During the reign of the great Queen Elizabeth (1558 to 1603), women of England were determined to mimic the Queen's royal red hair color and stopped at nothing to achieve it. Of course they didn�t possesses the hair dying technology of today as they resorted to concoctions of lead, quicklime, sulfur and water to dye their hair and wigs. This particular blend commonly caused nausea, headaches and regular nosebleeds. That's a high price to pay for some ginger hair if you ask us.
Next: See how those wigs of theirs caused even more problems.
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Wig maintenance
Wigs stayed in fashion for some time and by the 18th century it was the bigger (and more elaborate) the better. The royal courts were notorious for having the most ornate and sculpted wigs (think Marie Antoinette) and to sculpt these upper class, mile-high wigs they used lard to hold the hair sculptures firmly in place. Terrifyingly, the lard attracted lice and other vermin. Sometimes a cage was even set over the woman's head at night to keep the rats at bay.
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Disguising disease
Women during the 15th to 17th centuries used tips from Renaissance "beauty pros" to disguise unhealthy complexions caused by diseases like smallpox. Tips suggested using white lead to create a fashionably white complexion and to cover any sores. The use of lead to powder the face poisoned and killed many, yet pale faces continued to be a huge trend. Some women in the sixth century even resorted to bleeding themselves to achieve that lovely alabaster glow.
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Eye makeup
When it comes to lead or heavy metal poisoning for the sake of beauty, it's hard to beat the Egyptians. Both men and women wore Kohl (a mixture of soot and galena, a dark grey lead) and copper ore to color their eyes. They lined their lids daily with this mixture as it served spiritual and aesthetic purposes. In case you were wondering, low levels of lead exposure like this over a long period of time can cause seizures, coma, and death.
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Hair removal
Before good old Nair, women and men of the renaissance removed unwanted hair with homemade depilatory creams containing severe abrasives like quicklime and arsenic to burn off unwanted hair. And we thought razor burn was bad?
Then, in the 1940's due to wartime scarcity, women used sandpaper to eliminate hair from their bodies -- buffing themselves "beautiful." Ouch.
Today's women go to extraordinary lengths to look beautiful. From hair care to plastic surgery, makeup to skin care -- we collectively spend billions of dollars to enhance our looks. We also invest countless hours collecting beauty tips from girlfriends, hairdressers, magazines and, yes, beauty websites to learn how to combat common beauty issues and to keep up with the hottest trends.
But have you ever wondered what our great, great grandchildren or women of the future will think of our many beauty practices? Will they consider us insane for using hemorrhoid cream to de-puff eyes or mayonnaise to moisturize our hair? Will the beauty tips we prescribe to today seem totally archaic and ridiculous to future generations?
We ask this question after doing some research into the beauty practices of the past. We found some of the beauty tips from history to be absolutely horrifying in that they were so extreme they could cause nausea, seizures, nosebleeds and even death -- taking the whole "pain is beauty" mantra exceedingly literal. And what's probably even scarier is that these tips were considered to be totally "normal" at the time.
