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 Chapel.  J
1 comment
Read more

Two Tone Lucet Cording

  Hello Beautiful Humans! Today I have a brief tutorial for you on how I made the lucet lacings for my most recent renaissance dress. It is a craft that is hard to document in the 16th century, where I do most of my work, but I love how quickly this technique works up into fairly strong cording. This two tone technique is much stronger than a typical single strand lucet braid because of the extra cord running through the entire cord. I also love the possibilities for coordinating your laces to your outfits. My laces were made much longer than I needed them for this dress. Looking back I could have cut my lacing in half and been fine, but now I have all this extra if I should ever need it. Long laces also mean I can pre-lace myself into this dress with a spiral lace and then tighten it until I feel comfortable. For this particular style of lucet I used a hardwood lucet fork I purchased from an 18th century reenactor, a skein of DMC 6-strand embroidery floss, and a ball of size 10 cr
Post a Comment
Read more

Voided Velvet Sleeves from a Thrift Store Scarf

  Detachable sleeves are one of my favorite things to make for renaissance dresses, and always seem to be the last thing I think to make when I'm planning my outfits. These sleeves are made from thrift store fabric to mimic one possible way that "cut work sleeves" were made in the period. There are several theories, and my research has made me think that they all may have been in use at different points in time for different specific motifs. To make these sleeves I used a voided velvet scarf I found at my local thrift store and remnants of rayon velvet, silk shantung, and linen. Techniques I cover in the video include basting, hemming stitches, and how to easily sew with velvet. I completed the project using a mix of hand sewing and a modern sewing machine. I love wearing these Italian renaissance dresses at reenactment events or when I attend events for the Society of Creative Anachronism. Groups like this have helped me learn more about how period techniques and mate
Post a Comment
Read more