Frankish Hair styles

[Conal]

Hi

It appears that some wore hair long and some short and some even shaved the nape of the neck .... now what I need opinions on is what was done with the front of the hair as I have recently read that it was gathered up into a top knot. I tend to think that they may have shaved the back and just had a long fringe at the front as thgis style may have passed through to the Norman knights who had a similar practice (no top knot though), which passed through to the Irish Kerns of Elizabethan times, known as the Glib, which was apparently banned.

Does anyone have an opinion they would care to share please?

[The Alexandrian]

I believe the Franks were among the tribes that gathered their hair in the West Germanic "Suebian Knot".

[kingolaf99]

I am not familiar with the Franks practicing any kind of head shaving, as the Normans do later on. It was my impression that the Franks left their hair long, but not in the Suebian knot, which was an earlier style. The Franks were a confederacy of smaller tribes just like the Alamanni were, but I don't think the Franks had any Suebic tribes in their midst. Just to be safe, I'd go with long hair left down or pulled up into a simple pony tail on the top of the head for added fierceness.

[Conal]

Sidonius describes Frankish warriors:

<<on the crown of whose red pates lies the hair that has been drawn towards the front, whilst the neck, exposed by the loss of its covering, shows bright. Their eyes are faint and pale, with a glimmer of greyish blue. Their faces are shaven all round, and instead of beards they have thin moustaches which they run through with a comb>>

This may mean shaving or just that the neck is exposed.

He mentions Frankish servants with 'oily top knots.

I believe he also mentions the cropping the back of the head after defeat.