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14 “Obscure Beauty Trends” Throughout History That Sound So Bizarre Now
Today the global beauty industry is worth $532 billion and our demand for things to improve our looks feels like it has never been bigger. But the wish to look our best is as old as history itself, and people in the past were just as eager to go great lengths to fit beauty standards of the time. And trust me, they were heckin’ weird. Like weird squared.
The TikToker Zachary Margolis has collected some of the most eyebrow-raising, obscure, over-the-top and plain dangerous historical beauty trends that he shared in a series of viral videos for his “Offbeat History” account.
From Romans whitening their teeth with urine to 18th-century women sculpting their enormous wigs with lard, it makes you wonder whether today’s beauty favorites like the ‘no makeup’ makeup look, laminated brows, and brightly colored hair will look just as freaky in hundreds of years.
@offbeathistory Obscure Beauty Trends 💄Do not try these at home. #makeuproutine #beautytips #learn
♬ Blue Blood - Heinz Kiessling & Various Artists
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#1
In the 19th century many women ate deadly arsenic wafers to whiten and even out their complexions. Some of the side effect include cancer, baldness, epilepsy. In 1902 you could actually buy arsenic wafers from Sears.
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#2
In the mid-1920's, a bronze, suntanned complexion became popular after Coco Chanel fell asleep on her yacht on the French Riviera. The suntan became a status symbol for a person who could afford sunny vacations, especially for those privileged enough to travel during the winter.
Sofia Di Tutti 4 years ago
Before withe skin was considered "noble" because poor were forced to work outside and got tanned...
#3
In the middle ages the forehead was considered the most beautiful part of the woman's face. Many women removed their eyelashes to accentuate their foreheads. They also plucked their hairlines and eyebrows to achieve a long and oval face.
#4
To white their teeth, Romans would rinse their mouth with urine. Specifically urine shipped in from Portugal.
Otter 4 years ago
Well-aged urine that hadn't been refrigerated during transport, because refrigeration didn't exist! Tasty!
Michael Sanders 4 years ago
I want to know how many regional pees they went through before they landed on Portugal having the best
pebs 4 years ago
In reality it was not a custom of the Roman citizens of Italy or of other subjugated territories, but it was typical of the citizens of Spain, as is well known from the poem 39 of Catullus, who made fun of Egnatius for this habit.
Incitatus 4 years ago
Thanks, I got on here to say that. The Romans used to make fun of the Spaniards for doing this.
Load More Replies... Bill 4 years ago
Because the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain and probably drains into Portugal?
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Fiona C 4 years ago
Urine was used in textiles in many places too. Apparently the urine of ginger people was particularly sought after.
Aunt Messy 4 years ago
Urine is used when fulling wool because uric acid and ammonia cause the fibers to expand and make the fabric denser, warmer, and more water resistant. The fabric would be beaten by stomping on it in a trough (with bare feet) or beaten like it was a butter in a churn. After it was washed, the quality of the fabric was much better than when it was first woven. ...///... You can achieve something similar by washing wool fabric (this works particularly well with knitted fabrics) in a hot washer followed by a hot dryer. I do this when I'm making coats. It's the process used to make boiled wool.
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Daniele Ribolla 4 years ago
Portuguese LOL thinking Romans drinking their urine...! paid and shipped too!!! >|-D
Let’s All Just Try And Be Decent 4 years ago
I mean. Someone clearly set this up as a moneymaking scam. Claiming it was this amazing mysterious elixir you could only get if you paid him to transport it all to you from Portugal. No doubt he put something in it to make it look or smell different or have slightly different texture. Or claimed it had been "purified" If they genuinely knew what it was, they literally would have used their own. Also let's not forget that urea is still used in a huge amount of beauty products today.
Allen Lavine 4 years ago
Fun fact people use to make fun of them for that so they stop brushing all together and started having bad teeth that's where the rumor started that they have bad teeth
I wish I could live in the ocean 4 years ago
My own urin? No thank you. Someone else's urin? Nooooooooooo thank you...
ElenaK 4 years ago (edited)
Try it! maybe you will get a shiny smile!Then let us know if it works.
Load More Replies... #5
In the 18th century, before invention of hairspray, women would use lard to sculpt their wigs. Yes, lard. One of the downsides is that the wig would become a literal rat's nest. Sometimes rats would live in the wig for weeks. Women had to sleep with cages around their heads to keep the rats away.
#6
In pre-revolution France, accentuated veins were all the rage. Some people would color their veins with blue pencil to make them pop. Others would use leaches to make their veins more noticeable.
Andy Acceber 4 years ago
Visible veins meant they didn't work in the sun. It was a sign of status.
#7
During the Japanese Edo period, blackened teeth were popular amongst aristocrats and married women. Blackened teeth were considered a sign of beauty and the practice helped preserve teeth into old age. In 1870, this practice was banned by the Japanese government. Blackening teeth wasn't just popular in Japan, and some people still practice this today.
#8
In 1936, Isabella Gilbert invented the Dimple-Maker. The machine consisted of a spring that fit around the face and two tiny knobs that pressed into the cheeks. I don't know what Isabella was thinning but the machine didn't work.
Softsquatch 4 years ago
can totally imagine this being sold on wish today, and people buying it
#9
In ancient Rome many women would moisturize with the sweat of gladiators. Whiles of sweat were sold as souvenirs outside the fights. The sweat was thought to be an aphrodisiac.
#10
In the 1800s, eyelash transplants were all the rage. A specialist would sow the hair directly into the eyelid with a needle.
#11
In ancient Greece the uni-brow was considered the sign of purity and intelligence. It was ideal to have eyebrows that melded together in the middle. Some women would darken their eyebrows with powder, while others would wear fake eyebrows made from goat's hair.
