Back to the hair and hat for a moment.
This is utter conjecture teetering on the brink of fiction, but I wonder if any adjustments could have been Emma's doing.
First the hair and the Nile scar. By this time Nelson might not have cared that much about one more visible ding, another bodily badge of honor. After an arm goes it might be useless to fret about appearance. If we look at the Grignion (or Grignon) portrait done in Palermo in February 1799, we see he still appears to have his hair pulled straight back over the top of his head.
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/prints ... oID=PU3760
As the year wore on and he and Emma grew closer I can imagine Emma suggesting a trim, maybe even doing it herself; then just flopping that chunk of hair right down over the forehead and the scar. I can imagine Nelson liking the result once he saw it.
Emma really knew how to wear a hat. She had style. So I can just see her reaching across and putting a bit of an angle to
Nelson’s hat, that little bit of slouch…not necessarily to hide the scar, but because a hat generally looks better offset. Not many people look good in a hat put on square, ask any hat maven. You’ve got to tip it a little. And if Nelson did that when putting on his own hat I think he probably would have slouched it on the left, being perforce left-handed, it’s easier than reaching across to the right.
Who knows, could’ve happened…
* * *
A little astrology.
In looking at the Grignion picture we see, as in so many of Nelson’s portraits, what astrologers call the “Egyptian eyelid,” a highly typical physical trait in people with an Ascendant Scorpio, or Scorpio “Rising.” (This is presumptive in Nelson’s case, the ascendant being the astrological sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the time of birth. I very much doubt the time was documented. Anyone? However, in the absence of such information an ascendant can be arrived at by a process called rectification, and the Nelson charts I’ve seen all indicate Scorpio in this position.) Ascendant Scorpios usually have a distinctive countenance with an intensity of gaze, a certain profile, almost always a prominent nose; strong brows, full lips, wavy hair. They are often of no more than middling stature; but are typically more broadly built, and they usually have dark hair... But with Mars placed as it is in Nelson’s chart, he could easily have had reddish hair.
Also a real gift for swearing. That's the Scorpio in his chart.
Many military people, warriors, have Scorpio or Mars outstanding in their chart. Nelson has Mars in Scorpio, and Mars rules Scorpio.