Hairdresser Janet Stephens Recreates Ancient Roman Hairstyles with Needle and Thread

Baltimore hairstylist Janet Stephens noticed that the elaborate hair on several Roman busts at the Walters Art Museum showed no visible pins or supports. By examining Latin texts, she focused on the ambiguous word *acus*, which can denote a single‑pronged hairpin, a curling iron, or a needle and thread. Stephens hypothesised that the hair was sewn in place.

She tested the idea by stitching recreated hairstyles onto mannequins using only tools available in antiquity. The experiment succeeded, demonstrating that ancient Romans could have secured complex coiffures with simple needle‑and‑thread techniques. Her findings were published in the *Journal of Roman Archaeology* in 2008, solving a two‑millennium‑old mystery about how the hair on Roman portrait busts was constructed.

The work bridges modern hair‑styling practice and experimental archaeology, providing a practical solution to a longstanding question in Roman material culture.