#12
In the 1400s, Italian women wanted to have thin lips that were barely there. The paintings at the time didn't highlight or emphasize the lips in any way.
#13
Shortly after the invention of the x-ray machine, people used the machine to treat acne, eczema and for hair removal. Some of the side effects included atrophy, ulcerations, and cancer.
#14
In the 1920s the portable hair dryer came on to the market. This was a more convenient alternative to the bulky hair dryers of the time. The device was very dangerous though and would cause burns, electrocutions, and death.
M O'Connell 4 years ago
If anyone is wondering why, appliances of the time did not have a chassis ground connection (no third pin), nor did they have polarized plugs (there was a 50/50 chance of the metal chassis being live at mains voltage depending on how you plugged it in). This hadn't previously been a problem because 'regular people' hadn't been using electrical appliances much prior to the 1920s.
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What do you think ?
Jo Choto 4 years ago
Wait a century and see what people have to say about us sucking fat out of some bodies, and putting silicon in other bodies to change the shape of everything.
Brian Bennett 4 years ago
Makes you think - what dumb stupid things are we doing today that we will regret in the future. Not so long ago if you had the sniffles and went to your Doctor he would give you penicillin for 10 days, more or less to shut you up, he knew the sniffles would be gone in 10 days. This is why we now have antibiotic resistant germs .
Amy Dodds 4 years ago
"in the early 21st century, women often thought it was attractive to insert implants into the breasts and pump their rears with anything from fillers, fat to cement. Ostensibly to create an 'hourglass figure, but the achieved result was often more akin to localised gigantism...... The face would would often be subjected to similar brutality, with lips pumped close to splitting as the' blow up sex doll' look was considered the epitomy of class and grace. Brows would be thickly pencilled and frozen in place, quite fittingly, in eternal bemusement, as the overall look caused them to resemble someone with the IQ of a ladle."
Load More Replies...
Rai Grant 4 years ago
Why on so many of these posts, am I no longer getting any pictures? I don't understand, other people are getting pics, n it's the same app, surely?.....
The Boss 4 years ago
Every time they don't have pictures, I just skip it until I feel like reading it. But ya, honesty it isn't same app as it used to be
Load More Replies... CanidaeVulpes 4 years ago
I’d be beautiful if I had only been born at a different time. And in the upper class. And didn’t die of some childhood disease.
Chloe *Leah* Pheonix 4 years ago
In 1000 years there will be a list, number one would be "Implants" followed closely by steroids.
millac 2 years ago
The inside of the mouth is considered vulgar/ disgusting in Japanese culture. The blackened teeth make the inside of the mouth less conspicuous. It's lessened up a bit in modern times, but you'll still notice that Japanese people will still cover their mouths when laughing, only smile without teeth, do this interesting little vacuum-bite thing when eating to ensure they aren't opening their mouths really wide, and think sharing stuff which has touched their mouths (such as a drink bottle) as extremely intimate.
Dorothy Cloud 3 years ago
So interesting. But, my goodness what we ladies would do to ourselves to achieve what "others" would think was beautiful!!!
ivan bolitekurac 4 years ago
I hope that one day we will say "tiktokers once had influence on masses".Maybe people will learn from bad things from the past...
Soggy Crumpet 4 years ago
(In 300 years) “They changed the fashion to make being bigger more fashionable as the population was losing the war against obesity.”
Jo Choto 4 years ago
Wait a century and see what people have to say about us sucking fat out of some bodies, and putting silicon in other bodies to change the shape of everything.
Brian Bennett 4 years ago
Makes you think - what dumb stupid things are we doing today that we will regret in the future. Not so long ago if you had the sniffles and went to your Doctor he would give you penicillin for 10 days, more or less to shut you up, he knew the sniffles would be gone in 10 days. This is why we now have antibiotic resistant germs .
Amy Dodds 4 years ago
"in the early 21st century, women often thought it was attractive to insert implants into the breasts and pump their rears with anything from fillers, fat to cement. Ostensibly to create an 'hourglass figure, but the achieved result was often more akin to localised gigantism...... The face would would often be subjected to similar brutality, with lips pumped close to splitting as the' blow up sex doll' look was considered the epitomy of class and grace. Brows would be thickly pencilled and frozen in place, quite fittingly, in eternal bemusement, as the overall look caused them to resemble someone with the IQ of a ladle."
Load More Replies... Rai Grant 4 years ago
Why on so many of these posts, am I no longer getting any pictures? I don't understand, other people are getting pics, n it's the same app, surely?.....
The Boss 4 years ago
Every time they don't have pictures, I just skip it until I feel like reading it. But ya, honesty it isn't same app as it used to be
Load More Replies... CanidaeVulpes 4 years ago
I’d be beautiful if I had only been born at a different time. And in the upper class. And didn’t die of some childhood disease.
Chloe *Leah* Pheonix 4 years ago
In 1000 years there will be a list, number one would be "Implants" followed closely by steroids.
millac 2 years ago
The inside of the mouth is considered vulgar/ disgusting in Japanese culture. The blackened teeth make the inside of the mouth less conspicuous. It's lessened up a bit in modern times, but you'll still notice that Japanese people will still cover their mouths when laughing, only smile without teeth, do this interesting little vacuum-bite thing when eating to ensure they aren't opening their mouths really wide, and think sharing stuff which has touched their mouths (such as a drink bottle) as extremely intimate.
Dorothy Cloud 3 years ago
So interesting. But, my goodness what we ladies would do to ourselves to achieve what "others" would think was beautiful!!!
ivan bolitekurac 4 years ago
I hope that one day we will say "tiktokers once had influence on masses".Maybe people will learn from bad things from the past...
Soggy Crumpet 4 years ago
(In 300 years) “They changed the fashion to make being bigger more fashionable as the population was losing the war against obesity.”
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