Fashion trends come and go,
like boy bands, Dorito flavors, and international borders. And some pretty odd things have
been considered haute couture in the past, although
you can't argue, they wouldn't still turn
heads if you sported them out for a night at Dave & Buster's. Today, we're giving you
the beat down on History's strangest beauty trends. But before we get
all gussied up, be sure to subscribe to
the Weird History Channel. Then let us in the comments
what other bizarre trends from the past you
want to know about. For now, why don't you slip
into your finest fineries? When we think of
the Victorian era, it conjures up images of
starched, bulky clothing, lots of black fabric, and
showing as little skin as humanly possible. But underneath all
those pounds of clothing lived probably the last
thing you would ever expect-- erotic piercings. Life is full of surprises,
and the Victorians know how to throw
a mean curveball. During a fleeting period
in Victorian England, wealthy women actually
pierced their nipples, and sometimes even included a
chain linking the two together. These were presumably
all the rage in the late Victorian
thrash punk scene. Men would get in on
the piercing action, too, instructing their
local tattoo shops to put a ring through their-- well, let's just say it
wasn't through their ears. This supposedly made it
easier to comfortably wear the increasingly tight
pants of the era. This type of piercing is
known as the Prince Albert, and it is rumored the Victorian
Prince sported the look. Huh. Must have been a fan
of the tobacco, too. Today, people spend
hundreds of dollars having their eyebrows
shaped, trimmed, and sliced, all in the hopes of
getting them on fleek. But to have your
eyebrows on Greek would involve letting those
bad boys grow out bushier than a plumber's mustache. In ancient Greece, the
power brows of the time were women's unibrows,
and were considered a sign of intelligence and purity. If they weren't lucky
enough to be blessed with an unbroken brow,
women would use coal pigment to draw one on, giving them
that bold and beautiful look. If the 17th century
was about anything, it was about large-scale
military conflicts and ever-changing political
structures the world over. But if the 17th century
was about a second thing, it was cleavage fashion. Necklines took a
plunge while breasts became one of the most prominent
features for women to display. It was also around
this same time that extreme paleness
became a hot new trend. If your skin was
pale, that meant you lived a wealthy
lifestyle out of the sun, unlike the laborers of the time. So if a woman of the time
wanted that one-two punch of cleavage and
translucent skin, they would often resort
to drawing blue veins on their chests to
mimic the trend. And the busty vampires
of the time rejoiced. Those fat cats at
Big Toothpaste would have you believe that
a pearly white smile is the only acceptable
kind of smile to flash. If 9 out of 10 dentists agree on
what color your grin should be, that 10th dentist might
just be from ancient Japan. For thousands of
years, Japanese women would blacken their
teeth after marriage, and it wasn't a fun
wedding night prank. The blackened teeth
were a symbol of beauty and a commitment of marriage. The trend continued
through the 19th century, so maybe there was
something to it. Although these days,
most people are OK with just getting a ring. Throughout history, society has
always given special attention to ladies' gams, but
back in the Middle Ages, all the way up to
around the 18th century, all the focus was
on men's calves. If it didn't look like you
had a mid-sized canoe strapped to the back of your
shins, you were nobody. Back then, men wore
stockings to show off their well-shaped,
absolutely yoked calves. Some even stuffed padding
inside their stockings to make sure they measured up. King Henry VIII was particularly
well-known for having excellent calves. He may have chewed through
his wives like lawn mower, but the man never
skipped leg day. Up until the 18th century,
women's faces would be bare, and the pale skin
look was all the rage. But the 1700s ushered in a
new age of heavy makeup use. Part of this rouge revolution
were beauty patches, small pieces of fabric that
could be adhered to the face to cover up blemishes or wounds. But in the 18th century,
they were fashion accessories which, came in shapes such
as stars, circles, squares, and SpongeBob. Probably. Their placement on the face
had significance as well. For example, if someone had a
beauty patch near their mouth, that meant they
were a bit flirty. One on the right cheek meant the
woman in question was married. Saying someone is
long in the tooth is an unkind way of saying
they're getting older, and that kind of
balderdash would not fly during the Renaissance
where short teeth were the bee's knees. This distinction
comes from a list of the 30 very specific
traits of the Renaissance which were needed to
consider a woman beautiful. Amongst the traits, such
as long legs, wide hips, and a narrow waist,
it seems women also needed to pay special
attention to their gums. Gummy smiles with
tiny teeth were just about the sexiest
thing a woman could have, along with 29 other very
specific beauty standards. Thankfully, today we've
moved beyond such things. Foot binding was perhaps one
of the most infamous forms of body modifications. It involves tightly wrapping
the feet of young girls in order to change
their shape and size, because small feet were in. The practice's origins
