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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3122621, member: 75937&quot;]Julia Domna&#039;s hairstyle was rather consistent for the first dozen years or so of her reign, then began to change shortly before her husband&#039;s death. The large bun at the back of her head decreased in size and her coiffure developed a progressively more &quot;helmet-like&quot; appearance toward the end of her life.</p><p><br /></p><p>Post anything you feel is relevant, as always!</p><p><br /></p><p>Early style:</p><p><br /></p><p>We know this coin is from the early part of her reign (AD 193-195) because it reads IVLIA DOMNA AVG:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]794841[/ATTACH]</p><p>Dupondius. Hill dates this to issue 6, AD 195.</p><p><br /></p><p>Characteristics of this style include a very large, plaited bun that takes up the entirety of the back of the head and horizontally-arranged waves over the top and side of the head; the part of the coiffure with the horizontal waves becomes progressively narrower as it comes down over her ear to the nape of her neck. There is no braided border framing the sides and bottom of the hair. Typically, there is no ringlet of hair decorating her cheek, either.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can see the criss-crossing plaits of the bun particularly well-rendered on this denarius:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]794844[/ATTACH]</p><p>Denarius. Note later IVLIA AVGVSTA inscription. Hill dates this to AD 207.</p><p><br /></p><p>This reconstruction by the <a href="https://blog.theaterakademie.de/post/news/hautnah.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://blog.theaterakademie.de/post/news/hautnah.html" rel="nofollow">Theater Akademie August Everding</a> is astonishingly realistic and demonstrates what the empress may have looked like during this time:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]794848[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>This video by forensic hairdresser Janet Stephens demonstrates how the empress&#039;s hairdresser may have accomplished this hairstyle:</p><p><br /></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]y4P2ZO6YEKs[/MEDIA]</p><p><br /></p><p>Mint-specific variations on this style are seen on examples from Laodicea. Note the appearance of a separate ringlet of hair decorating her cheek. This became very standard on portraits from later in her reign (see below):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]794846[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>And Emesa:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]794847[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Moreover, this hairstyle is widely used on provincial coins from the Balkans to Asia Minor:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]794852[/ATTACH]</p><p>Triassarion of Tomis in Moesia Inferior.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]794856[/ATTACH]</p><p>Assarion of Nicaea in Bithynia.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]794858[/ATTACH]</p><p>AE 32 of Ephesus in Ionia.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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