Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


Whilst persons of rank were distinguished by their long and flowing hair,
the people wore theirs more or less short, according to the degree of
freedom which they possessed, and the serfs had their heads completely
shaved. It was customary for the noble and free classes to swear by their
hair, and it was considered the height of politeness to pull out a hair
and present it to a person. Fredegaire, the chronicler, relates that
Clovis thus pulled out a hair in order to do honour to St. Germer, Bishop
of Toulouse, and presented it to him; upon this, the courtiers hastened to
imitate their sovereign, and the venerable prelate returned home with his
hand full of hair, delighted at the flattering reception he had met with
at the court of the Frankish king. Durinig the Merovingian period, the
greatest insult that could be offered to a freeman was to touch him with a
razor or scissors. The degradation of kings and princes was carried out in
a public manner by shaving their heads and sending them into a monastery;
on their regaining their rights and their authority, their hair was always
allowed to grow again. We may also conclude that great importance was
attached to the preservation of the hair even under the kings of the
second dynasty, for Charlemagne, in his Capitulaires, orders the hair to
be removed as a punishment in certain crimes.

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