Skip to main content

Medieval Dry Shampoo

 Welcome back to my follow up project about keeping your hair clean in the middle ages. My research for this project was based in trying to dig deeper into medieval hair care. I was pointed to a book called The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women's Medicine, translated by Monica H Green through a Society for Creative Anachronism web conference and set off to reading. This is a popular medieval treatise on for women's health, and includes a range of medical advice from cosmetics to assistance with child birth. Obviously I can't promise that all of this information dating back the the 11th or 12th century is still thought to be sound, but it is fascinating.

While reading through the section on women's cosmetics I found some hair care recipes and had to pause. Were they asking me to put powder in my hair to make it smell good? This sounded suspiciously like a home made dry shampoo I had used on and off at camping events and during the pandemic so I had to try! The recipe called for dried rose petals, clove, nutmeg, watercress, galangal and rose water. The supplies I did not already have I ordered from the Etsy shop below. They had great reviews and shipped pretty quick: Herbal Supplies
I ground/ crushed/ grated each of the ingredients and used 1/4 oz of each dry ingredient. Once the items were powered and mixed I sprinkled with rose water and let the mixture dry. Another method of doing this is coming your hair with the rose water and then applying powder, but I did not find this nearly as helpful. The results I had from this process were pretty amazing to me. I included this in a round of the hair combing on an as needed basis and my hair smelled great and was not oily at all. The finished powder smells a bit like holiday cakes with flowers. The powder and natural hair oils also blend slightly to give my fairly flat hair some volume. My project was picked as a top science entry for our Queen's Prize arts and sciences tournament in the Outlands in the Spring of 2021 in the category "Try Something New." Below is a link to the other entrants so you can see more of their amazing work! Outlands Queen's Prize Spring 2021
If you are interested in 18th century hair care I would recommend l taking a look at The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Beauty. This book will walk you through later historical uses of hair powder. The 18th century hair power I'm holding in the video is from LLBC Apothecary:

LLBC Apothecary Have you tried any of The Trotula recipes, or some from another medieval manuscript? I would love to hear about them in the comments below.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Avoid These Common Mistakes: Packing for Pennsic and SCA Camping

  #camping #mysca #societyforcreativeanachronism #glamping #pennsic This summer I've been letting myself fall back in love with the Society for Creative Anachronism. There have been some moments that have been hard for sure, but also some of my moments of greatest joy. One of the things I realized was I had completely forgotten what I need to pack in order to go camping in the different environments we see across the Western United States, at SCA events. This video does not speak in any official way for the non profit group or any of its branches. I simply wanted to share some of my pit falls and learning curves I've experiences over the years. I am a list maker. So I started planning for my second camping trip of the summer by making a list of the things that I would need to have cleaned and packed after my first trip did not go as smoothly as I had hoped earlier this summer. Towards the end of the video I give you 6 tips I've picked up from camping at these events...
Post a Comment
Read more

Making my Viking Apron Dress

  This Week's vlog is the follow up to my Viking Age Tunic dress which I posted last week. When discussing the clothing of Birka and other Norse cultures, a woolen dress is an iconic look which is functional while tending a fire or many other activities. My apron dress is inspired by the finds out of Birka. The wool I used was a light weight suiting with a 2:2 twill weave. The long seams of this dress were finished with a machine for speed, and all of the seam finishings were hand sewn. I used a woolen finishing technique I learned about while flipping through Woven into the Earth by Else Ostergard. The technique involves using wool yarn and a couching stich of sorts to encase the raw edges of the wool. The end result is a low profile and durable seam around the neck and hem of my apron dress. I love that all of the hand sewn elements of this dress start to create a decorative finish on the outside of the dress and the only extra embellishment I added was a herringbone stitch over...
Post a Comment
Read more

I Finally Made a Viking Tunic for Myself that I don't Hate

  #sewing #Viking #historicaldress My inspiration for this dress is that I never really wear the style. It looks lovely on some people, but I had just never really gotten into it or the time period around it until friends were asking me for help to make their outfits. This year I realized we would be having a local SCA arts event on April Fool's Day and it seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up and I had to do something. I decided on going incognito and making myself some Norse clothing. Even though I've done some work for others in this time period, I am by no means an expert and leaned on some of the work in this blog post: https://maidenanachronism.blogspot.com/2012/05/viking-underdress.html?m=1 I also referenced these books for some of the techniques and information I used (links are affiliate links): Woven into the Earth by Else Ostergard https://amzn.to/3o0kVb2 Medieval Garments Reconstructed: Norse Clothing Patterns by Lilli Fransen, Anna Norgaard and...
Post a Comment
Read more