Ancient Egyptian civilization was already familiar with hair gel, hair styiling one of the keys of modern life today. This was found after archeologists from the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at the University of Manchester England, Natalie McCreesh and his colleagues examined the mummies of Ancient Egypt times.
Based on the research, found that hair gel is used to keep hair disordered, both during life and death. McCreesh took 18 samples of mummies.
The oldest mummy 3500 years old, but the average Dakhleh excavated from burial complexes in the Western Desert and Oasis come from Greco Roman period, about 2300 years ago.
Mummified human age varied from 4-58 years. Most humans are artificially mummified while others termumikan naturally with sand that buried him.
Ancient Egyptian conclusion that humans have used the gel was made because the analysis with an electron microscope showed that there are 9 mummy hair coated with fat-like substance misterious.
It was observed by chromatography and mass spectrometry, it is known that the substance contains long-chain fatty acids including palmitic acid and stearic acid. These results were published in the Journal of Arachaeological Science.
Further analysis showed that the substance was found in the mummies were preserved naturally or artificially.
The substance also found in both the mummies of women and men. In the analysis, researchers found no embalming resin and material on the hair, suggesting that the hair is protected and organized separately.
"Maybe they know that hair will not be degraded like other body parts," said McCreesh.
Responding to the conclusions of the study, John Taylor, head of the mummy collection in the British Museum said that the idea that people of Ancient Egypt wore hair gel it's possible. "Hair is a status symbol," he said.
However, so far, the text of the Ancient Egyptians who have analyzed never mentions the use of hair gel, although the use of scented oils and lotions on the body are known. Taylor revealed, "The key now is in the Ancient Egyptian wigs. Hair is sometimes coated with bees wax."
According to Taylor, the wig had been found in tombs from ancient Egypt, estimated to be very expensive and used only a limited circle or respected. "Most of the mummies that I see using real hair," added Taylor as quoted by Nature.
Hair gel is probably bees wax. McCreesh himself said that he did not know whether the hair gel in question are bees wax or not.
However, he said that if it was bees wax, would be very difficult to rinse compared with animal fats. To be sure, the current plan Creesh will further analyze the compounds and to know the recipes for this old-fashioned hair gel.
So far, research shows that with hair gel is, the Ancient Egyptians could make a variety of styles, from short-length, curly or straight, and so on.
Once the fat is used, guaranteed not to change your hair style.Curly will stay curly. "You can imagine how they were when alive, her hair and mengeritingnya," said McCreesh.
Sources:
kompas.com
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