Cleopatra avoided bad hair days

Egyptian queen Cleopatra used her hairstyles to enhance her power and fame, says a professor of art history and classics.

Statues, coins and other existing depictions of the queen suggest Cleopatra (69-30 BC) wore at least three hairstyles, Professor Diana Kleiner of Yale University says in a new book.

The first, a "travelling" do that mimicked the hair of a Macedonian Greek queen, involved sectioning the hair into curls, which were then often pulled away from the face and gathered into a bun at the back.

The next was a coiffure resembling a melon, and the third was the regal Cleopatra in her royal Egyptian headdress, complete with a rearing cobra made of precious metal.