Viking Hairstyles: Cuts, Braids and Beards, Sources Included

Search for "viking hairstyle" and you will find galleries of forty cuts without a single source. This page does the opposite: it starts with what three documents and a handful of objects actually allow us to confirm, then moves on to the practical—which cut suits you, how to braid, how to maintain, what to do with your beard, what to use to keep it all in place, and how to wear it under headgear.

Initial verdict: we know little, but that little is fascinating—and it contradicts much of what is currently circulating. The best-documented male cut of the Viking Age is not the braided mohawk from the TV series. It is the exact opposite.

Did Vikings really wear their hair like that?

Three texts, and they do not tell the same story. This disagreement is what makes the subject interesting, and it is precisely what competing pages gloss over.

Ibn Fadlan, 921-922: "the filthiest of creatures"

Sent by the Caliph of Baghdad to the Volga Bulgars, Ibn Fadlan encountered the Rus, Scandinavian merchants settled on the river. He found them magnificent—tall, blond, tattooed or painted with dark patterns—and utterly disgusting.

His passage on their grooming is famous: every morning, a servant brings a large basin of water; the master washes his face and hair in it, blows his nose, and spits—then the same basin is passed to the next man, and so on until the last. Ibn Fadlan describes them as "the filthiest of God's creatures."

Two caveats, always the same. He is a foreign, Muslim observer for whom standing water is ritually impure: what scandalizes him is not the dirt but the reused water. And these Volga Rus lived two thousand kilometers from Scandinavia, in contact with Turkic and Slavic worlds. His account of ship burials is invaluable; regarding Scandinavian hygiene, it is worth only as much as any outside perspective.

John of Wallingford: too clean, to the point of seduction

A century and a half later, an English chronicle attributed to John of Wallingford, a 13th-century monk from St Albans compiling earlier material, accuses the Danes settled in England of the exact opposite. They combed their hair every day, bathed every Saturday, changed their clothes often—and by these means, he writes bitterly, they managed to seduce women of good birth and even the daughters of nobles.

The accusation is disingenuous. The information, however, is golden: it describes a daily grooming habit, not just for festivities.

The word that settles it: laugardagr

A detail of vocabulary supports the second version, and it is hard to ignore. Saturday is called laugardagr in Old Norse—literally "bath day". The word has survived intact: lördag in Swedish, lørdag in Norwegian and Danish, laugardagur in Icelandic.

A language does not name a day of the week after an exceptional practice. This word indicates that one day in seven was dedicated to bathing, and that it was systematic enough to enter the calendar.

So, clean or dirty? Both testimonies are sincere and contradict each other because they describe different people, in different places, with different standards. This is the honest answer, and it is more useful than a groundless claim that "Vikings were very well-groomed."

What excavations reveal: the comb above all

Where texts waver, objects are formal. And the most common object found is neither a weapon nor a piece of jewelry.

The comb, one of the most frequent objects of the Viking Age

Carved from antler—more elastic than bone, making it less prone to breaking—assembled with iron or bronze rivets, toothed on one or two sides, and often stored in a protective case worn on the belt. They have been found at Birka, Hedeby, Coppergate in England, and Dublin. In men's graves as well as women's. Including in the Oseberg ship burial.

An object brought into the afterlife is not an accessory. It is the strongest argument we have: you do not comb your hair daily in a society that does not care about its appearance.

The rest of the grooming kit

Burials also yield tweezers, ear spoons, toothpicks—sometimes suspended together on a ring, in a small kit carried on the person—and razors. These are modest objects, without market value, that one does not place in a grave for ostentation. They are included because they were part of daily life.

Our article on everyday Viking life puts this grooming kit in context with other household items.

What excavations don't reveal

Hair. Or almost none: in Scandinavian soil, keratin does not preserve any better than skin. The rare hair that has reached us comes from exceptional environments—peat, ice, extreme dryness—and none are simultaneously Scandinavian and from the Viking Age.

Result: we know their combs, not their hairstyles. For those, we must rely on two indirect sources—texts and rare depictions. This is the subject of the next two sections, and they hold a surprise.

The best-documented male cut is not what you think

Here is the promised surprise, which none of the competing pages mention.

