When in Rome.... A Look at Ancient Roman Beauty Practices

   Over the last couple of weeks I've given you a glimpse of what the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks did to keep themselves looking snappy, now it's on to Rome. Life was good in Ancient Rome, particularly if you were part of the ruling or upper class, were a good citizen, followed the rules and didn't do anything to upset the Emporer. There was plenty of food, the wine flowed freely, there was the theatre, the Colloseum, music, gambling, brothels... I guess it was a lot like Las Vegas minus the neon lights, a good time was had by all.

With all of this fun and frivolity going on all of the time, it was essential that everyone looked their best.

   Like any culture, they had a definite idea of what they perceived as being the epitomy of beauty. Men wore their hair short and were clean shaven. The look for women was a pale complexion and fair hair. Like the Greeks they had crude methods of trying to lighten their hair,most of them not being very effective,  the wealthy ladies of the day wore wigs made of human hair.Blonde hair came from the northern lands and most of the black hair came from India. Body hair was frowned upon and was plucked, shaved or pumiced away. There is evidence that some of them had discovered the benefits of waxing away their downy covering. If men were overly hairy, they "minimized" their beastly appearance by using the same methods, just not to the same extent. They didn't want to appear effeminate, just more civilized.

   Although simple methods of softening their skin such as olive oil and honey were commonly used, the Romans had many other treatments at their disposal that were as bizarre as the practices of the Egyptians. A beauty treatment was used prior to applying their make-up. One popular mask recipe called for the sweat from sheep's wool to be applied before bedtime, giving off a horrible stench that wasn't very popular with the menfolk.Other popular ingredients of the day were juices of all sorts,seeds, honey, plants, vinegars, eggs, barley, all things that wouldn't seem out of place in a modern day holistic beauty spa. They also used powdered horn, onions, bile, animal urine, feces and fat, placenta, sulfer, cinnabar and white lead, these last two ingredients being poisonus.

   After the beauty treatment it was time to put on the foundation.The native Roman women weren't naturally fair complected  so to compensate for this, they had a wide array of concoctions with wich to achieve their pale, rich palor. White lead was known to be poisonous in those times but it was effective and their quest for the the perfect, milky-white complexion wich was of such great importance to their social standings that they didn't care. They also used tin oxide, beeswax, starch, rose leaves, almond oil,eggs and a long list of other ingredients. They disliked blemishes of any kind including freckles, sun/age spots and wrinkles and went to great lengths to treat or cover up these irritating flaws. Once the complexion was smooth and milky white, it was time to add some color.

   Red ochre was the rouge of choice for the discerning woman of wealth and taste.A nice rosy glow was as important then as it is today. It was a sign of good health and considered attractive. Vermillion, red chalk, rose petals and crocodile dung were also used to blush the cheeks of these ancient debutantes.Cinnabar and red lead were in common use during these times. If you were on a budget, mulberry juice did a fine job as did wine dregs.

   The eyes are the windows of the soul and the Romans liked them large and with long lashes. It was believed in their time that the eyelashes fell out due to excessive sex, so it was important for women to keep their lashes long as proof of their purity. Kohl was used to line the eyes, a practice that came from the east. Colored eye shadows were in common use, like the Egyptians, blue and green seemed to be the preferred colors of the day.In the earlier days of the empire,they darkened their eyebrows and liked them to almost meet in the center, a slight improvement over the Greek unibrow.Sometime during the first century BCE, they started tweezing, a practice that is still popular today.

   There is no evidence that they colored their lips. Perhaps the wine flowed freely enough that they were permanently stained, sort of like a primitive kool-aide smile, or it could be they preferred a more natural look. Who knows? The wealthier members of society did like to keep their nails well groomed for hygenic purposes as well as for the purpose of a complete and finished look. This task was performed by their local barber.

   They did like to smell good, to them it was a sign of good health. Perfume was as big of a business as it is now. Costly, tho it was, it's use was generally confined to the rich. They also added perfume to many of their cosmetics and beauty treatments, the smell of many of these concoctions being terrible at best. Scents were created by the maceration process using flowers, herbs and oils.The best fragrances were imported from the East. Gladiator sweat was highly prized by the upper class women as an aphrodisiac and commanded a very high price.Different scents were considered appropriate for different occasions and were quite gender specific.They were also rubbed upon the body to help with various ailments. Deodorants made from alum were in common use at the time and were scented with rose, iris and other flower and/or herbal fragrances.

   I hope you've enjoyed my little glimpse into the past. I know some of their practices seem gross and bizarre by our modern standards but they were trying to achieve the same result as we do in our modern times, without the convienience of the pre-packaged products that we use and take for granted.You've got to give them credit for their ingenuity. If nothing else, maybe it will give you a new appreciation for the cosmetic and beauty industry that we enjoy today.