20 Strange Medieval Beauty Practices That Prove Just How Dark The Middle Ages Really Were

It’s fair to say that society places a great deal of emphasis on self-care and beauty nowadays. But it turns out that we’re not unique in that respect, as there were plenty of beauty regimens going around in medieval times, too. The only difference was that those practices could be downright disgusting. Would you, for instance, coat yourself in pig’s fat to look your best? How about mouse fur? Because that’s what it took to become striking in the Middle Ages... or so they thought. Read on for more, fellow plebeians.

20. Plucking the forehead

Writing in For Appearance’s Sake: The Historical Encyclopedia of Good Looks, Victoria Sherrow explained that ladies in the medieval period were encouraged to have “plain” and “empty” faces. And they had their methods for achieving such a look. Basically, they’d pin their hair back as far as it could go.

Grab the tweezers!

Sometimes, though, it just wasn’t enough to pull back one’s hair from the face. And if a woman didn’t have a naturally large forehead, then some more drastic measures might be taken. Namely, she’d attack her own forehead with some tweezers to pluck out any hairs that sprouted out of line. Ouch!

19. Mousey eyebrows

A plucked forehead might make the face seem bigger, but why stop there? For a face that unequivocally looked “empty,” you’d have to get rid of the eyebrows, too. In the 15th century, in fact, women were known to do this, believing that such a look gave off an air of purity.

The best kind of eyebrows...

But if a woman regretted her decision to remove her eyebrows, she needn’t worry. Rather than having to wait for them to grow back, she could simply apply a pair of false brows. All she needed to do was get hold of some mouse or rat fur and stick it to her face. Simple.