Response to an article

¶ … Hair and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Egypt, c. 1480-1350 B.C." discuses in regard to the importance of hair in Ancient Egypt and to how it could represent an important factor in determining the attitudes that society put across toward particular individuals. Hairstyles present in Ancient Egypt were customized in order to fit each person's needs and the personality that the respective person wanted to express. I believe that Robins was correct in considering that appearance was extremely important in Egyptian communities during the timeline that he relates to and that he brings on an intriguing account regarding how people in ancient times actually had a tendency to think about stereotypes when seeing certain hairstyles.

Robins made me acknowledge that in spite of the fact that Ancient societies were strong as a whole, they were divided when considering local levels. Hair was an element that represented an important tool in making individuals more or less interesting for the rest of their communities. One of the most intriguing concepts about how Robins describes hairstyles in Ancient Egypt is the fact that social status did not necessarily represent an important factor in constructing a particular individual's appearance (at least not when considering one's hairstyle). Age was apparently more important than social status and it was essential when considering the hairstyle that a particular individual would chose.

While social status was not important when considering women's hairstyles, it was very important in the case of hairstyles adopted by men.

I noticed that Robins has a tendency to focus on the role that hairstyle played when regarding things from the social status perspective. This makes it difficult for readers to gain a more complex understanding of the fact that hair was also important from a stylistic perspective in Ancient Egypt. People did not just adopt particular hairstyles because they believed that this was appropriate for their role in the Egyptian society. They also chose to wear their hear in certain ways because they believed that this would make it possible for them to have a more pleasant appearance.

Some people failed to concentrate on their hairstyle because they were too busy making a living. This means that even though some of these people sometimes struggled to have certain hairstyles, it was very difficult for them to keep up with the rest of their community when considering physical appearance and they were thus predisposed to adopting a series of hairstyles depending on the time and resources they had to look in a certain way.

In addition to wanting people to learn more about hairstyles in Ancient Egypt, Robins also wants his readers to understand that particular values present in that society were not very different from ideas seen in our society. Hierarchy was an important concept and it is interesting to look at hairstyles from a point-of-view involving gender differences. Although women belonging to the lower classes were not necessarily able to concentrate on having the same hairstyles as aristocrats on a daily basis, they were nonetheless focused on keeping up in any way that they could.

Even with the fact that hairstyling was not considered to be an art when taking into account the Ancient Egyptian society, it is nonetheless intriguing to think about the people who designed hairstyles wore by diverse communities and the messages that they wanted to put across through their styling. Robins appears to consider that hairstyling was very different then from how it is in the contemporary society. He emphasizes that while people in Ancient Egypt did not hesitate to wear intricate hairstyles, they were not necessarily interested in the beauty of their appearance. Instead, they wanted individuals that they interacted with to understand a particular message concerning them and to comprehend more about the role that they played in their community.