus (the sepulchral slab of this latter is also conserved in the Museum, at Wall 1A. 1).