I Tried Following a Victorian Morning Routine 🌷

[Music] so [Music] [Music] hello friends in this video i'm going to be following a victorian morning routine written and researched by ruth goodman who is a victorian expert who wrote the book how to be a victorian and for a lot of this i'm going to be quoting directly from the book because the way ruth goodman explains everything is so interesting and informative so we begin at 7 30 in the morning and i don't have a maid or a servant so i enlisted my husband to take on all the morning tasks that they would usually do this begins with opening the curtains and closing the windows windows were often left open during the night to allow cool air currents to circulate this was largely the response to the work of a scientist dr arnott who was a respected member of the royal institution and he was a bit paranoid about lack of oxygen in the home the idea was that if there was no air current carbonic acid would build up there would be an experiment they'd do to check to see how much carbonic acid was present they'd pour some clear lime water over a shallow dish and leave it exposed to the air for an hour or so and then if they find whitish scum or crust on the surface of the liquid it would prove that carbonic acid is in the air but sadly this experiment wasn't remotely accurate scientifically speaking it was more likely that the water would evaporate and thus leaving scum of the lime there just from it having evaporated upon leaving the bed people would usually perch upon whatever the household could conjure up in the way of a rug most households had wooden floors which would be very cold after having the windows left open all night especially in the winter i have a carpet in my room but i wanted to go all out for this video so here we are with an extra rug for no real reason once you were up it would be time to wash ruth goodman says that for most of the victorian period the stand-up wash was the standard and main form of personal hygiene and the start of most people's daily routines whether you were a man or a woman for upper and middle class women it happened as soon as they rose from the bed still clothed in their long night dresses [Music] a little water was poured into a bowl and a cloth was dropped in and then rung out and then some soap was applied and the scrubbing of the body could begin washing could be done in sections so one area scrubbed rinsed and dried before moving on to the next and this allowed a person to remain mostly dressed throughout the washing the stand-up wash remained one of the most common forms of washing throughout the century whether with hot or cold water with or without soap and it provided a fast morning wash that could prepare a person for the day funny enough bathtubs did exist but they were not the norm and really they were just largely used by men and modesty played a huge part in this men might have felt happy wandering around the corridor of a wealthy house in a bathrobe but far fewer women did and if they did they would have felt much too vulnerable and exposed so even if women had bathtubs in their homes they didn't really use them they were really only used by men even though daily washing of the body was expected victorians did not usually wash their hair especially more towards the beginning of the victorian period starting in around the 1840s brushing one's hair was no longer considered to be an effective method of cleaning it but it was still thought to be useful but before we move on to hair washing i think now is a wonderful moment to tell you about today's sponsor which is birch feeling well rested in the morning is so important to me i'm someone who needs eight hours of uninterrupted sleep the blinds closed sleep story playing on my phone as i fall asleep and as many of you know my husband and i don't even sleep in the same bedroom because of how much we each value a good night's sleep so i am super excited to partner with birch for today's video birch makes organic non-toxic mattresses made right here in america with just four materials sourced straight from nature which are organic latex new zealand wool american steel springs and organic cotton that's it i've really been trying hard to focus more on using natural products things that come from nature in my life more and more and i love that each birch mattress comes with two of their eco rest pillows made from recycled plastic bottles they're breathable and better for the environment what i've loved since getting this new birch mattress is that i'm sleeping so well our old mattress had this sag in the middle that always caused me to wake up with back problems and i've been complaining to jared about it for a while now this birch mattress that we got is so ridiculously comfortable i just want to stay in bed and do everything read cuddle with dartanian write in my journal pretty much everything it really is one of the most comfortable mattresses i've ever slept on and bounced on bouncing is very important five-year-old desi would be so thrilled that she got a good mattress for bouncing i also love that i know exactly what it's made out of and that it's 100 non-toxic it's also super easy to buy online you don't need to go out to a mattress store and they ship it right to your door for free within the us it comes rolled up in a box and it's super easy to set up yourself and with your birch mattress you get a 100 night sleep trial along with a 10-year warranty 10 years if it makes you nervous to buy something you haven't tried you get more than three months to make sure that you love it and if you don't they will pick it up for you and you'll get a full refund i adore my birch mattress and if you're looking for a new bed definitely check out birch you can click on the link in my description box or go to birchliving.com darlingdesi for 200 off your mattress plus two free pillows now without further ado let's continue on to the rest of the video [Music] rosemary water was a particularly popular option when it came to washing one's hair you would just need to gather a small bunch of rosemary lay it in the bowl and then fill the bowl with boiling water and once the water had cooled the rosemary would be strained out and the wash would be ready to use and this was actually a scientific folk recipe that first appeared in the 16th century rosemary water had the advantage over plain water of being slightly more astringent so it removed more grease and then the bowl would be placed on the wash stand and a towel would be placed around the neck to stop the water from running down and wetting the clothes and then you would just lean forward and dip your head in the bowl and then use either a small jug or a cup to pour more water over the back of your head to make sure that everything gets clean and washed using soap on the hair was actually a much newer idea and did bring with it some much needed caution the soaps available could be very very harsh and a strong soap could leave not only the hair dry and brittle but the scalp feeling sore as well and the color could be bleached which nobody wanted those with naturally greasy hair fared best and those with dry hair could find themselves more in trouble many discovered that the bleaching effect of the soap did not so much lighten the color of the hair as it did bring a greenish tint to it and they think that rainwater did a better job it was thought than hard water but the real point was to choose soap with care and use it sparingly when washed the hair would need additional help like hair oils to make it smooth and glossy again since they didn't use much to condition it after some hair oil is applied a thorough brush was required to move the oils along the length of the hair right down to the very ends a dr robertson recommended washing the hair no more than once per week which remained the standard advice for the next century after the hair is brushed and towel dried victorian women usually just let it dry naturally and if it was spring or summer they might stand by a window or let the warmth of the house dry the hair or if it was winter they might stand near a fire or someplace warm to help the drying [Music] process commercial deodorant wouldn't be available until the next century so victorian women often use dusting powders to enhance the nice smell they had already achieved after washing they would mostly put it on their arms sometimes under their arms and even sometimes behind their neck or under their legs really any part that was prone to smell [Music] once the body was all clean and sweet smelling this is when most people would move on to dental hygiene ruth goodman explains that most toothpastes were actually made at home with as few of ingredients as simple soot and salt or cuttlefish powder in charcoal you could eventually start buying toothpaste over the counter but most people for a long time did just make it at home and their toothbrushes actually looked pretty much the same as what we use now i did some research and decided to just make my own toothpaste i'm not going to be using the ingredients that the victorians used but i did find an amazing youtube video by fairyland cottage where she teaches how to make simple toothpaste with only a few natural ingredients so i started with some coconut oil and then i put it over some warm water so that it could fully melt and then i added arrowroot powder which is actually really good especially if you have sensitive teeth and gums which i do um so then i just mixed it together until there were no clumps in the powder and i could see that it was really really smooth and then the final ingredient that i added was just some peppermint essential oil and this gives it the traditional toothpaste flavor and i added i think four to five drops and then i just cleaned and sterilized this cute little jar and i also wrapped some paper around it so that it could look a bit nicer so i'm just going to pour the mixture in here until it's full and then i'm going to put the lid on and choose a sticker to go on top i have these really cute victorian themed stickers that i thought would be perfect for this victorian toothpaste so then i just set it aside and waited for the mixture to become firm before using it [Music] once it was hardened up i just grabbed one of my small teaspoons and put just a bit of the toothpaste on my brush it was kind of hard to get it to stick but i eventually figured it out i always drizzle water over my toothpaste and i was a bit nervous about how the texture would be and how it would taste but i was actually pleasantly surprised it tasted like coconut and peppermint which was a fantastic combo and it left my teeth feeling really clean afterwards it didn't feel gritty or oily and i actually think i might use this more in the future up next it was time to get dressed i don't really have any victorian clothes so i followed this routine the best that i could with what i already have so usually a woman would have a chemise and drawers covering most of her body and then stockings would complete the full base layer from the 1880s women usually use suspenders to keep their stockings up but up until that point the stockings were held in place by garters fastened around the leg just above the knee this would keep them from falling down throughout the day causing quite a bit of embarrassment if they actually did fall down and someone could see your ankle [Music] usually a lady's maid would be helping me to get dressed if i was middle or upper class so thanks again to jared for playing the role of my ladies made today [Music] it was intended that the chemise drawers and stockings be regularly changed due to their close proximity to the skin daily was ideal but there was a garment however that could not be washed at all and this made the cleanliness of the first layer all that more important dressing like a victorian woman is not complete