Around the year 1000, an English letter—attributed to the monk Ælfric of Eynsham—criticizes young English men for wearing their hair in the "Danish fashion": the nape of the neck shaven and eyes blinded. The nape and back of the head short or shaven, hair long on top and in front, falling over the eyes. If this description sounds familiar, that's because it is, for all intents and purposes, what a modern barber calls an undercut with fringe.

The Bayeux Tapestry, embroidered shortly after 1066, depicts the Normans—grandsons of Scandinavians settled in Normandy—with this same high, shaved nape. Two independent sources, seventy years apart, confirming one another: in our field, that is as solid as it gets.

The irony is delightful: the most documented "Viking" cut is the exact opposite of the cliché. No wild mane toward the back: long in front, shaved behind. The braided mohawk with shaved sides popularized by the Vikings series is a costume designer's creation—a successful one, but modern. Our article on series vs. true history sorts this out, just like the rest.

What about long hair, then?

That existed too—the portrait is more varied than a single cut. There is no shortage of depictions of men with long hair that is carefully braided or tied, starting with the heads carved into the Oseberg wagon, with beards and mustaches groomed with remarkable care. The nickname of the Norwegian king Harald Hárfagri—"Fairhair," who allegedly vowed not to cut his hair until he unified Norway—shows that male hair could be a sign of status and commitment.

What one finds nowhere in the sources, however, is the unkempt look. Long or short, documented hair is tethered hair: combed, braided, or tied. The "wild warrior mane" is a romantic fantasy, not part of the historical record.

Women: the high knot and the status veil

On the feminine side, the dominant depiction is constant from one object to the next: long hair gathered in a high knot at the back of the head, often extended by a tail that hangs down—this is the silhouette of the small silver figurines called "valkyries," such as the one from Hårby (Denmark, c. 800), and the women engraved on the Gotland stones. On some, one can even distinguish the binding that closes the knot.

The scarf or cap covering the hair appears as a marker for married women, while young girls went bareheaded—a common distinction in medieval Europe. Excavations in Dublin and York have yielded silk and wool caps; rich graves in Birka have revealed headbands embroidered with silver thread. A woman's hair was an asset, and it was covered or shown depending on her status.

For how the sagas make use of such hair—Hallgerðr refusing Gunnar two locks of hair while he is under siege, in Njáls saga, is perhaps the most famous hair-related scene in medieval literature—see our portraits of Lagertha and Freydís Eiríksdóttir.

Choosing your cut today: based on hairline, not catalogs

Galleries of forty photos have one flaw: they show forty heads that are not yours. A useful choice is made based on three criteria, and they can be resolved in a single trip to the barber.

Frontal hairline determines the fringe. The "Danish-style" cut—long in front, short behind—requires a forehead that can support the weight of the front section. High hairline or receding temples: keep volume on top but shorten the fringe, otherwise, it will divide the face. Low and straight hairline: this is the ideal cut; it does the work for you.

Density determines the braid. A braid only looks good if it is thick. Below medium density, prefer a low knot or nape bun, which bunches the volume instead of stretching it—stretching a thin braid reveals the scalp. Thick and heavy hair: everything is permitted, including cornrows.

Jawline determines the tapering. A short nape and sides will elongate a round face and sharpen a soft one; on an already long face, keep some side length or compensate with a beard.

Three silhouettes encompass the essentials, from the most conservative to the most daring: the Danish undercut (nape and sides short, top long, combed forward or tied—this is the documented style, and it works anywhere, including the office); the mid-length tied (all length, worn in a low knot or half-up, with the advantage of being undone in one motion); the long braided (total commitment—count on two to three years of growth from a short cut, at about 1.25 cm per month, and read the maintenance section before getting started).

A word on the shaved-side mohawk, since it has become the emblem of the genre: it wears very well—just know that it commits you to clipper touch-ups every two to three weeks, and that it cites the series, not the sources. Taking responsibility for that consciously is all this page asks.

The lookbook: fourteen styles, and what each one cites

Galleries of forty haircuts leave you alone in front of forty silent photos. Here is the opposite: ten worn styles, each named, and above all labeled—what it cites, what it invents. None requires being "authentic"; all deserve that you know what you are wearing.

Four other styles are detailed above with their sources: the Danish undercut—the best-documented masculine haircut—, the Hårby top knot, and for the chin, the forked beard and beard beads.

