Historical beauty tricks that actually work

Olive Oil

Nowadays we’re used to adverts and beauty bloggers telling us we should be using more and more products on our skin and hair, all of which seem to do the same thing, and most of which are expensive. The ancient Greeks, however, had a different idea: olive oil. Applied to hair and left for a few hours it can act as a conditioner, and massaged into skin it can have many benefits too.

Why does it work?

Olive oil can be beneficial for skin for several reasons, the first of which is that it contains important vitamins, such as Vitamin K and Vitamin E. Vitamin E has antioxidant functions, and is soluble in fat, meaning that it can be absorbed into skin cells and prevent them from oxidative damage. Vitamin K, when ingested in foods such as kale and spinach, can help to prevent wrinkles, but it has been shown that applications of Vitamin K to skin areas can prevent acne, and reduce acne scarring.

Another reason why olive oil can be good for the skin is that is has antibacterial properties. Researchers have found that certain chemical groups (called phenolic compounds) are in abundance in olive oil, and these compounds can have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects. These effects could be useful in preventing or treating spots.

Third, olive oil has emollient properties. Emollients are a chemical group (for example, oleic acid, which can be used as an emollient, is found in olive oil) which help to treat skin damage, and also promote moisture retention. These properties make it a good conditioning treatment for hair as well, as emollients are absorbed into the hair fibres, making it smoother and softer. According to some sources, it can even promote hair growth by reducing the sebum that builds up around hair follicles.

How to use it:

There are lots of different ways to apply olive oil as a beauty treatment, so here is my method:

1      Put about a tablespoon (or more/less depending on how long/thick your hair is) of extra virgin olive oil into a small container (I used a plastic shot glass, so something similar to that will do).

2     Boil some water, then pour about a centimetre depth into a larger container (e.g. a standard mug).

3   Stand the oil container in the hot water, and leave for a couple of minutes. It will heat up quickly.

4   Take the oil out carefully, and massage it into your hair (it will be warm, but not hot enough to burn or be uncomfortable).

5   Leave the oil on your hair for at least half an hour. The Greeks did this for several hours, but if you’re too busy for that, an hour is fine.

6   (This is where sources start to differ on what to do) At this point, you can either wash out the oil with shampoo and conditioner as you normally would, or just use water. I tried it just with water, and my hair was very greasy afterwards, but a lot of sources recommend not using shampoo, so I found a middle ground. I use shampoo on my roots, but not the lengths of my hair, as the lengths are where my hair tends to become dry. Then, I condition all of it, and rinse as usual.

You can decide whether to blow-dry or let your hair dry naturally, but either way, doing this makes my hair much softer (especially at the ends) than the usual shampoo/conditioner routine.

Skin-wise, I was a little nervous about using olive oil as my skin tends to be oily rather than dry, especially on my nose and chin, so I decided to add another ingredient: tea tree oil. This is a natural antiseptic, and is useful in treating spots and acne, but it can dry skin out, so I assumed that the olive oil would counteract this. Using another plastic shot glass, I mix about half a teaspoon of olive oil with 2-4 drops of tea tree oil – this doesn’t sound like a lot, but you really don’t need much to cover your face. Massage this into your face (and neck, if you like), and leave for about half an hour, then wash/moisturise as normal. Without wishing to sound like a clickbait article, this really will make your skin feel much softer and cleaner (Dermatologists are mystified by this student’s secret to perfect skin – you’ll never guess what!).

This all goes to show that, even though historical beauticians didn’t always get it right (I mean, lead makeup was never going to end well, was it?), sometimes they hit on really good ideas which we can still use today.   

Some more reading about olive oil:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/87040-benefits-olive-oil-hair/

http://blog.perriconemd.com/what-are-emollients/

https://www.healthambition.com/vitamin-k-benefits-best-sources/

http://www.oliveoilsource.com/page/beauty-and-olive-oil

http://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-health-news/olive-oil-and-infection/51057

Fashions of Egypt- Hairy Pharoahs

This is my third (and final) post in the Egyptian fashions series. I finally get the chance to focus on something I have wanted to from the beginning- how the Egyptians wore their hair. Throughout history, how people have worn their hair has included clues to their gender, wealth and social class, something no less true for the ancient Egyptians. Alex wrote an absolutely fantastic post on wigs a few weeks ago, so this post will focus instead on how Egyptians dealt with their natural hair, and some of the seemingly strange practices involved in it.

