Viking Headwear

A question that frequently comes up on forums is how to style hair for an Early Norse persona, or how to hide mundane/modern hairstyles.  When my hair was still long, I most often wore it in simple braids (something practical for working, cooking, spinning, sewing).  Since I have gone very short again, I now look for historic options to cover my hair completely.  (This is not meant to be a research piece on headwear, just am using this quick entry to illustrate some of the items I choose to use.)

Here is how I use veils with a simple tablet woven fillet.  The same veil is worn in all three photos.  In the left image the ends are pulled under neath in the back and then back up over the top forming a knot.  In the center photo the front ends are just secured at the nape of my neck.  The far right has the same veil, pinned at the nape of my neck with no fillet.

I also particularly like a snug cloth or cap with a veil over it. 

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I also like Dublin hoods as they are a simple, no-fuss way to cover my short hair.  My caps are a little larger than the extant ones, because I need to cover the front of my hair as well, but I feel that it is a good solution.

Finally, I have been exploring the use of the Dublin Scarves as mention in Elizabeth Wincott Heckett's book Viking Age Headcoverings from Dublin.  In this book there are several types of headcoverings mentioned including the above caps and also veils.  My favorite though, are the narrow fringed scarves.  Below is an image of me wearing one of the scarves that I wove myself.  It falls in the range of sizes of the extant pieces and the weave and material (wool) is the same.  I am wearing it over a scarf here to hide my hair, but if I still had long hair I would wear it in braids and let them hang out the open back of the headcovering.