Posted: 28 Aug 2015 03:06 AM PDT

Jeannel Astarita has long, thick hair that gets frizzy when she sweats. It takes her 40 minutes to blow dry it and another 20 minutes to curl it, and she'll go to great lengths to avoid this routine. That used to mean skipping workouts after work and weekend bike rides with her husband.

More recently, it has meant getting several dozen Botox shots in her scalp in order to stop her head from sweating when she exercises—thus preserving her hairstyle for another day or two. She and other women who swear by the method call it "Blowtox."

"It's common for SoulCycle people," says Dr. Patricia Wexler, a New York City dermatologist who administers the treatment. "SoulCycle is infamous for killing the hair."

SoulCycle is infamous for killing the hair.

Botox, best known as a wrinkle smoother, is also approved by the FDA for excessive underarm sweating. The drug blocks the impulses between nerves that tell a sweat gland to activate and the gland itself. If strategically shot into the scalp—a treatment that lasts anywhere from three to nine months and can cost up to $1,500—a woman can emerge from even the sweatiest of workouts with her hairdo still dry and intact.

Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank

Dr. Wexler says that she's been getting the odd request for Blowtox, though not by that name, for the past two years. Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank, who also has a practice in Manhattan, says that he got his first request for Blowtox five years ago, but "this summer the treatment has been more popular than ever." Dr. Dendy Engelman, who practices at Manhattan Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery, says she administers Blowtox to about two clients per month, and, after being featured on a television segment about the treatment this summer, has received calls from doctors in Brazil, Ireland, Australia, and "everywhere in the states," inquiring about the technique for their own practices.

Women in the United States already spend an estimated $42 billion in hair salons and another $11.6 billion on hair care products. Now, it seems, dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and Botox-maker Allergan all have an opportunity to, er, inject themselves into the giant hair care market.

Wait, you might be thinking. Isn't this market restricted to the pampered owners of dogs that fit inside purses? I mean, isn't getting a medical procedure to protect your hairstyle ridiculous?

Women reported spending on average 55 minutes every day working on their appearance.

For some (fabulously wealthy) women, a $1,500 Blowtox treatment may actually save money. A blowout at a trendy hair dry salon costs $40 (for the uninitiated, a "blowout" is when a salon shampoos and styles your hair without cutting it). Let's say that a dose of Blowtox saves two blowouts per week. That's $2,880 over nine months. On the other hand, you really don't need a professional beautician to blow dry your hair.

The more convincing justification for Blowtox is that, for many women, their hair is a sort of handcuff.

In a poll by Today and AOL last year, women reported spending on average 55 minutes every day working on their appearance. Another poll, commissioned by British beauty brand Nephria, found women spend 23 minutes a day blow-drying and styling their hair (men spent 12 minutes getting ready total, two minutes shy of how much time women spent putting on makeup). Some women, like Astarita, who have particularly difficult hair, can spend more time than that.

Fair or not, skipping a beauty routine can have professional and personal consequences. Study after study shows that attractive people have easier lives. They are more likely to get called back for an interview, make more sales, have better starting salaries, and receive favorable treatment in the legal system.

And conforming to "attractive" and "presentable" standards has a lot to do with doing your hair. In 2012, the Center for Talent Innovation, in partnership with Marie Claire, conducted a study of more than 4,000 college-educated professionals in which they asked what portraying an "executive presence" involved. Unsurprisingly, "polished appearance" was one of the top three results (behind "gravitas" and "communication skills"). The study reported that 54% of male and 67% of female survey respondents cited "unkempt hair" as one of the biggest mistakes women make at work, and the magazine quoted a vice president at a global consulting firm: "I was mentoring a woman who was 30 but looked 22. She couldn't get to the next level, so I told her, 'Get a haircut. You look like a kid, and people don't trust a kid to do a grown-up's job.' The next time I saw her, she looked amazing [with a new hairstyle]. And guess what? She got that promotion."

"Why are so few women running Fortune 500 companies?" Marie Claire asked while presenting these findings. "Because too many of us don't look and act the part."

Oh yes. That's the problem.

Of course, there are exceptions. (Looking to raise venture capital? Scruff up! Attractive women fare worse). But in many cases, not conforming to societal standards for beauty and grooming results in a penalty. Which sucks, and often sucks more for women of color. One survey found that two out of five black women avoid exercising to maintain their hairstyles.

In other words, before you judge Blowtox, remember that it's you, society, that created conditions under which it could thrive. While Blowtox is not not ridiculous, it is about more than hair.

