Skip to content
The History of Hair
A young woman in a linen veil and wimple with braids beneath, beside a stone window.

Era 02 · 500 – 1400

Medieval: the age of veil

Covered heads, wimples and the high plucked forehead.

Read the era ↓

For married women across Christian Europe, hair was private. It went under veils, wimples and later the horned hennin. Fashionable women plucked the hairline back to create a high, smooth forehead considered a mark of beauty and intellect.

Highlights

  • Wimples and veils
  • Plucked high foreheads
  • Monastic tonsures

Cover image: AI-generated period-style interpretation for The History of Hair — not an archival photograph.

Pre-Trichology Foundations Certificate · Trichologist Academy

Know the hair behind the hairstyle.

For stylists, barbers and salon owners who want to understand what they see in the chair: the structure of the strand, the growth cycle and how the scalp behaves — so you can talk to clients with confidence and know when to refer.

An introductory certificate and a first step towards further study; it is not a clinical qualification.

See the curriculumTry a sample lesson

Run a salon? Explore the T-Select salon pathway →

New stories are announced on Instagram. Follow @the_history_of_hair

Related in the archive

Go deeper

Profession · Middle Ages to today

The History of the Barber Pole

The spinning stripes outside a barbershop are an advertisement for a medical service most barbers stopped offering centuries ago.