Making a braid that holds: the method, not the gallery

A photo shows the result, never the movement. Here is the movement, for the three arrangements that cover most needs—on your own hair or someone else's.

The basic three-strand braid

Everything starts here. Detangle hair—on dry or barely damp hair: soaked, it breaks, and a tight braid on wet hair loosens as it dries. Divide into three equal strands. Pass the right strand over the center one—it becomes the center. Then the left strand over the new center. Alternate down to the bottom, keeping the same tension at each crossing: it is the consistency of the tension, not the force, that creates the hold.

Classic mistake: pulling tight at the top and less and less as you go. The braid flares out and unravels from the bottom. Better to have medium, constant tension than a strangled start.

The cornrow, also called French or plaited braid

This is the one that follows the scalp, the most "Viking" in appearance. Same three-strand principle, with one difference: at every crossing, before passing the outer strand to the center, you add a thin strand taken from just underneath, along the path. The braid thus anchors itself to the scalp centimeter by centimeter instead of hanging.

The knack that changes everything: take thin and regular strands—the thickness of a pencil, no more. Large and uneven sections make bumps. And keep your thumbs against the scalp while crossing: it is this contact that presses the braid down.

For a Nordic-inspired silhouette: two symmetrical cornrows starting from the temples and joining a knot or a single braid at the nape. On mid-length hair, they clear the face without clippers—the "short sides" effect without cutting.

The fishtail braid

Only two strands, for a denser and more intricate look. Separate into two halves. Take a thin strand from the outer edge of the left half, pass it over toward the right half. Then the opposite: thin strand from the right outer edge, over, toward the left. The thinner the strands taken, the tighter and neater the fishtail. It takes longer than a simple braid—count double the time—but it holds remarkably well and stands up very well to being worn for two or three days.

Fastening without plastic elastics

Thin hair elastics saw through the hair from being put in and removed in the same spot. Three alternatives: the fabric-covered elastic, the tied leather lace (the most consistent with the style, and the gentlest on the fiber), or—on a thick braid—the piercing pin, whose accessory section explains the move. Final holding tip: a braid sleeps better than loose hair. Braid loosely before night, and you will save ten minutes of detangling in the morning.

Maintaining long hair without ruining it

Wearing it long is a commitment to maintenance more than to style. Four rules cover the bulk of the path.

Space out washes. Two to three per week suffice for most scalps; beyond that, sebum overreacts and the lengths dry out. Between two washes, the comb does the work: it distributes the sebum from the root to the ends—it is the oldest care in the world, and the deer antler combs found in burial sites served no other purpose.

Detangle from bottom to top. Ends first, then middle, then roots. Starting from the top, every knot you encounter is pushed downward and joins the next ones—it’s mathematical, and yet it is the most common habit.

Dry without twisting. Wringing out by twisting breaks the wet fiber, which is at its most fragile. Press in a towel, let the air finish the job. The hair dryer is the hair’s worst enemy if it’s too hot and held too close: keep it at a distance and in motion.

Trim the ends anyway. One centimeter every ten to twelve weeks. An untrimmed split end travels up the fiber and will cost you more length than a regular trim. It’s counter-intuitive, and it’s the secret of all those long heads of hair that look amazing.

For growing out from a short cut: about 1.25 cm per month, with one difficult hurdle—the intermediate phase, between the third and eighth month, where nothing can be tied back yet. This is where the bandana and the cap are most useful, and where most people give up. Get through these five months: everything else is easier.

The beard: what the sources say, and how to wear it

Here, the sources are more talkative than they are for hair—and more entertaining.

The carved heads from the Oseberg ship sport combed beards and carefully styled mustaches. Male depictions from Gotland show pointed beards, sometimes clearly knotted. And the onomastics add another layer: the Danish king Sven Tveskægg, "Forkbeard," wears his chin style in his very name—you don’t nickname kings after a detail nobody looks at. Even among the gods, Thor is rauðskeggjaðr, "red-bearded"; our article on Thor covers this.

The attested beard is therefore, like the hair, a maintained beard: combed, trimmed, sometimes braided or forked. The full-on shaggy look seen on festival posters is as poorly documented as the shaved mohawk.

