Since the beginning of civilization
people have been fixated on beauty. For centuries we have been coming up with
new ways to be beautiful. Chemically, our brains are trying to find someone
with all the qualifications need to produce the perfect offspring. Psychologically
we are desperate for approval and even adoration from those around us. We put
our bodies through torcher trying to achieve perfection, youth and beauty,
however this is nothing new. History tells us that people will go to any
lengths for the sake of beauty, sometimes putting our very lives on the line
for the sake of a flawless physique. Let’s take a stroll down the drug store aisle
of beauty regimes in the past.
In Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Greece,
it was considered a sign of good health and beauty to have color in the lips.
Naturally most people already have a natural pigmentation the lips, but our
ancient ancestors want to make sure everyone noticed it. In Mesopotamia, women
to crush semi-precious stones into a powder and then place the dust on their lips
to give them a shimmery look. Ancient Greek women wanted a more colorful look
so they would crush up red beetles and use that as a colorant. There were some
cultures that also used fish scales for that extra shimmer.
It was important to look youthful and
blemish free in Ancient Rome. Woman went to great lengths to appear wrinkle and
freckle free. They believed using swan fat and Donkey milk on their skin would
diminish wrinkles and blemishes. They also believed in bloodletting was the
answer to pale delicate skin.
To go along with their pale skin,
Ancient Romans found black hair to be the most attractive color. In order to
obtain flowing black locks when they weren’t born that way was to use the
leeches in their bloodletting and crush them into a paste. The paste was then
applied to the hair and left for a day to set in the color. It must have smelled
awful.
Ancient Romans were not the only ones
obsessed with Pale, flawless skin. In the 16th Century, during the
reign of Queen Elizabeth I, being pale
and delicate was extremely important. If it looked like one hardly ever saw the
sun it was a sign that one did not toil in the fields all day. Queen Elizabeth
was particularly obsessed with her skin and added white lead based paint to her
beauty regime. Unfortunate she had to continue this habit her whole life
because the makeup itself caused permanant scars on her face disfiguring her.
Other women adopted the regime to emulate their Queen. The lead based makeup
caused hair loss, blindness, insanity and even death. We will do anything in the name of beauty.
Queen Elizabeth, always the trend setter
had another dangerous beauty tip she performed regularly. The Queen would use
Deadly Nightshade drops in her eyes every day to make her pupils appear larger
and her eyes brighter. It is impressive
that the Queen wasn’t blind from the poison.
The Restoration period was time for
both men and women to torcher themselves. This was an age of opulence, romance
and ridiculously large powdered wigs.
When powdered wigs became popular and everyone had to wear them, it was
not uncommon to share them. Since people did not find bathing very safe due to
the water supply being polluted they managed to share more than just wigs. Lice
became an epidemic, people breeding the vermin under an incubator of fake hair.
Lice were not the only problem however. The powder used on the wigs to make
them appear whiter was lead based. Inhaling the lead based powder caused the same
irritating issues makeup did in the 16th Century; blindness, insanity
and death.
Although the Victorian period was
known for its pure standards of living, fashion was just as important then as
it has in any other time in history. The most famous fashion wear at the time
for women was the corset. Made to give the appearance of a small waist the
corset was bound and laced up around the middle of a woman’s frame. The tighter
the better was a motto for this era and mothers instilled in their daughters
that “if you can breathe it’s not tight enough”. This caused several philological
issues for women. For one the lungs could no longer expand to get enough air.
It was common during that time for a woman to suffer from fainting spells because
of lack of oxygen. Smelling salts and fainting rooms became very popular at
this time. Corsets also managed to crush other major organs and move them entirely
in the body. This made the liver and the digestive tract weak, causing women
severe health issues as they got older.
We will always be a society that will
do anything for the sake of beauty. As one beauty regime fads into history,
another one with take its place.
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