Hair Care. People at all levels of ancient Mesopotamian society anointed their bodies and hair with oil. It softened the skin, which became easily irritated and chapped by the dry atmosphere, and destroyed vermin in the hair.

Third Millennium B.C.E. Hairstyles. Artworks from the Early Dynastic period (circa 2900 - circa 2340 B.C.E.) often show men with their heads shaved, but some are depicted with long hair. Women wore their hair long, braided and piled on top of the head, with either a net or scarf to hold the hair in place, and a pleated headdress. They also wore jewelry in their hair. Sometimes women wore wigs.

Late Third through Mid-Second Millenia B.C.E. In the Akkadian, Neo-Sumerian, and Old Babylonian periods, men were either shaved bald or wore their hair and beards carefully waved. A woman...