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Title of the work

Janet Stephens YouTube Videos: Series of Short Online Video Hair Tutorials Teaching About Ancient Hairstyles

Country of the First Edition

United States of America

Country/countries of popularity

Worldwide

Original Language

English

First Edition Date

2011

Available Onllne

youtube.com (accessed: August 20, 2018)

Genre

Educational films
Instructional and educational works
Internet videos
Short films

Target Audience

Crossover (Young adults but children and adults as well, anyone interested in unique hairstyles)

Cover

We are still trying to obtain permission for posting the original cover.

Author of the Entry:

Hanna Zarzycka, University of Warsaw, hanna.zarzycka@student.uw.edu.pl

Peer-reviewer of the Entry:

Elżbieta Olechowska, University of Warsaw, elzbieta.olechowska@gmail.com

Lisa Maurice, Bar-Ilan University, lisa.maurice@biu.ac.il

Janet Stephens (Author)

Janet Stephens was born in Kennewick, Washington. She is an independent scholar, professional hairstylist and cosmetologist based in Baltimore, MD, whose area of academic specialization is ancient and historic hairdressing. She has published Ancient Roman Hairdressing: On (Hair)Pins and Needles (Journal of Roman Archaeology 21, 2008) and Recreating the Hairstyle of the Fonesca Bust (EXARC Journal Annual Digest, 2013). She has given numerous presentations, including The Scientifick Hairdresser: Curling and Coiffing in the Jeffersonian Era, Ovid’s Cosmetology: The Hair Science behind Amores 1.14, Truthy or False-ish? Hair in Ancient Roman and Renaissance Female Portraiture, Ancient Roman Hairdressing: Fiction to Fact, and Vestal Virgin Hairstyling: Recreating the Seni Crines. Ms. Stephens was a 2011 Rome Prize finalist in Design (see here, accessed: June 28, 2018).

Source:

Janet Stephens YouTube channel (accessed: September 5, 2017).

Bio prepared by Hanna Zarzycka, University of Warsaw, hanna.zarzycka@student.uw.edu.pl

Summary

Titles of videos (accessed: August 20, 2018):

Julia Domna I;

Agrippina the Younger;

Ancient Roman Hair Styles: Men;

Aphrodite Knot;

Cleopatra;

Empress Sabina: Ancient Roman Hairdressing;

Julia Domna: Forensic Hairdressing;

Cleopatra’s Coin Hairstyle;

The Hairstyles of Faustina the Younger;

Flavian-Trajanic Hairstyle: Orbis Comarum;

Hairstyle of Empress Faustina the Elder;

Hairstyle of Agippina the Elder;

Classical Greek Hairstyle;

The Hairstyle of Empress Plotina;

The Tutulus Hairstyle: Ancient Roman Hairdressing;

Vestal Hairdressing: Recreating the "Seni Crines";

Hairstyle and Costume of the Roman Bride;

Ornatrix School: Needle Skills;

Ornatrix School: Bodkin Skills - 2nd ed.;

Hairstyle of Agrippina the Elder;

2 Grecian Cross-tied Hairstyles for Women;

Grecian "Sakkos" Hairstyle for Women;

Hairstyle of a Young Roman Girl, 40's BC;

The "Tower" Hairstyle: 2nd Century AD.

Currently, there are many Janet Stephens’ hair tutorials on her channel on YouTube, such as the ones explaining the hairdo of Agrippina the Younger, Cleopatra and even Aphrodite’s knot. Every inspiration comes from a real sculpture from various museums all over the world, for example Hairstyle of a Young Roman Girl, 40's BC video (accessed: August 20, 2018) was inspired by the sculpture from the Museo Centrale Montemartini in Rome. There are also videos of men hairstyles, from Julius Caesar’s to Maximinus Thrax’s (Ancient Roman Hair Styles: Men, accessed: August 20, 2018). Her knowledge comes from reading many ancient sources, such as Ovid’s Amores.

Analysis

Janet Stephens started her classical work quite unexpectedly. As she was waiting for her daughter who was taking music classes, she decided to visit Walters Art Museum in 2001 where she found a sculpture of Empress Julia Domna (170–217 A.D.), wife of Emperor Septimius Severus. The hairstyle of Empress fascinated her so much that she started doing a deeper research about the ancient hair. 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 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*. After that, she recreated many ancient hairstyles and put them in a tutorial form on a YouTube platform.

Her work in the field of YouTube hair community is very different from other offerings in this area because of her experience as a stylist and as a scholar. She provides a particular insight into how hair works and what can be accomplished with what tools. She upends a number of assumptions — that Roman women must have used wigs to achieve their more elaborate hairstyles or that they used hairpins — and injects a whole new simplicity and accuracy to the very vocabulary of ancient hairdressing**. Her research into the subject of ancient hair styles took over six years, from visiting many art museums and poring over exhibition catalogues to reading ancient works in Italian which she speaks fluently and even in Latin (with the help of her academic friends). She is fully conversant in classical archaeology (including unpublished artifacts), ancient literary sources and published scholarship about Roman hairstyling, and not just Roman but Etruscan and Greek as well***.

* See: en.wikipedia.org (accessed: August 20, 2018).

** See: thehistoryblog.com (accessed: August 20, 2018).

*** Ibidem.

Classical, Mythological, Traditional Motifs, Characters, and Concepts

Agrippina the Elder Agrippina the Younger Ancient Fashion Aphrodite Cleopatra VII Faustina the Elder Faustina the Younger Greece Greeks Julia Domna I Plotina (Empress) Roman Empire Roman Republic Rome Sabina (Empress) Vestal Virgins Wedding Traditions (Greek and Roman)