In Byzantium, barbers and hairdressers (emplektries or Kourides) dressed the hair of both men and women. Caring for their hair seemed to have been very important for the Byzantines, so much so that Church Fathers criticized this excessive devotion to the body. They argued that altering a persons’ appearance by artificial means (psimythia ) and adornment altered the form God gave us (people were created in the image of God) and also prevented people from trying to achieve salvation of their soul. However, surviving Byzantine beauty tools, perfume bottles, jewelry and clothes indicate that secular Byzantines ignored these admonitions.

Archaeological remains and written sources testify to the existence of hair dyes, pencils, lipsticks, powders, combs, tweezers, rollers, curlers and scissors. The extravagant and often extreme Late Antiquity hairdos that were influenced by the earlier Roman style began to disappear during the middle Byzantine period, when even empresses were depicted in official portraits with simple braids. After 1204 and the forced cohabitation of the Franks and the Byzantines in the empire, many Western hairdressing habits passed to the Byzantine society, especially the upper classes.

The texts mention the following words:
aplothrix= someone with straight hair
sgouros or katsaros= someone with naturally curly hair
foundomallis= someone with thick, bushy hair
karamallos= someone with black hair (from the word kara which means black)
xanthos or hrysomallos or kalotrihos= someone with blond hair. Blond hair was considered attractive so they had devised several ways to lighten it.
Ladies had long hair - short hair was imposed as punishment, or during mourning. They used various oils and tonics and often dyed it, usually blonde. Brides traditionally dyed their hair red. After combing it they used a hairpin to hold it at back of the neck, or they braided it using colored or golden ribbons. Young girls usually let it fall freely on the shoulders.  During festivals or celebrations they wore more elaborate hairstyles: curls or buns with added braids, usually blond. When leaving the house women covered their head with a kerchief, a white cloth or net over which the maphorion, a veil worn by all women, was wrapped. They also cared for their faces: they used cleaning masks to nourish and moisturize the skin, removed facial hair and applied makeup.

They used natural materials: for example they painted their faces and necks white using white lead carbonate powder; for the eyes and eyebrows they used black stimmi (antimony sulphide), pine nuts or liquid tar, even if they had dyed their hair blond; finally, the red color used on cheeks, lips and the tip of the chin was provided by seaweed.

Men also cared for their appearance and there is evidence that some of them wore make up either because they were effeminate or wanted to achieve the look of a monk or a saint who ate poorly and had pale face. They also groomed their hair and beard and wore wigs known as prokomia. Solders wore their hair short for hygienic reasons, while monks cut it short during their initiation ceremony. Originally this was dome mainly for hygienic reasons, but soon it came to symbolize humility and penance. In the West, but also in the East, priests shaved the top of their head, and the remaining hair formed a wreath that symbolized Christ’s crowns of thorns.  With regard to facial hair, the general trend was to grow beard. Army officers were “Barbatoi” (Barbatus is the Latin word for bearded man), while palace eunuchs were beardless and therefore considered effeminate. Church writes strongly criticized shaving beards, something they believed was appropriate only for those acting in the theater (mimes, magicians) and charlatans of any kind, who need to hide their gender to sham people.  

Jewelry
The special interest of the Byzantines towards beauty is also evident in their jewelry. They were made from precious materials such as silver and gold, decorated with precious stones and pearls. However cheaper materials, such as iron, copper and glass were also used. There existed almost all kinds of jewelry known today: earrings (enotia), chains, necklaces, bracelets (Psellia), wristbands, belt buckles etc. The agonovrachila or agonaria were jewelry for the elbow, while for the feet the periskelides or podopsellia were used. Rings, worn by both men and women, were the most loved kind of jewelry. Their decoration depended on the occasion they were intended for, ie wedding bands. They often had gems or a simple glass, but also monograms and stamps, which were used as signatures to ensure the authenticity of messages or orders. Late Antiquity jewelry making was a continuation of the Roman tradition. During the Middle Byzantine period special techniques and specific motifs were developed, which mostly used enamel and Christian themes to protect against evil. During the Late Byzantine period, rich people’s jewelry was directly influenced by Western traditions, while cheap jewelry became even cheaper as they were thinner, with more sketchy adornment.