Code of the shaved

An article in the Telegraph Online reminded me of a nugget of information that I'd learned long ago and forgotten: headshaving used to be a way to get secret messages transmitted. From the article:

“The Greeks would shave a messenger’s head, write a secret message on his scalp, and let the hair grow back before sending him,” said Bryan Higgs, whose fascination with codes and history led him to this unusual tidbit. “It makes you think: ‘OK, time wasn’t quite as critical for them.’”

The rest of the article is about cryptography, of course.