wacky beauty standards in history

Beauty is a big word. With thousands of years of history tucked behind it, beauty has had its fair share of horror stories and weird phases that are probably best left forgotten, but not today, from hairline plucking to gravy stockings, here are a few wack beauty trends of the past.

Ohaguro

First of all, teeth blackening, Japanese women from 200AD to the 1870s dreamed of black teeth, a practice called Ohaguro, they dyed their teeth black as ebony using a dye largely composed of iron, cinnamon and fragrant spices. Oddly, the dye actually prevented tooth decay.

Veins

We all know Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France to be a dazzling beauty icon, but does she still deserve that title for popularising accentuated veins? Throughout history, snow-white skin was all women desired and naturally, the veins would be more noticeable as a result, so the more coloured a vein, the whiter the skin which was the desirable effect, so women would colour on veins with blue pencils or worse, use leeches to make themselves pale from blood loss, but hey, at least they’d have rocking veins.

Foreheads

For 1300’s women in England, there was nothing better than a forehead that stretched to the heavens itself, so they plucked back their hairline to concerning lengths, to enhance the effect, they’d pluck off their eyebrows too, defying the church in the process which called it a mortal sin for women to pluck hair from the face at all.

Painted Stockings

Finally, my personal favourite, painted stockings, when nylon stocking was booted for material rationing for WW2 soldiers, 1940’s American and English women took to the gravy, they’d paint it on their legs and then to complete the look, painted a black line down the back of their legs to mimic the seam, this popular look was named the ‘glamour hose’.

Women have done weird things for beauty, but to be fair, men have done a lot worse, I'm looking at you ancient Egyptian men, rubbing lion or snake fat on your scalp won’t cure baldness! However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and some beholder might appreciate these, each to their own I guess.

– Avalokita