Hair, Ritual and Spiritual Meaning Before Written History
Explore prehistoric hair rituals and archaeological evidence for cutting, preserving and depositing hair, while separating proven practices from uncertain spiritual meanings.

Explore prehistoric hair rituals and archaeological evidence for cutting, preserving and depositing hair, while separating proven practices from uncertain spiritual meanings.

Explore prehistoric hair identity and how hairstyles, grooming and hair representation may have expressed individual and group identity before written history.

Discover the origins of combs, from prehistoric toothed tools to ancient bone and ivory combs that reveal the beginnings of organised human hair care.

Discover the earliest materials prehistoric humans could use for hair care, from sharp flint and stone to shell and bone, and what archaeology can actually prove.

Thousands of years before scissors and metal razors, humans already possessed edges sharp enough to cut hair. Discover what archaeology can – and cannot – tell us about the first haircut.

Long before salons, scissors and professional hairdressers, humans were already managing and transforming their hair. Archaeology offers fascinating – but fragmentary – clues to the prehistoric origins of hair care.