Ancient Romans were clean-shaven folk. A young man’s first shave was an important event in his life and was ritualized in an elaborate religious ceremony. Along with shaving, Men scraped their hair away with crude items such as stone, flint, clam shells and other sharpened materials. Later experimented with bronze, copper and iron razors.
FUN FACT: In addition to personal use, perfumes were used in food and to freshen the household aroma.
The Romans sweetened their breath with powder and baking soda. White teeth were prized by the Romans, and so false teeth, made from bone, ivory and paste, were popular items. . Different scents were appropriate for different occasions, as well as for men and women. Deodorants made from alum, iris and rose petals were common. Men and women used wigs made from animal hair if they decided to shave their head.
FUN FACT: Depilatories are used as an alternative to the bloody mess that results from shaving with a blade. The latest available creams include some pretty wild ingredients such as resin, pitch, white vine or ivy gum extract, asses fat, she goats gall, bats blood and powdered viper.
Around this time, Roman women remove their hair with razors and pumice stones. They even make their own depilatory creams from medicinal drugs such as Bryonia. They also pluck their eyebrows using tweezers.
FUN FACT: Gladiator sweat and fats of the animals fighting in the arena were sold in souvenir pots outside of the games to improve complexion.
Pure white skin, a demarcation of the leisure class, was the most important feature of Roman beauty. After their baths, they would then apply face whitener, such as chalk powder, white marl, crocodile dung and white lead. Although Romans esteemed pale faces, a light pink on the cheeks was considered to be attractive, signifying good health. The Romans preferred dark eyebrows that almost met in the center. This effect was achieved by darkening their eyebrows with antimony or soot and then extending them inward.
FUN FACT:Colored eyeshadow was also applied by women to accentuate their eyes. Green eyeshadow came from poisonous malachite, while blue came from auzerite.
The Romans disliked wrinkles, freckles, sunspots, skin flakes and blemishes. To soften wrinkles, they used swans’ fat, donkey milk and bean-meal. Sores and freckles were treated with the ashes of snails. The Romans pasted soft leather patches of alum directly over blemishes to pretend that they were beauty marks. Criminals and freedman used these leather patches, which came in both round and crescent shapes, to conceal brand marks. The ideal eyes, from the Roman perspective, were large with long eyelashes. Khol was the main ingredient in eye makeup, and was composed of ashes or soot and antimony, with saffron usually added to improve the smell. Kohl was applied using a rounded stick, made of ivory, glass, bone, or wood, that would be dipped in either oil or water first, before being used to apply the kohl.
FUN FACT: On the 13th of August each year, Roman women were supposed to wash their hair.