The Vikings bathed regularly and washed their hair with a very strong soap made by mixing animal fats with ash and lye. The lye contributed to their cleanliness and had the added advantage of lightening the hair to a desirable blond.
Lye soap was very important to Norse men, and they would let it sit for a long time in their hair and beard to bleach it, to get their hair as bright and blond as possible because blond hair was highly sought after:
Blond hair don’t care …
Nordic sagas even warn against people who did not have blond hair, for instance, the poet and storyteller Egil Skallagrímsson had dark hair, and because of this, he was considered to be gloomy and unpredictable.
Lye soap also helped keep the hair free from head lice - in addition to the iconic swords and axes, no self-respecting Viking would be without his nit comb:
Both men and women had their own little grooming kit, which they used on a daily basis, and some of the most common grooming tools they had were combs, ear spoons, nail cleaners, razors, and tweezers. We know that they were personal grooming kits because people were often buried with their own little kit.
There are interesting (and entertaining) records of complaints from Anglo-Saxons in northern England at the time of the Danelag (the establishment of the Danish Viking realm in England) that the Norsemen were being favored over the native menfolk by the local young women due to their “exaggerated and unfair” attention to cleanliness and looks.
Reactie plaatsen
Reacties