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

Pockets in the 16th Century?

So if you are new to my blog, Hello! I took July off to focus on work and realities of covid life. Thanks for hanging in there.  This week we are doing to cover 16th Soccocia and their role toward the origin of pockets. People need a place to carry and keep their small items as they walk around. In the middle ages you might have a pilgrim satchel or a belt pouch. Some women in the middle ages had the brilliant idea to stop wearing their money purses outside of their over gowns and instead would wear them between their kirtle/sottona layer and over gowns. This arrangement still gave you access to the purse, but made it harder for thieves to cut your purse strings and run.  Fast forward to the 16th century and we find the heirs to this practice in socaccia. We have some visual evidence of these in mid to late 16th century art out of Italy. This is a detail of Alessandro Allori's,  Woman at her toilet, ca 1575-78. Currently in Florence, Church of Santa Maria Novella, Gaddi ...
1 comment
Read more

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

Tudor Tailor French Gown Foresleeves

While I am doing blackwork for 8 hours at a time, my Venetian camicia is not ready to be posted about yet. Instead I want to share some important information for anyone trying to make a French gown with accessories from The Tudor Tailor . I love this book but there were a few problems with the publication. The woman's foresleeves do in fact have a pattern included with the gown and kirtle, but the instructions were omitted at the time of publication. The wonderful women at The Tudor Tailor have since realized their mistake and will provide anyone with a pdf version of the instructions on their website. Detail of  Elizabeth I from The Family of Henry VII, Hampton Court Palace.  These sleeves are similar in size and style to the instructions given on The Tudor Tailor website.   I have observed that is is just one kind of foresleeve. I am working on a extensive handout on these accessories because of all of the variations available....
Post a Comment
Read more