Everything You Didn’t Know About The Vikings

Published on 12/02/2018
ADVERTISEMENT

Blonde Is Better

As it turns out, the most common natural hair colors of Vikings were brunette, red, or black. However, the ones born with blonde hair were seen as more attractive. Men and women alike used a soap with high quantities of lye so it would strip the color of their hair so it appeared more blonde. In addition, it was known that lightening the hair helped manage head lice, which turned out to be a little bonus.

Blonde Is Better

Blonde Is Better

ADVERTISEMENT

Engraved teeth

There were some cultures where engraved teeth represented one’s status or it was simply a fashion statement. However, anthropologists haven’t figured out why the Norse had notched teeth. They were all filed evenly, with lines on the front of the teeth. They had found 24 male skulls with the same lines on their teeth. The practice could have been developed once they encountered West Africans who would file their teeth when they traveled to Spain and the Mediterranean according to National Geographic. The only difference being that the Africans filed their teeth into sharp points and not evenly. Just one other place in the world also filed their teeth evenly, and that was in the Great Lakes of America. It may have been a way to represent an ornamentation or achievement.

Engraved teeth

Engraved teeth

ADVERTISEMENT