Thank God the hair regrowth industry was not around then. The times would have been bad for it.

During the Renaissance, a golden period in the history of Europe, when everything — art, culture, business or empire — boomed, one particular thing touched a remarkable low: the women’s hairline. Or high, actually. It receded and receded, till it almost vanished.

Take a look at the famous Renaissance women. Begin with the perhaps the most famous of painted women of all time: Mona Lisa. Where is the hairline? You have to crane your neck. She is almost all forehead.

Take a look, next, at a portrait of Queen Elizabeth 1. Almost as striking as the deadly white face is the broad forehead rising upwards in a stately manner.You may also miss the eyebrows.

This was so because during Renaissance, one theory goes, foreheads were considered more beautiful than the hair on it. Renaissance ladies plucked all the hair from the forehead, eyebrows upwards, and made the hairline recede.

But that did not mean hair was neglected totally. What remained was decorated or covered with ornaments and hair accessories or done up elaborately.

Another theory says that the receding hairline turned into fashion out of necessity.

Renaissance women used white lead, in a mix called ceruse, to paint their faces, neck and cleavage (which explains the deathly pallor). The white lead made their hair fall. When the hairline will recede, what’s the point resisting it?

So have it, flaunt it. Which is good fashion strategy till date.