Ancient Egypt was rife with disease, as the Nile floods only encouraged the spread of water-borne illness such as schistosomiasis and malaria. As such, grooming was incredibly important, as keeping clean was vital to a long life. Long hair, and beards, was sometimes seen as unclean, as it encouraged head lice and was a breeding ground for other diseases. This is where we reach the first hurdle in studying hair, as to prevent the spread of illness many Egyptians, and particularly men, shaved their head.

An Egyptian man with a shaved head

The first hairstyle any Egyptian wore, regardless of social class or gender, was a shaved head with a braided sidelock, or very occasionally in the New Kingdom several braids. This sidelock had a mythological importance, it was the hairstyle worn by the god Horus as a child, a form he was often represented in. It was due to the mythological significance of the sidelock that we also see it worn by various religious figures, notably ‘sem-priests’ who helped ensure the safe passage of the dead to the afterlife.

The Pharaoh Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti and their daughters

Evidence from mummies suggests wealthy women did sometimes wear their hair long, augmented by accessories made of ivory or gold. Unlike men, women were rarely depicted as bald, save as children or during the Amarna period. The positioning of some mummies suggests occasionally women wore their hair long beneath their wigs, and when they didn’t wear a wig at all may have styled their hair extravagantly to look like they were.

Egyptian women sporting a variety of different hairstyles

Men would wear their hair short, either closely cropped or completely shaven. The poor, servants and slaves are often depicted without any hair at all, a symbol of their low status. Short hair was also donned by elite men however, to make their wigs easier to wear. Men also shaved their beards, only allowing it to grow as a sign of mourning, and likely shaving again shortly after the funeral. The ‘false beard’, a plaited and curled accessory which jutted from the chin, was worn by the Pharaoh as early as 3,000 BCE however, and continued to be worn until the late period (664-332 BCE) by the Pharaoh and other elite citizens. Actual beards seem to have become more popular by Greek and Roman Egypt, where they appear on mummy portraits.

King Tutankhamun sporting a false beard

So that is it for my series on Egyptian fashions! I hope it proved interesting, and somewhat informative in places. I know I enjoyed to write it at least! Especially this last post, which I had the pleasure to write and research in Rome, which it absolutely glorious. I am still mulling over what I want my next series of posts to be- however whatever I decide on I hope proves to be as fun to write as this series has been!

Sources:

Robins G. Hair and the Construction of Identity in Ancient Egypt, c. 1480-1350 B.C

Robins G. Women in Ancient Egypt

Tyldesley J. Daughters of Isis: Women of Ancient Egypt

Image Sources:

http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egcl06e.shtml

http://portsmouthpoint.blogspot.it/2013/03/ides-of-march-lecture-ancient-egypt.html

http://me13in.tumblr.com/post/83802148271/pseudofailure-yowhosedogisthat

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/21/king-tuts-mask-damaged_n_6520910.html

Medieval Beauty

Medieval beauty

(In which I discover the aesthetic conventions of the middle ages and attempt to try them myself, using my own makeup.)

My knowledge of medieval fashion and beauty is based largely on pop culture (when I typed ‘medieval hair’ into Google images, there was a lot of Cersei Lannister), so this probably won’t be totally accurate but I’ll do my best.

Before I start, I should say that I am at two significant disadvantages with this task:

1)      The people of the medieval age favoured blonde hair, which I don’t have.

2)      They also preferred clear skin, and I have a lot of freckles and moles on my face. They would probably have thought I was a witch.

Apparently scrubbing your face with an amethyst got rid of blemishes, but they don’t sell those in Boots, so I just used cream concealer. I then attempted to cover up my freckles with concealer stick; I didn’t quite succeed, but they are less noticeable. I also used lemon juice to make my lips pinker, which is supposedly authentic. Also painful.

Hair-wise, I made three braids on either side of my head, then pinned them in a loop together at the back. While my hair is quite long by modern standards, it isn’t as long as would have been usual in the middle ages, so I couldn’t do as intricate a pattern as I would have liked. I then did four more braids in the lower part of my hair, just for added decoration. I didn’t straighten my hair before styling it because it wouldn’t have been an option at the time, although according to Alex, I have ‘English’ hair anyway, which basically means it’s wavy and kind of fluffy.

This is my face sans makeup and my natural hair:

And this is the finished product:

I hope you enjoyed my (slightly haphazard) attempt at medieval beauty!

Information from:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/55276/17-signs-youd-qualify-witch-1692

http://www.xovain.com/how-to/medieval-beauty-tips