Vestal Hairdressing: Recreating the Seni Crines
February 7, 2013

Samples of Roman hairstyles

At the Academic Program of the Archaeological Institute’s 114^th Annual Meeting held last month in Seattle, Janet Stephens, AIA Member at Large, presented “Vestal Hairdressing: Recreating the Seni Crines.”

Stevens spent seven years examining various artifacts in an attempt to recreate the elaborate sine crines hairstyle of Roman vestal virgins, an order of priestesses. Her work is highlighted in an article that ran in the February 6 “Editor’s Picks” section of the Wall Street Journal.  

After extensive experimentation, she published her findings in Roman Archaeology, and created a detailed YouTube video showing how the elaborate braided style was made (the video is an amplification of the poster presented at the Archaeological Institute of America’s Annual Meeting.

Her experiment’s results were also covered in a piece featured on Fox News/Science.