How can you sit in the bathroom for three hours? You can, absolutely. And in the past it could have been much, much longer. Find out how patient our great-grandparents were. And don't forget to make your man aware!
An hour spent preparing is already causing murmurs of dissatisfaction. Two hours is allegedly a gross exaggeration. And three can make it a big row instead of a good evening. Meanwhile, even a three-hour preparation, well! even five hours are nothing compared to how long it took women a hundred years ago to be able to show up in company.
Not only a great occasion, but each appearance of a woman in a public place required an appropriate appearance, adapted to the time of day and occasion. An hour could, with great difficulty, be enough to prepare for a shopping trip, rather the ones in the nearby market.
How much can you sit in the bathroom? Until the end! Painting by Georges Seurat, 1889/1890
Of course, you had to have a skilled maid who was able to quickly comb long hair, pin it under a hat, lace up a corset efficiently, fasten dozens of buttons on a dress, gloves and shoes. But prepare for an elegant party or gala at the opera at such a frantic pace? Free jokes!
Madzia is getting ready for the prom
Theatrical premieres, balls, horse races and parties were expected by all women with great excitement, but also with great fear. Their entire future often depended on a successful debut in society. Young girls, just entering adulthood, were subjected to strict evaluation of their surroundings. They were measured from head to toe, and every aspect of their beauty had to be flawless.
This is how the toilet was imagined in 1910 in 2000. Could this mechanization speed up the elegant woman's stay in the bathroom?
A perfect complexion, smooth hands, beautiful nails, shiny hair, white teeth, a shapely figure, small feet - all this contributed to a social success and increased hope for a favorable marriage. Beauty could compensate for the lack of a dowry. Married women did not have much easier, their appearance could give rise to rumors about their relationships.
In the book "Beauty without preservatives", Aleksandra Zaprutko-Janicka cites a story described by the famous scandalist Magdalena Samozwaniec. Teenage Madzia decided to change her hair color just before going to the ball. Ms Kossakowa's reaction perfectly illustrates how important the right presence was:
Before the ball, no one in the family saw Magdalena, and she was supposed to watch the dances from the gallery as she was too young to participate in the party. When she finally arrived, she was completely changed. She has braided her freshly dyed red hair in braids, which she has tied up in a crown around her head. She was wearing a pink silk dress from her brother's wedding, black stockings, and black patent leather shoes.
She completed the whole thing with black painted eyebrows (it was enough to pick up a bit of soot on the finger). When Mrs. Kossakowa, the teenager's mother, saw the new image of the girl, she was almost struck by an attack of apoplexy. One of the ladies at the prom asked her who the girl in the pink dress was. The effect was so electrifying that Kossakowa was so impressed that she… disowned her daughters.
Even an ordinary (seemingly!) Going out to the theater was a real challenge. A hundred years ago, a spectacle was held in the audience as well, and for many even more interesting, than on the stage:
When foreign fame appeared in Słowacki's theater in Krakow, the lodges were spreading like hot cakes. But it wasn't enough to take the ticket and go to the performance. The ladies were getting ready as if they themselves were to perform on stage (quote from the book "Beauty without preservatives").
The bathrooms of the 19th century aristocracy were impressive, although today it is difficult to imagine using them
The binoculars were not only used to admire the artists, but were often aimed at adjacent boxes and at the adjacent rows of seats. Who with whom, who dressed as, who is sad and pale, and who is pink with emotions? Is Baroness X sick? Almost transparent! And is Countess Y ailing again? She's baked like in a fever! The twilight was conducive to quiet observation, and each woman knew she would undergo a careful examination of both sexes.
A well-groomed woman is a showcase of a man
Putting up for public evaluation, it was impossible to afford hasty beauty treatments and a careless appearance, because the game was too much at stake. A good reputation came at a price and, contrary to today's trend of not being concerned about what others think, there was a lot of excitement about it.
It could become a key that opens many doors and only a few daredevils completely rejected this model of functioning in society. You had to present yourself as well as you could in the company, emphasize your financial and social status, or skillfully camouflage your life failures.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the wife was her husband's showpiece
No man concerned about his public image protested or angry when his wife or daughter spent their days looking after their beauty. You had to work hard to look good, and the gentlemen understood that it would take a lot of time and effort. A beautiful and well-groomed woman was a showcase of a husband or father, so the gentlemen also really wanted their wives and daughters to look their best.
