Weight Loss for the Ideal Figure

Dieting, once a revolutionary act, became just one more way for women to model trends. And, as Vester concludes, “The disciplinary regimen of social control from without — through fashion, restricted mobility, and corsets — morphed into a dietary regimen of self-control from within.” In dieting, women internalized the corset and took hold of the strings. Culture simply sold them on the proper measurements.

The above quote is taken from an interesting little article about dieting in the late Victorian/early Edwardian era: the genesis of our modern attitudes on the subject.

Authentic Shampoos By Hair Type

In the original posting about Edwardian Hair Shampoo, a list of period-correct soaps was given. After some more experiments, I can give the following recommendations by hair type:

NORMAL HAIR

Use Ivory soap

DRY HAIR

Use Castile soap

OILY HAIR

Use Octagon soap

This should in no way be taken as an indication that I'd tried EVERY soap on that list, by the bye. This is based on my results from trying more like five different soaps and washes, so do feel free to keep experimenting, ladies!

Mascara: Its Origins

Rimmel and Maybelline are cosmetic brands still known today. However, both these companies took their formation almost a hundred years ago, each starting out with a single product: mascara.

The term mascara had been in use since the late 19th century as a word for a hair-darkening substance, often used by actors for certain kinds of stage makeup. Exactly where the word comes from is unclear, but it is most frequently thought to be based from the Spanish word máscara meaning ‘mask’ or ‘stain’ and the Italian word maschera meaning ‘mask’. The Oxford English Dictionary also cites an alternative Catalan definition that describes soot or a black smear, or a Portuguese root (the Portuguese word máscara means ‘mask’, but a similar word, mascarra, means dark stain or smut). There is even strong support for a possible source from the Arabic word maskharah or ‘buffoon’.

In the 1910s, Eugene Rimmel and T. L. Williams, working on separate sides of the Atlantic, both developed similar mixtures for mascara using Vaseline and powdered charcoal. It was as messy as it sounds: luckily, improvements soon followed. Cake Mascara, still sometimes sold today, was soon created, and remained the standard until the 1960s.

EDIT, March 26, 2012: My understanding at the moment is that not all the facts stated here are completely accurate -- what I get for using Wikipedia, I guess! Eugene Rimmel (1820 - 1887) actually started out earlier in the 19th century as a perfumer, and was probably dead by the time someone at his company created mascara.

Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: Hair Restorer

Arm-Pit Powder and Old Time Deodorant

A few years ago, a show called 1900 House aired in which a family attempted to live life only using products available in the year 1900. On one episode the mother was complaining about body odors and speculated that people must not have been bothered by them in the old days. Au contraire, madame, deodorant and perfume powders have long been available. The following is an Edwardian period recipe for so-called "arm-pit powder."

Salicylic acid gr. 45

Zinc oxid av. oz. 1

Orris root av. oz. 2

Talcum av. oz. 7

Cumarin gr. 1

Oil of bergamot drops 10

Oil of rose drops 20

Tincture of musk drops 5

Solution of carmine to color

Reduce the solids to fine powder, mix thoroughly with the other ingredients, and pass through a fine sieve. The solution of carmine may be omitted and the perfume changed.

Another recipe is as follows:

NO. 1. ASTRINGENT POWDER

Burnt alum 5 grammes

Salicylic acid 2 1/2 grammes

Starch 15 grammes

Violet talcum-powder 50 grammes (this was just scented talc; replace with any other fragranced cosmetic talc you'd like: but be certain it's real talc, not starch.)

Notably, recipe books of the day tended to say that foot powders and arm-pit powders were interchangeable with one another. Always good to know that there's another use for your Dr. Scholl's (which brand's been about since 1906, by the bye.)

Wigs and Edwardian Hair

The previous post about the pompadour hairdo mentioned the use of false hair by Edwardian ladies for achieving the look of fashion. Here's a video I found on YouTube of someone (I assume an actress by the way she's made up) working a wig into her own hair in what really is a relatively period-correct way.

The main inaccuracy here is the hairspray: if you want to keep it historically correct, the original trick for holding hair in place was to sweep pomatum or castor oil across the hair with a brush.

