By day, Janet Stephens is a hairdresser at a Baltimore salon, trimming bobs and wispy bangs. By night she dwells in a different world. At home in her basement, with a mannequin head, she meticulously re-creates the hairstyles of ancient Rome and Greece.
Ms. Stephens is a hairdo archaeologist.
Her amateur scholarship is sticking a pin in the long-held assumptions among historians about the complicated, gravity-defying styles of ancient times. Basically, she has set out to prove that the ancients probably weren’t wearing wigs after all.(via On Pins and Needles: Stylist Turns Ancient Hairdo Debate on Its Head - WSJ.com)
but people who do things with their hands are defective and inferior and will never be more than worthless drains on society!!!1one
AKA: Gosh, you mean someone who’s actually a hairdresser might have insights into classical hairdressing that scholars will never reach by studying the way Latin verbs were used? (And I say this as someone who inclines hard to the “studying the way verbs were used” side. Also note that Janet Stephens had to pick through a shitton of Latin texts to support her arguments. The point is, you need BOTH, so open access for everyone! Throw wide the doors of academe! Don’t restrict this shit to people who are married to academics and have the connections to get access to journals!)
Omfg so the forensic hairdressing video GOT EVEN BETTER wow I love this woman so much. GO JANET STEPHENS GO
(via everythingbutharleyquinn)
