The hair comb: History

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Egypte_louvre_Peigne.jpg/401px-Egypte_louvre_Peigne.jpg

Egyptian comb can
be seen in the museum
of Louvre (Paris)

The most ancient combs have been found in walls of Egyptian tombs in 5500 B.C. So old physical combs where not found, painted figures show the first prints of this object in the history. The historians say that this tool was used both for grooming the head and as a hair ornament.

Another example of the early use of the comb can be situated 5000 years ago, in Persia. Where very refined forms from settlements were already using this tool, one among the oldest tools found by archeologists.

At the same time, in Khorsabad( Assyria), in the palace of Sargon, combs with figures of lions where found. The same happened in lots of places conquered by The Roman Empire, where combs were made by ivory, tortoiseshell, copper and wood.

Scythian comb from the Roman Empiere

In the Middle Ages, combs were also used as cleanliness between clergy, and also some secular too, and even in the sixteenth century some people in Europe started to adorn themselves with them. The latter comb of the church, it is from the seventh century, can be seen in the cathedral of San Lope in France.

Initially the Maya used even more than clothes, headdresses and combs as a way to lengthen the face and represent senior and more important people. In this culture the status was settled by the material and complexity of your headdress, most of the times were made by wood or bone, but sometimes could be of precious stones like jade and some even were made of gold.

During the history lots of countries showed their own way to use this tool, for example most of the Indian metal combs have an opening where perfume can be poured in order to drop slowly an small quantity of this liquid into the air. On the other hand, in Spain the peineta, a large decorative comb that has been used during centuries in order to keep a mantilla in place, has had a different use and meaning than in other countries.

A Cotton Gin machine.

During the industrial revolution, an evolution of the comb, the cotton gin, started to be used as a tool for separating cotton fibres. Before this invention, cotton seeds had to be removed by hand or with other primitive tools, making it a laborious process.

In another way, in order to identify people, police investigators also use this tool when they want to collect dandruff and hair samples.

This short summary of the history of this object shows how ancient the comb is, and how it as always been among the most important tools of the human civilization.