in China are unknown. However, historians
agree, it was prevalent amongst the
wives and daughters of nobles around the 13th
century and spread from there. Foot binding usually
begins when a girl is five to seven years old
and continues as she grows. Binding would break
the bones in the feet, causing the sole to
bend down to meet the toes while the toes
themselves bent under the foot in sort of a
grotesque, mushy hook. You may unclench your
own feet at this time. Beginning around 1000
BCE, ancient Mayans started the practice
of modifying the skulls of their infants. And you thought you had it
rough when your mom wouldn't let you watch Terminator 2. Skull-shaping is
accomplished by strapping a board or other various
implements to a child's head as they grow, forcing the
skull to reshape itself. This was done on both
male and female children as a sign of ornamental beauty
rather than social standing. Turns out, pointy
heads were just highly desirable
commodities at the time. It wasn't just a
Maya thing either. There are other groups around
the world who also took part in head-molding, such as the
Huns, Hawaiians, Tahitians, Incas, and the Chinook
and Choctaw Tribes in North America. The Chinese have a storied
history of long nails. The significance
of long fingernails can be traced all the way
back to around 400 BCE where both men and women
were known to let their nails air out a bit. People from the
Qing Dynasty would grow nails 8 to tenon long. Some women even wore
special gold nail guards to protect these
lengthy manicures. Long fingernails were
a signifier of wealth and meant you didn't work in
the fields or other places where your elaborate
nails could get chipped. They instead relied on servants
to dress them, feed them, and beat that really hard
level in Mario Brothers. From the times of ancient
Egypt all the way up to modern cinema, long,
luscious eyelashes have been considered a
hallmark of feminine beauty. But during the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance, eyelashes association
with beauty caused them to become
symbols of oversexuality. To dissociate themselves
from this stereotype, women during the Dark Ages
opted for less dark lashes, which eventually led to lashes
being erased altogether. Women would often painfully
remove their eyelashes completely, and eventually,
a fresh face devoid of lashes became en vogue. During the nylon
shortages of World War II, the pantyhose industry
took a major hit. With the expectation being
that women's legs should be shiny and tan,
dozens of paint products were used to mimic the look
of that precious nylon. Leg painting products
hit the shelves, and according to a 1942
edition of Life Magazine, were indistinguishable
from the real thing when applied correctly. However, if you didn't want
to spend big bucks on arts and crafts for your
legs, you could basically use whatever was found
around the house. Some women even painted
their legs with gravy to give them that
shiny and mouthwatering Southern-fried nylon look. KFChic. Anyone can have Brown
or blonde eyebrows, but the women of
ancient China were on a whole different level. Ancient Chinese women
loved to get creative with their eyebrows,
painting them on with black, blue,
or even green grease, and shaping them into whatever
was the trend at the time. For instance, during
the Han Dynasty, sharply pointed Vulcan
eyebrows were the style. Another brow trend was
called sorrow brows, where the eyebrows
were shaped upward in the middle in an
expression of sadness, as if the corner store just
ran out of eyebrow grease. If you study any painting
of the Renaissance, you may start
asking yourself, why is every woman's head gigantic? Was it something in the water? No. The reality is, large,
curved foreheads were an important indicator
of a woman's beauty back then. Men just love those
thick, curvy heads. Women with smaller hairlines
would pluck or shave the front of their
heads to increase the size of their
foreheads to turn them into a five-head, six-head,
or even the fabled seven-head. Fashion models of the
20th and 21st centuries have been known to
starve themselves to accomplish the gaunt, high
cheekbone look of today's fashion scene. Too bad they weren't
around in 618 to 907 CE during the
Chinese Tang Dynasty. They wouldn't have
felt pressured to count a single calorie
since big, round faces were just about the most
desirable look you could get. Women with plump figures,
round faces, big cheeks, and wide foreheads were
considered the most attractive people of the time. Corsets were popular
during the Edwardian era, but this painful practice
caused many to worry that the tight,
constricting underwear would hinder a woman's breathing,
and squish the internal organs like a tube of toothpaste. To combat this, the S-bend
corset was invented. This eased up the pressure
on a woman's waist, and instead, through
the hips and back at an exaggerated angle. It gave the wearer
the look of a bustle without all those extra layers. But the revolutionary corset
was not without its flaws. It would bend the wearer's spine
into unnatural positions, which would cause an exaggerated
sway while walking. These new and improved corsets
could inflict lasting damage to the owner's
posture, but would also make you a formidable
figure in competitive limbo. Sounds like a fair trade. So what do you think? Would you try any of
these ancient beauty tips? Let us in the comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
