The striped headdress worn by pharaohs was called the nemes. This pleated linen headcloth covered the crown and back of the head, with long flaps, or lappets, falling beside the ears and over the shoulders.
The nemes was a royal garment rather than an ordinary fashion accessory. Artists often showed it with the uraeus, the rearing cobra representing the goddess Wadjet and the king’s protective authority. Some depictions also place the nemes beneath the pschent, the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
The famous gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun shows the king wearing a blue-and-gold striped nemes. Statues of rulers including Ramesses II, Amenhotep III and Horemheb likewise use the headcloth to identify royal status. Its stripes are especially recognizable in sculpture and painted funerary objects.
A common mix-up is to call the entire royal crown a nemes. The nemes is specifically the cloth headdress; the uraeus is the cobra emblem attached to it, while the pschent is a separate crown sometimes worn over it.