Throughout history, women have endured extraordinary discomfort, pain, and even risked their lives in pursuit of beauty ideals. From toxic substances to painful procedures, these historical beauty treatments remind us how beauty standards have driven people to extreme measures. Let’s explore some of the most shocking beauty practices our ancestors once considered normal.
Arsenic (complexion wafers)
Victorian women literally ate poison for beauty! Arsenic wafers promised glowing skin and rosy cheeks by causing blood to rush to the skin’s surface. Ladies consumed these deadly tablets regularly, gradually building up toxic levels in their bodies. The temporary “glow” came from their bodies fighting the poison – literally dying for beauty. Some advertisements even boasted that arsenic would help women achieve that coveted “consumptive look.”
Beauty micrometer
Invented in the 1930s by Max Factor, this terrifying metal contraption measured facial “flaws” with scientific precision. The beauty micrometer identified asymmetries down to the hundredth of an inch, showing makeup artists exactly where corrections were needed. Resembling a medieval torture device, women would sit immobilized while 325 adjustable metal parts pressed against their faces to identify imperfections requiring cosmetic intervention.
Bloodletting
For centuries, women regularly had their blood drained to achieve a fashionable pale complexion. Physicians would cut veins or apply leeches to remove “excess” blood, believing this created the desired porcelain skin tone that signified nobility and leisure. This dangerous practice led to anemia, infection, and sometimes death – all to avoid looking like someone who worked outdoors with a sun-kissed complexion.
Chin and Facial Tattoos for Beauty
Various cultures practiced facial tattooing as a beauty enhancement. Māori women received elaborate chin tattoos (moko kauae), while Egyptian and Berber women tattooed their faces with intricate patterns. Unlike today’s cosmetic trends, these permanent markings couldn’t be reversed when beauty standards changed. The procedures involved primitive tools and plant-based inks, causing significant pain and risking serious infection.
Corsets to create hourglass figures
The quest for tiny waists led women to compress their internal organs and deform their ribcages with increasingly tight corsets. Victorian ladies achieved the coveted 16‑inch waist through “tight lacing,” often causing breathing difficulties, broken ribs, and displaced organs. Long‑term corseting reshaped the body permanently, weakening back muscles and causing digestive problems. Some women even had lower ribs surgically removed to achieve smaller waistlines.
Dimple Maker
In the 1930s, a spring‑loaded contraption with two knobs pressed painfully into cheeks to create artificial dimples. Women would wear this medieval‑looking device for extended periods, hoping to permanently dent their facial muscles. The dimple maker promised to create those “coveted” facial indentations through regular, painful compression sessions. Fortunately, facial muscles generally returned to normal once this bizarre practice was abandoned.
Electric face mask
The 1920s brought electrified beauty with masks that delivered mild electrical currents to the face. These frightening devices promised to stimulate muscles, improve circulation, and reduce wrinkles. Users risked burns, electrical shock, and facial muscle damage while wearing these contraptions plugged directly into wall outlets with minimal safety features. The results rarely justified the very real dangers of early electrical beauty devices.
Excelsior hair dryer 1962
Early hair dryers like the 1962 Excelsior resembled astronaut helmets or alien torture devices. Women sat with their heads encased in plastic domes heated to uncomfortable temperatures, unable to hear anything but the roaring motors. These contraptions caused burns, hair damage, and occasionally caught fire. Beauty salon visits meant enduring claustrophobic confinement under these noisy, overheating helmets for extended periods.
Foot Binding
Perhaps history’s most extreme beauty practice, foot binding began in 10th‑century China and continued for nearly a thousand years. Young girls had their foot bones deliberately broken and toes folded under, creating tiny “lotus feet” considered erotically appealing. The excruciating process permanently disabled women, who suffered lifelong pain and mobility issues. Some elderly women with bound feet couldn’t stand without assistance.
Lip Plate Stretching
In parts of Africa and South America, women stretched their lips using increasingly larger plates or plugs. The process began in childhood with a small incision that was gradually expanded over years. While considered beautiful within these cultures, the irreversible modification prevented women from eating normally if plates were removed. The practice represented a permanent, lifelong commitment to cultural beauty standards that couldn’t be reversed.
Lysol Feminine Hygiene (Early 20th Century)
In one of history’s most dangerous marketing schemes, Lysol disinfectant was advertised as a feminine hygiene product and contraceptive in the early 1900s. Women were encouraged to douche with this harsh chemical, causing chemical burns, inflammation, and even death. The caustic disinfectant destroyed natural bacteria, leading to infections and reproductive damage. Advertisements cruelly played on women’s insecurities to sell this harmful product.
Medieval High Foreheads (Hairline Plucking in Europe)
Renaissance beauties plucked or shaved their hairlines to create fashionably high foreheads. Women painfully removed natural hairlines and eyebrows, sometimes applying dangerous lead‑based mixtures to prevent regrowth. Queen Elizabeth I famously adopted this painful practice, setting a beauty standard that caused permanent hair loss. The ideal high forehead required constant, painful maintenance through regular plucking sessions.