Dr. Dendy Engelman

"It was a real emotional phenomenon," says Dr. Engelman of her clients who received Blowtox. "It's not, 'Oh, yay, I'm prettier and life is easier'; it's, 'Now I don't worry about what I look like or how I'm going to schedule my life around my hair. I make people pretty all the time, but they don't come in and say, 'You've changed my life by doing my lips.'"

That's certainly been the case for Astarita, who works as an aesthetician. "Especially in New York, we all have these incredibly busy work lives, social lives, and trying to carve out some time when I can make time for myself to go to the gym, to exercise, is really challenging," she says. "The last thing I want to deter me is because I just got my hair blown out. [Blowtox] basically gives me a lot more free time."

Blowtox basically gives me a lot more free time.

Dr. Nia Terezakis, a clinical professor at Tulane University Medical School who has a practice near New Orleans, has never administered Blowtox, but she says she would, even sans FDA approval. "The safety of the drug is established, and when they approve it for one indication, it's not forbidden for use elsewhere," she says. "It's the most common cosmetic procedure in the world. In the hands of someone who uses Botox a lot, it's very safe."

Even so, getting Botox injections is a real medical procedure with real risks. There are no studies about Blowtox, its prevalence, or how far it's spread beyond New York, but none of the doctors I contacted for this article, even those who had never performed a single Blowtox procedure, or a spokesperson for the American Academy of Dermatology, seemed particularly surprised by the idea. "People usually prioritize face first," Dr. Wexler told me. "Then they prioritize with their budget. "

"But if they have unlimited budgets, they do everything."

No Pain, No Rogaine: Hair Loss and Hairstyle in Ancient Rome ...

Posted: 25 Aug 2015 11:50 AM PDT

Hair obsessions aren't new. In ancient Rome, attaining the right style was a high priority for the upper-class man and woman

Portrait Head of a Balding Man, Roman, about A.D. 240. Marble, 10 1/16 in. high. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 85.AA.112

I don't consider myself bald, I'm just taller than my hair.
—Seneca the Younger (not really)

Much like Donald Trump, men and women in ancient Rome were very conscious of their coiffures. Roman attitudes toward hair (or lack thereof) differed immensely depending on age, sex, and social status, and was known to be a source of anguish for both Roman men and women. So although there's no evidence that Seneca actually said the zinger above, as an ancient Roman he definitely should have.

As a classics student, my interests in the ancient world lie less in wars and dates, and more in recognizably human themes, such as vanity, the natural inclination to poke fun at your elders, and the timeless misery of hair.

Male Baldness and Its Discontents

A signifier of wisdom, gravitas (dignity), and severitas (sternness), male pattern baldness was considered an ideal characteristic of an upstanding Roman citizen, and was used to convey venerability on portraits of philosophers.

Portrait Head of Diogenes, Roman, A.D. late 100s. Marble, 13 in. high. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 73.AA.131

Head of an Old Man, Roman, 25 B.C.–A.D. 10. Marble, 13 15/16 in. high. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 96.AA.39 Image: Bruce White Photography

Especially in the Republican period, from 509 to 27 B.C., Roman portrait patrons often chose to be presented with glisteningly bald heads, large noses, and extra wrinkles to express the years they had devoted to the Roman state.

But despite the air of patriotism associated with baldness, it would seem that a receding hairline outside the realm of portraiture wasn't nearly as desirable. The famously bald (and somewhat defeatist) Emperor Domitian lost many a night's sleep over his hair loss (Emperors, they're just like us!):

Be assured that nothing is more pleasing,
but nothing shorter-lived.
—Emperor Domitian, on having hair. From Suetonius, Life of Domitian, 18

The horror of baldness also appears in poetry:

Ugly are hornless bulls, a field without grass is an eyesore, So is a tree without leaves, so is a head without hair.
—Ovid, Ars Amatoria, 3.223–254

Men would dye their hair and have it curled in an attempt to avoid greying or thinning, and to preserve any youthful, Jon Hamm-like features. As an example of the unfortunate propensities of real hair, see the wispy, greying locks of this stumbling and aged follower of Dionysos, tired after a long night of drinking.

Fresco Fragments Depicting an Old Silenos with Kantharos and Thyrsos

Fresco Fragment Depicting an Old Silenos with Kantharos and Thyrsos (detail), Roman, A.D. 1–100. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 83.AG.222.2

Hair dyes were often extracted from bark or walnut shells, carbon, or straight ash—materials also used to dye textiles. Because both balding and going grey were associated with deteriorating health and generally losing your marbles, hair dye proved a popular practice amongst Roman men.

