When he was at last released, after five-and-a-half years in captivity, he weighed less than seven stone and was unable to comb his own hair, because his broken bones had healed so badly.

ECONOMIST: The man who healed the Vietnam wound

By the time that Rasputin was murdered by a group of aristocrats led by Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dimitri, Nicholas had been reduced to running Rasputin's holy comb through his hair before making a decision.

ECONOMIST: Ra-Ra-Rasputin

Still, I liked him most when he was back in his clothes, with his fine parting restored (he used hair oil and a steel comb), when he was great and good once more, settling me in an armchair, deftly drawing the cork from a Pinot Grigio, directing my reading.

NEWYORKER: Hand on the Shoulder