Corsets in the Mode: The S-Bend

Around the beginning of the Edwardian era, a new style of corset called the S-bend came into fashion (see fig. 1906 above.) New observations about health were leading many medics to believe that corsets were unhealthy, and the S-bend was, in theory, a more healthful corset as the leaning action it forced naturally made the waist appear to be more narrow, reducing the need for compression, and the larger rib section supposedly made it easier for the wearer to breathe fully. Actually women didn't seem to take much heed: ultimate Gibson Girl Camille Clifford wore her S-bend at a famous 18 inches, and there are mentions of "a certain well-known actress" who compressed herself down to a 12 inch waist!

Reports from modern-day and old-time corset wearers alike actually tend to agree the S-bend is substantially more uncomfortable than the earlier style; perhaps then this is the reason for its short lifespan. One man, telling the story of his grandmother's toils with the S-bend, related that the said lady, who was of the middle-class, was forced to hire a maid to help with the housework after switching the to new mode: she could no longer see over her own chest to do baking and cooking. (But apparently her husband, a baker by profession, liked her new look well enough to go along with this expense for the sake of fashion.)

A report of 1911 declares that "the straight up-and-down silhouette is the fashionable one, the aim being to give the effect of an uncorseted figure." (see fig. 1914 above.) The S-bend had died after barely more than a decade.

Nail Bleach

Oh, but why pay 19¢ for a bottle when you can make your own? Here are a few recipes:

Nail Bleach and Wash, I.

1 dram Oxalic acid
2 fl. ounces Rosewater

Apply to the discolored nails with friction by means of soft leather or flannel. Citric or acetic acid may be substituted for the oxalic acid.

II.
Sodium perborate is highly recommended as a nail bleach. Mix one teaspoonful with about 1 1/2 ounces of lukewarm water, and apply the liquid to the finger nails with a nail brush, rubbing for a few minutes. The powder may also be sprinkled dry on the nails and then rubbed with a damp brush, but the first-mentioned method is the most satisfactory.

Hatpins as Deadly Weapons

The Bartitsu Society has an interesting a well-written blog post about Edwardian hat pins, and their use as concealed weapons. Check it out!

A wealth of evidence from the period demonstrates that hatpins were popularly regarded as secret weapons, and indeed as “every woman’s weapon” against the depredations of hooligans and ill-mannered brutes. Laws against hatpins of “excessive length”, or the wearing of hatpins without protective stoppers, were proposed in Hamburg, Berlin and New York among other cities. At least ostensibly, these laws were intended not so much to ban the use of hatpins in self-defence as to mitigate the incidence of accidental hatpin related injuries inflicted upon blameless fellow passengers in crowded tram-cars.

The Turban Hat

Just about the same time the Merry Widow hat came on the scene, another very different sort of hat began to appear: the turban. Paul Poiret was responsible for this, attempting to evoke fashions of a hundred years prior from the Regency and Directoire era in his designs. The new orientalism in fashion also contributed to their use.

The turban seems to have been more popular in Europe than in America (where we do always like things big -- the Merry Widow thus stayed more true to taste) but it did seem to catch on somewhat for the purpose of evening wear. The fact that it offered no sun protection to preserve one's pale skin probably contributed to its being passed by for most day wear.

Maybe to keep up with the largeness of the other fashionable hats, even the turban began expanding from chic little oriental pieces to boxy, gargantuan devices that once again came to resemble nothing so much as bird's nests, merging ultimately with the toque until the smaller post-war hairstyles made dainty turbans once again reasonable for the masses.

Shaving and Hair Removal

The above advertisement for a lady's "decoletté" razor from about 1915 tries to sell women on the new idea of body hair removal.

In the 19th century, evening gowns began to be fashioned that lacked sleeves entirely and were held up in place only by small spaghetti straps. The famous Portrait of Madam X shows us one such early example. However, despite the idealizations paintings and sculpture of the era might present, the act of shaving one's body hair was not immediately put into vogue. Historical pictures show that shaved armpits were not always expected on women -- even attractive and scantily clad ones -- even through the 1930s. If you've ever read the naughty literature of the era, you find that pit hair was even considered fairly titillating and sexy.

This is not to say that the whole concept of hair removal was unknown in the Edwardian era. Unibrows and female mustaches have been commonly troubling women for centuries. However, depilatories and tweezers were usually the preferred methods for dealing with these problems; shaving razors needed to undergo some modifications before they became an acceptable possibility for use on the female body (imagine trying to shave your legs with a straight razor!) Electrolysis was also newly discovered and already in use.