Neck Rings (sign of beauty)
In Thailand and parts of Africa, women elongated their necks with brass rings added throughout their lives. Despite common misconceptions, these rings don’t actually stretch the neck – they push down the collarbone and ribs, creating the illusion of a longer neck. The practice begins in childhood, permanently altering skeletal structure and weakening neck muscles, making it impossible to remove rings without risk of neck collapse.
Perming
Early permanent waves involved chemicals so harsh they could dissolve metal, applied using machines that resembled torture devices. Heat combined with ammonia and other caustic chemicals often caused chemical burns, hair loss, and scalp damage. Women endured hours attached to these machines by dozens of wires, unable to move while their hair was essentially being chemically burned into submission.
Plucking Eyelashes And Eyebrows
During various historical periods, women plucked their eyelashes completely to achieve a wide‑eyed, vulnerable look. Medieval women removed eyelashes because they were considered immodest or lustful. Eyebrow removal or extreme reshaping caused permanent damage to follicles, preventing natural regrowth. Some women permanently lost the ability to grow eyelashes or eyebrows after years of aggressive plucking.
Radium Beauty Treatments
After radium’s discovery, its glow was literally bottled and sold as facial creams, drinks, and bath soaks that promised youthful, luminous skin. Marketed as “liquid sunshine,” these radioactive products caused radiation poisoning, cancer, and painful death. Companies like Tho‑Radia proudly advertised their products’ radioactive ingredients, completely unaware that they were selling deadly radiation exposure as a beauty enhancement.
Rubber beauty masks, worn to remove wrinkles and blemishes
Claustrophobic rubber face masks were popular in the 1920s–40s, designed to be worn for hours to “train” facial muscles and smooth wrinkles. These uncomfortable contraptions restricted breathing and caused skin irritation and breakouts. The masks trapped heat and sweat against the skin, often worsening the very complexion issues they claimed to resolve, while providing no real benefits beyond temporary compression.
Tape Worm Diet
In perhaps history’s most desperate weight loss method, women willingly swallowed tapeworm eggs to lose weight. As the parasites grew inside their intestines, consuming nutrients meant for the host, women achieved rapid weight loss. This dangerous practice caused malnutrition, organ damage, and sometimes death when worms migrated to other body parts. Removing these parasites required dangerous medications with their own serious side effects.
Teeth blackening
In Japan, married women practiced ohaguro (teeth blackening) using a caustic iron‑based black dye that rotted tooth enamel while creating the desired lacquered appearance. The practice was considered beautiful and indicated marital status but led to severe dental problems. The dye solution contained ingredients like iron filings, vinegar, and tannin, which permanently damaged teeth while creating what was considered an attractive black smile.
The Tuberculosis Look
The 19th century idealized the “consumptive look” – the pale, thin appearance of tuberculosis sufferers with feverish, bright eyes and red cheeks against pallid skin. Women used belladonna drops (a poisonous plant) to dilate pupils, applied rouge to mimic a feverish flush, and pursued unhealthy thinness. Some even deliberately exposed themselves to tuberculosis patients, hoping to contract this often‑fatal disease for its “beauty‑enhancing” symptoms.
Toilet Mask
Victorian women slept wearing “toilet masks” – face coverings soaked in bizarre concoctions including beef marrow, milk, and raw eggs. These masks, designed to brighten complexions, provided the perfect environment for bacterial growth against the skin. The unsanitary practices often led to infections and skin problems, achieving the opposite effect of the clear complexion they sought through these strange overnight treatments.
Tribal Scarification (Keloid Scars as Beauty Marks)
Some African cultures practiced scarification, creating raised keloid scars in artistic patterns across women’s bodies. The process involved cutting skin with crude tools and irritating wounds to create prominent scarring. The incredibly painful procedure carried serious infection risks but created permanent body decoration considered beautiful within these communities. Women endured multiple scarification sessions to achieve the desired decorative patterns.
Venetian Ceruse (Lead‑Based Whitening Makeup)
Renaissance nobility, including Elizabeth I, applied “Venetian ceruse” – a mixture of vinegar and lead – to achieve a ghostly white complexion. This poisonous paste caused hair loss, muscle paralysis, and eventually death through lead poisoning. Users experienced skin withering, gray hair, and rotting teeth, requiring ever‑thicker application to cover the damage caused by the makeup itself, creating a deadly beauty cycle.
X‑Ray Hair Removal
In the early 1900s, X‑ray hair removal promised permanent results without understanding radiation’s dangers. Women exposed their faces and bodies to radiation, resulting in cancer, burns, and cellular damage appearing years later. Beauty salons offered these treatments without safety precautions, causing countless cases of radiation poisoning. The deadly effects often manifested decades after treatment, making it difficult to connect them to these beauty procedures.
You have a beautiful face, but your nose…
Harsh advertisements targeted women’s insecurities, including this actual vintage ad suggesting nose shapes could be “corrected” at home. Dangerous devices claimed to reshape noses through painful compression without surgery. These contraptions caused bruising, breathing difficulties, and cartilage damage while rarely delivering promised results. The psychological impact of such targeted advertising damaged women’s self‑perception while promoting ineffective and painful “solutions.”
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