Every woman wanted to feel special and delight everyone with her appearance. And it was not that simple, because the canons of beauty, although different from today's, were quite restrictive. An example may be the rule that a perfect complexion should be flawlessly white, without the slightest discoloration.
Tan is your enemy
So the sun was the greatest enemy of beauty at the beginning of the 20th century, and protecting the skin from its destructive effects became a true obsession of women. As soon as summer was over, the slightest trace of tan or unfortunate freckles had to disappear.
It required intensive, sometimes several weeks long skin lightening treatments . Specially prepared mixtures based on lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide or parsley were regularly rubbed into the faces, arms and hands. Only a completely "whitened" woman could start to think about appearing in the salons.
Actress Grace Moore sunbathing on a California beach (photo:Illustrated Kuryer Codzienny)
Since parties and balls often lasted until late at night, and then, as well as today, sleep was considered a perfect cosmetic, it was best to just get a good night's sleep and not get up before noon. It was at the moment of going to bed that the woman began her preparations for leaving the house, which would not be until the following evening!
When there was a problem with dry skin, water and soap were used as a substitute for lanolin applied overnight. After waking up, a light breakfast and a bath, the lady underwent beauty treatments with the help of a maid to cleanse, moisturize and nourish the skin of her face . So prepared, she could move on to the next steps. How do I deal with her ankle-length hair?
It took a few hours to wash, brush and style long hair, because - as we read in "Beautiful without preservatives" - in ladies of that era, having hair that melted almost touched the ankles was not unusual . For washing, lukewarm water and soap were used, and in the case of oily hair - a bit of sulfur or tar, finally the hair was rinsed with water with the addition of vinegar.
The next step was long-term drying (without a dryer) and brushing. Then the hairdresser was most often called, who painstakingly arranged an intricate hairstyle on the head, matching it with the outfit and the headgear. Proper pinning up required a great deal of effort and the barber had to be on hand all day long to make last-minute corrections. Importantly, as Aleksandra Zaprutko-Janicka emphasizes in her book:
in those days there were no straighteners and curlers with protective coatings. There were also no products protecting the hair structure against excessive heat. Ladies who often did fancy hairdos had to take into account the fact that their hair would be burned and damaged.
This is how a co-office as beautiful as heavy was created, additionally overwhelmed by a huge and uncomfortable hat.
Respectable ladies don't get dressed?
Makeup from a hundred years ago! It was a real challenge, today's face contouring is a piece of cake with what our great-grandmothers had to invent. Since faces were officially painted only by actresses and courtesans, considered fallen women, it was not appropriate for self-respecting virgins and ladies to do it.
Using rice powder to dull the face or brushing the cheeks with pink was acceptable, but it was never forgotten that modesty and naturalness were the most important things.
Nevertheless, no woman would show herself for anything in the world without highlighting her beauty and covering up its shortcomings. All treatments correcting the appearance of the face had to remain unnoticeable, and at the same time their effects were to be visible. Real art! It was not until the 1920s that make-up ceased to be the domain of marginalized women.
After numerous beauty treatments, it was time to put on the corset. It was not a pleasant moment, but a painful duty. The author of "Beauty without preservatives" makes modern women aware of how much their great-grandmothers had to endure to adjust to the standards of beauty:
The ladies clad in "armor" resembled medieval knights covered in plates. They, too, were struggling to move, and drawing air into their lungs was a constant challenge for them. Not through a heavy helmet - at least that's what fashion spared them - but a brutally compressed corset.
Must have been a pain to wear a tight corset all day
An indispensable garment for middle-class and aristocratic ladies. The corset reliably modeled the posture. In addition to holding the breasts and pushing them upwards, it made the waist slimmer and kept the back absolutely straight.
In the end, the only thing left was to put on a creation specially prepared for the occasion, but it really didn't take much time. Maybe an hour or so.
So before the next time your guy starts complaining again that you are getting too goddamn long, show him this article. Maybe then he will understand that in fact the two hours spent in the bathroom in front of the mirror are like a sprint by Usain Bolt.