On the practical side, there are three levels. The short beard is trimmed with a guard, neat and without special maintenance. The medium beard requires daily combing and oil two to three times a week—a few drops warmed between the palms, applied right to the skin, which prevents itching during growth. The long beard opens up the world of braids and beads: a center braid under the chin, two symmetrical braids, or the fork style à la Sven. A point of honesty, consistent with what we write in the collection: the beard bead is an essentially modern usage, popularized by reenactment and TV series—archaeology yields thousands of beads, but their use in the beard remains poorly established. That said, it holds a braid very well, and the method is simple: braid tightly for three to four centimeters, slide the bead on from the bottom, push it up, and let the natural volume of the braid lock it in place.

Accessories that actually hold a hairstyle

A Nordic hairstyle rarely holds up on its own. Three families of objects do the work, and they aren't used in the same way—confusing them is the number one cause of "it won't hold."

The slide barrette

An openwork plate with two slots, and a pin that passes from one to the other while trapping the hair lock. No springs, no mechanism: it is the tension of the hair itself that locks it—nothing breaks because there is nothing to break. Gather, place the plate, pin under the lock, and exit through the second slot. If it slips, it means there isn't enough volume: twist the lock a half-turn before pinning; the twist replaces the volume.

This is the right tool for a half-up style or a low bun worn all day long, and the gentlest one: no teeth to break hair, no elastic to snap it. Our range of Viking barrettes and hair jewelry details each size, engraved with interlace, drakkar, or dragon head designs.

The hair pin alone

A single stem, adorned at the top, which is pushed into an already twisted bun. The trick to the movement: aim across the bun, not in the center, hooking a base section of hair in the process—the pin must come out on the other side. If poked straight into the mass, it will slip out on its own within an hour. More elegant than the barrette, but also more demanding: it requires length and a bit of practice.

Braid beads and rings

For hair and beard: they are slipped onto a braid and mark it with a point of metal. Two purchasing criteria that photos never show: the inner diameter—too wide, the bead slips; the ideal size grips the braid slightly—and the weight: on a thin beard braid, a heavy bead pulls and becomes tiring. Our beard and hair beads come in two materials: the steel of complete sets, which doesn't oxidize with daily skin contact, and the patinated alloy of models sold individually—bronze or aged silver—whose recessed patterns darken over time.

Finally, the simplest of all: the leather lace. It ties a braid, secures a ponytail, circles a bun—and it is the type of fastener closest to what archaeological finds suggest. To compose the rest of the look, our Viking jewelry is designed with the hairstyle in mind: a high knot clears the neck and calls for a torque or a short pendant; side braids frame earrings that loose hair would hide.

Under headgear: the trick that galleries forget

None of the galleries of forty hairstyles answers the most everyday question: what happens to the hair under a hat—and after taking it off?

The bandana is the ally of growth phases and fresh braids. Tied as a doo-rag—triangle on the forehead, ends crossed behind, knot under the back point—it secures hair without compression points: no marks when removed, and it protects a tight braid from the friction of a collar or helmet. It is the item that gets you through the intermediate months, when nothing can be tied back yet. Our bandanas with Nordic motifs—Vegvísir, Yggdrasil, Valknut—are tied specifically for this use.

The cap requires a choice of hairstyle: with long loose hair, it flattens the top and makes the sides poof out—the famous line left behind. The solution is simple: low knot or low braid, under the back strap, never a high bun under the crown. With the Danish undercut, however, it can be put on and taken off without leaving a trace: fix your hair with a finger, done. The same logic applies to our range of Viking caps, embroidered or in faded denim.

And in winter, a reminder that comes from the sources rather than trends: the attested headgear of the Viking Age is the cap—woven wool or nålebinding, that loop-stitching technique that predates knitting—and the wool hood. Caps like the same hairstyles as baseball caps: everything low and flat. Our article on Viking equipment tells what was worn on top when it wasn't just about keeping warm, but about protection.

Summary table: what is attested, what is modern

The reading rule is the same as in our Viking tattoo guide: explain where each element comes from, then let you choose with full knowledge.

Frequently asked questions

One last thing, perhaps the most important: none of these hairstyles require you to be "authentic." A Danish-inspired look at the office, a TV-series-style mohawk at a festival, the high Hårby bun for everyday wear—the key is to know what you are referencing. That is the whole difference between wearing a style and letting it wear you.