without a corset they were worn by women of all classes and they offered fashion but naturally to the victorian mind they also offered self-respect sexual attractiveness social conformity and even a range of health benefits it was believed that a woman's internal organs required support that men were tougher and in less need of assistance and with a corset to perform many of the supportive functions of the back and stomach muscles these muscles actually went unused and became to some degree weak in atrophied sucking oh no it's not no no we're not tightly you're trying to kill me that's not too bad we're good now how tight do you want it about there i just want you to tie it okay okay all right you breathe yes a woman spent so much of her time in a corset that if she left it off for just a day or so she would actually probably feel the lack of it to be tiring and she would probably struggle with the floppiness of her middle regions mainstream medical thinking was that an uncorseted woman was as foolish as one who was tightly laced basically a neat corseted figure was ultimately what society expected of women also a lot of time for warmth and extra modesty they would wear a shawl type scarf i don't know exactly what it's called but they'd wear it around their shoulders and this would usually get tucked in the front and then they would maybe have a petticoat over it but again i'm just using what i already have this is just a bit of fabric that i had left over from another project but it works so this was my completed outfit don't come at me i know that it is not historically accurate but um this was just what i had in my closet hair styling was very important to victorian women when deciding what style i wanted to do i referred to the book and chose one of the illustrations and then i also found another image online and decided to do a mixture between the two i knew that i would need a center part and some hair products to get me started and in the victorian era hair oils were something between a conditioner um and like a lotion for frizz control i used some hair oil to prep my hair before styling and then i started the style by creating two small braids in the front and these were the ones that will wrap around and under my hair to connect around the bun in the back afterwards then i gathered my hair together in the pictures it's really really sleek and that's what i was going for so then i created a regular braid i noticed that one of the pictures the bun was sitting really low on her head and so that's how i tried to do mine i just wrapped the braid around and pinned it into place with a handful of bobby pins and also some help from jared looking back i wish i would have chosen a hairstyle later in the victorian era as i think this one did not suit my face type at all i know queen victoria also liked this detailing of having the braids go around the ears on the side but it is just not for me i had fun creating it though and after it was all put together i just added some pomade to hide my bangs since they weren't really part of this hairstyle so i didn't want to include them [Music] the next step of a victorian woman's morning routine required her to decide whether she would wear makeup or not queen victoria did not include makeup as she viewed the practice as vulgar and impolite which definitely influenced how women at the time also viewed makeup the girl's own paper published an article stating that pimples could be prevented by a light diet and that a daily walk provided all the colors the cheeks needed and that getting up at dawn made the lips bright and red and a desire of pleasing will add fire to a woman's eyes and while other victorian women were less passionate about the subject they nonetheless agreed with this article and principle and then the final touch before embarking on a proper day was the application of perfume [Music] a common victorian breakfast consisted of porridge bacon and possibly some cold meats cheeses and breads and the time at which breakfast was eaten and the foods included very much differed based on class ruth goodman explained that before tea was britain's traditional drink many people actually drank beer with their breakfast it provided not only valuable calories but a range of minerals and vitamins that were otherwise lacking in most people's diets but eventually tea and coffee and cocoa became more popular and hot cocoa is actually viewed as a healthy and energy-giving drink that many people drink with their breakfast the final step in this routine is morning exercise in the 1860s medical professionals recommended walking lots of walking not athletic hill walking or anything too strenuous but daily hour-long walks especially to be taken in the morning when the body was clean and fresh it was a free form of exercise requiring no special clothes equipment or location anyone could walk around and enjoy the open air the richest to the poorest and i decided to bring along a few of my favorite victorian novels and enjoy the warm sunshine as we finish up with this victorian morning routine [Music] that was so much fun but also i am so glad that i live in this time period and not the victorian era i realized that i really romanticized it but i focused on just having a good time and following this routine in the book thank you so much for watching i hope you have a wonderful day and i will see you in my next video bye friends [Music] you

Channel: Darling Desi

Views: 1,433,904

Keywords: victorian morning routine, victorian time period, victorian, victorian vlog, victorian aesthetic, vintage aesthetic, morning routine, vintage morning routine, darling desi, cozy morning routine, spring morning routine, how to be a victorian, edwardian, corset, vintage clothes, romantic academia, light academia, english countryside, victorian england, morning, routine

Id: 4jMvu8XUIjQ

Length: 21min 53sec (1313 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 31 2021