From the article: What Color Was Alexander the Great's Hair?
What color do you think Alexander the Great's hair was and what evidence do you have to support it? Do you think we have enough evidence to say one way or another? Would knowing his hair color make any difference? State Your Case
alexander the great
- alexander was a blond and in all his photos he is a blond.
- —Guest chea
Blond is sexy!
- Firstly let me state that I am surprised that Yugoslavia and Slavs were dragged into the discussion: Slavs arrived in the Balkans in the 6th century AD (roughly 10 centuries after Alexander's death), meaning that they have nothing to do with the ancient Macedonians, who were a Greek tribe. As far as Alexander's hair is concerned, most ancient sources indicate that he was blond. However this is the case with many heroes and gods of the Greek pantheon (Helen of Troy, Achilles, Apollo, Aphrodite etc etc), as the Greeks - being a dark haired people - considered blond to be more beautiful. Thus it may be that the blond Alexander is another case of "beautification" via hair colour (!), especially as we know that he himself was quite vainglorious and became a model for youthful beauty (after Alexander shaving became fashionable) [the phenomenon can be observed today: in Scandinavian countries dark haired models are more popular, while in the south blonds are still considered more beautiful..
- —Guest Surprised
Red Haired
- From the reconstructed Alexander's Sarcophagus, from the hunting mural evidence of the Royal Tomb II at Vergina of Alexanders father and the Floor Mosaic at Pella Showing Alexander and Krateros on a Deer Hunt. All clearly show Alexander with Red Hair, especially the Pella mosaic, as it shows matching Red pubic hair. And a description of his hair colour as being 'Xanth' that is Greek for golden or ginger hair. Of notre the Mosaic of Pompey was created 300 years after Alexaders death and then being based on a painting by Apelles.
- —Guest Brian Foley
Alexander's Hair
- According to Roman rhetoric teacher Aelian, Alexander's hair "curled naturally, and was yellow". Plutarch wrote that Alexander "was of fair colour". Callisthenes claims that "he had the hair of a lion". All in all he was probably dirty blonde. The light haired, light eyed people of the Kalash tribe of northern Pakistan claim to be descendants of Alexander. Either way he was a remarkable leader and King.
- —Guest Madmartigan
What Color was Alexander the Great's Hai
- The Hair color of Alexander the Great was Brown to Black.. as so indicated by the Mosaic of Pompey, which was as is indicated by some, itself a copy of a painting done to Alexander by Apelles, while Alexander was in his youth and alive and well.. Apelles was not only a contemporary of Alexander and His father, Philip.. but also painted Alxander where he is holding Rods of lightning... and so the Mosaic is very faithful to the real hair color of Alexander given the fact that the Slavics of that area today, are mainly Dark haired people.. the same can be said about the skintone of Alexander, for in the mosaic of Pompey, as a copy of Apelles's painting who met Him.. Alexader is shown as Olive skinned, with large Mediterranean Dark eyes.. not that different than the Persians that he is fighting.... Those that say that he is "Blond and blue eyed" are too influenced by Hollywood's view of Alexander and not by Archaeology... are worse yet.. Nordicist, Racial fantasies...
- —Hellas21
THE REAL ANSWER
- The real answer to this question is Dirty blonde, sandy blonde. His hair was blonde, with some dark strands thrown in. Trust me, this is the corrext answer, according to archaeologists who have discovered this a long time ago.
- —Guest Guest
Blonde and Fair
- Blonde. Many of the contemporary sculptures and mosaics depict him with either blonde or gilt hair and fair features.
- —Guest Francesca
Not blonde?
- Whilst he is often portrayed as being blonde maybe what we should remember is he was a Macedonian, which became Yugoslavia before reverting back in the early 1990's to it's historical name. The Slavic people are by and large a dark haired, dark eyed people. Either way of course it is purely speculation and whatever his colouring it should never take away from his achievments.
- —Guest Bluebirdboy
Alexander's Hair Color
- Judging from the famous "Alexander Mosaic" Alex's hair was dark blond or light brown. But really what difference does it make? Some parts of ancient history can be speculative or open to interpretation, but one thing is a solid fact in Alexander's case: the color of his hair had nothing to do with his military conquests.
- —franary
ancienthistory.com
- It has always been my impression that his hair was blond. Maybe from the depictions I have seen over the years, but not anything definitive. Interesting speculation though. As for assigning personality traits to people based on the color of their hair, I do not think there is much support for this.
- —Skipdallas
Mary D
- From what I've seen and read I'd say we can't tell the color of Alexander the Great's hair. Given the way I have seen him depicted he seems to have had thick hair, which makes his being some kind of blond a strong possibility, as blondes have more hairs on their heads than anyone else, and redheads fewer. On the other hand we read alot about people whose hair became auburn as they aged, e.g. Calvin Coolidge. Given that our hair color changes according to our environment, genes, and age, it's a pity he did not live longer so that people writing about him later in his life might have been able to make some similar comment, if it applied.
- —Guest Mary Donnelly
Alexandeer's hair color
- Judging by the depictions of him, one would have to say that his hair color was either light brown or dark blond--a "dishwater blond".
- —Guest franary
