Crocodile excrement was used in Ancient Greece and Rome for a variety of medicinal and beautifying purposes. They believed the reptile poop would dramatically slow down the aging process. So naturally, they filled their baths (fountains of youth?) with a mixture of crocodile feces and warmed mud and soaked for hours on end. Aristocrats were also known for making face masks out of the excrement. Even the Greek physician, Galen, noted that "ladies dedicated to luxury" preferred crocodile dung masks. While the "ick" factor is high on this one, at least no one was dying from it.
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Cuticle remedy
Not all terrifying beauty tips come from ancient times, and proving it is the recent phenomenon of fish pedicures. Salon owners in Europe, China and Japan import "Doctor Fish," or Garra rufa, small fish belonging to the carp family, and let them feed on the dead skin cells of your feet. Who needs a pumice stone when you have fish to do the dirty work? It should be warned that regulators in many US states have banned fish pedicures for being unsanitary, since the same fish feed on many customers.
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.
