HAIR and beauty students got the chance to recreate 2,000-year-old hairstyles yesterday.

Fifteen media and make-up students from York College used Roman hairpins, tweezers, curling combs and rings on a selection of female models.

In March, the students helped archaeologists from the Yorkshire Museum to determine the use of some of the Roman utensils in their collection.

Yesterday, they used a combination of objects found buried near the skulls of Roman skeletons across Britain and replicas made from Whitby jet to recreate the flamboyant styles of Roman empresses.

Val Elliot, the media make-up tutor at York College, said: "This has been an incredible opportunity for the students who have been working with pins, combs and bun rings which are over 2,000 years old."

David Evans, an archaeology curator at the museum, said Roman coins and sculptures had been used as guides.

He said: "The skills of the hair and beauty experts helped us determine the probable use of many of our artefacts, so we thought it would be nice to put their theories into practice."