But dyeing one's hair also served as a prime opportunity for ridicule, and any man attempting to disguise a receding hairline was in for a relentless mocking from poets (and, presumably, sassy Roman teenagers):

On your bald pate no wig you use.
You draw hairs on, with no excuse.
At least no barber needs to trim it.
You can erase it in a minute.
—Martial, Epigrams, 6.57

Your hairs are carefully disposed
Lest your bald pate should be disclosed.
But winds lift them in wavy drifts,
Moved in a blur of constant shifts.
How can you have so little hair,
Yet have it show up everywhere?
—Martial, Epigrams, 10.83

So to be bald, or not to be? You can't win.

Women's Hairy Agonies

Just like for men, hair was a major determinant of both respectability and physical attractiveness for women. Not unlike Kim Kardashian's beauty routine, hair was the first step in any Roman woman's prep, notes author Seneca.

Diagram showing how women's hair was braided in ancient Rome

Roman braid-weaving from J. Stephens, "Ancient Roman Hairdressing: On (hair)pins and needles," Journal of Roman Archaeology 21 (2008): 111–133

All hair endeavors for the wealthy Roman woman would have fallen under the domain of an ornatrix, or beauty expert specifically skilled at cutting and dyeing hair—depicted, ironically, as short-haired throughout Greek and Roman art as suited her slave status. (See the slave's short hairstyle compared to her mistress's well-tended-to locks on this grave marker.)

Such female hairdressers were also responsible for styling hair with dangerous hot tools such as the calamistrum (a cylindrical, fired curling iron), and for sewing in locks of false hair, most often in the form of braids (pictured).

But female vanity, even more than male, was ceaselessly mocked:

A lock of her well-pampered hair flopped free.
Her glass made her this horrid error see.
Against her hairdresser she smashed the glass,
Her baldness should for smoothest mirror pass!
—Martial, Epigrams, 2.66

Your teeth and hair you plainly buy.
Too bad you cannot buy an eye.
—Martial, Epigrams, 12.23

A popular hairstyle that utilized hair extensions can be seen in these portraits of Julia Titi and an anonymous Roman woman. In both of these women's hairstyles, their extravagant curls are piled high and woven together in a pre-Marie-Antionette updo.

Portrait Head of Julia Titi, Roman, about A.D. 90. Marble with polychromy, 13 in. high. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 58.AA.1

Bust of a Flavian Woman, Roman, late 1st century. Marble, 26 ¾ in. high. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 73.AA.13

Sometimes a more modest front view hid the extreme updo's reverse, which required long artificial braids and exceptional styling technique on the part of the ornatrix. Business in the front, party in the back!

Business in the front. Portrait Bust of a Woman, Roman, A.D. 150–160. Marble, 26 9/16 in. high. The J. Paul Getty Museum, 83.AA.44

Portrait Bust of a Woman, back of head / Roman

Party in the back.

Here you can see a similar look reconstructed by historical hair rockstar Janet Stephens:

For those who couldn't afford their own personal beauty team, there were local barbers and hairdressers. The barbers would do more than simply give you a trim; they would also clean and cut your fingernails, tend to calluses, and even remove warts and moles. No woman would have cut her own hair unless she were in dire financial circumstances. Many plebeians also wouldn't have owned proper combs, which provided a good excuse to go to the barber for a slice of town gossip.

Aside from the hair on their heads, Roman women often opted for the naked mole rat look, bidding vale (farewell) to all bodily hair. For hair removal, many would pluck, use pumice stones, or wax off their hair using a paste made of resin. But like the toupeed men discussed earlier, older women who shaved were ridiculed, as this was seen as preparation for sex. Seems you can't win either, lassies.

After having their hair prepped, Roman women would put on the final touches: shave their eyebrows (who needs 'em?), lace their eyelids with soot, powder their faces with lead (for that dreamy/poisonous white complexion), and rouge their cheeks with rust and/or wine.

Unlike portraits of their husbands and brothers, portraits of Roman women were far more concerned with representing the latest ideas of fashion and beauty than the subject's actual features. Like men, however, Roman women also faced conflicting attitudes towards their outward appearance. Criticized for being both too made-up, and not made-up enough, the struggle for Romans of both sexes was all too real. Alas, we can't all be Farrah Fawcett.

Still interested? See further reading below.