Egyptian artists worked within a canon of representation that stylised, idealised, and emphasised particular traits of the human form. This is apparent in the composition of Old Kingdom statue groups, where a wife is shown on a smaller scale than her husband, and their children smaller still. Where colour remains, male figures appear deeply tanned with red-brown skin, while females have lighter complexions of a pinkish or yellowish tone. Their clothing is shown as pristine, and their coiffures are perfect in every curl or braid. Prepubescent sons and daughters appear as miniature adults, but identified as children by their nakedness, by the finger raised to their lips, and by their lack of hair. The classic childish hairstyle was a closely cropped or shaved head, apart from a single plait hanging from the scalp behind the right ear. The bound end of this braid is shown curled and was probably set with some kind of applied wax or animal fat, possibly mixed with clay, as is the custom with the Himba people of Namibia.
This ‘sidelock of youth’, more commonly worn by boys, seems to have been abandoned at the onset of puberty, perhaps cut off as symbolic of the transition to adulthood. Family groups on tomb stelae are frequently represented with the children all equal in height, and relative ages are implied by the order in which the children stand before their parents, and the nuances of their clothing and hairstyle. However, even when a son holds titles indicating his professional role, he may still be depicted, in his father’s tomb, naked with the sidelock, emphasising his subordinate status in relation to his parent.
Hairstyles for both men and women changed over time, as did the form of the youthful sidelock. In the New Kingdom, the curled plait was replaced by flowing tresses or a collection of braids, gathered in a decorative clasp on one side of the head, as worn by Nebamun’s daughter in the fowling scene. The daughters of Bakenamun, Queen Tiy’s cook, wear their hair in multiple plaits, while their brother sports the traditional sidelock, which appears to be worn on the left side of the head because of the left-orientation of the figures.
