Cosmetics for Roman Women (or what I don't know about Rome)

[lesbiassparrow]

Given that I am currently teaching a course on women in antiquity I am shockingly uninformed about Roman depilatories. But I do know that according to Ovid, crocodile dung was used in rouge, that Pliny the Elder wore a bra on his head to cure headaches, and if a menstruating woman walked through your crops they would die. Oh and wombs would wander all over a woman's body if you weren't lucky. (And you don't want to know how you would fix a blocked womb.)

Next week I will post on the fun of the lupercalia and nearly naked aristocrats running through the streets of Rome beating willing women. I really hope they film Mark Antony's participation in those festivities.

Comments

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I love having classicists on my f-list ;)

[morwen_peredhil]

Mark Antony. Nekkidness. Yes, please.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Everything will surely be better with Mark Antony nekkidness. Especially if they can get a crazy religious angle in.

Roman Depilatories

[tony-pius.livejournal.com]

I believe that the standard Roman hair-removal procedures were (a) yanking out hair by the roots, and (b) singeing it off with hot rocks. Given these alternatives, I have no idea why beards weren't more popular.

Re: Roman Depilatories

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I remember the male beard plucking from Juvenal dimly, but not the hot rocks. But I guess those who didn't mind a manly stubble could just buy a slave very good at shaving...and who didn't hate his owners.

(Isn't it Julian who has a whole essay on beard-haters? There seems to have been a lot of them in the Roman empire).