Red and Proud

RED HERRING

A Celt Writes ........ 10.1.08

Hi there,
I just came across your site in passing and was intrigued to read your definitions of the classic celtic facial features of women.
However, I noted that you mention celtic women washed their hair with lime and you were appalled that this would be to remove the redness from their hair. I thought you might be interested in 'why' they limed their hair.
This was a practice which was not, in fact, used with the intention of lessening the colour of their hair. Both redheaded and darkhaired celtic women (very dark hair with extremely pale skin) used lime in their hair rinse as this coarsened up their hair and made it closely resemble the mane of their horses.
Horses were extremely valued, both spiritually and culturally to the celts.
The celtic people had the greatest horsemanship skills within Europe, and were essentially the first 'horse-whisperers'.
Horses could cross between the underworld and overworld. All dieties / heroes / heroines had named horses and some godesses appeared in horse form.
Celts tended to be either redhaired or darkhaired, so liming of their hair, whereas it turned the redhaired slightly blonder; made the darkhaired slightly redder (much like peroxide). Making the hair coarser also meant that it could be braided and fashioned into intricate styles, much as people do with horse manes for dressage.
So the liming of their hair was a magnificent statement of their culture and heritage, helping them to emulate their goddesses, and not somehow hiding the redness of their hair.

Kind Regards,
Aoife Doyle