The Hair Cut That Changed the World

thank you two dollar shave club for sponsoring this video just go to dollarshaveclub.com forward slash brain food to get you start a set for just five dollars generally speaking these days men tend to sport closely cropped haircuts very closely cropped in my case if you happen to be one of those that enjoys having a neatly trimmed easy to maintain do as with everything great in this world you have an English man to thank for that as well as in this case a bet with friends while the likes of Queen Elizabeth the first and Mary the first of Scotland had previously helped popularize wig wearing among women around this period if you've ever seen a period drama an episode of Black Adder or just happened to be a fan of the absolutely dreamy governor Weatherby Swann from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise you're likely aware that men used to sport flowing wigs of the powdered variety this particular fashion trend has its seeds in a disease that particularly reared its patch she had during the 16th century at this time Anne's beyond Europe was suffering from a major syphilis epidemic possibly a disease brought back from the new world with one potential side effect being that some sufferers experienced patchy hair loss wearing a wig while not considered as good as the real thing at this point was generally thought to be a superior alternative to going out in public in this balding state but after all nobody likes a bald man it's pretty repulsive some of the earliest wigs favored by Western men were often large and ornate with King Louie the thirteenth being one of the first prominent men since the days of the ancient Romans to wear a wig as a fashion accessory this helped set the trends when he took to wearing wigs in the 1620s incidentally his son King Louie the fourteenth was the dude who popularized high heel wearing among humans long before women wore them more on this in the bonus FAQ section in just a little bit so stay tuned in any events rather than about with syphilis King Louie the thirteenth is thought to simply have been the genetic recipients of male pattern baldness the decease of the lesser man whoever wrote this why being kinds and old rather than being mocked for wearing a wig to cover this up he was mimicked and wigs not only became fashionably acceptable they slowly became the social norm even if you were already blessed with a glorious set of locks a potential side benefit them may have helped the popularity of the wig along was also the fact that lice a bit of a problem for some in this era and region became less of an issue with wigs by shaving off your own hair and wearing a wigs that could be more thoroughly sanitized separate from your head this meant getting rid of lice was a little bit easier a similar thought process or women particularly prostitutes served the 15th and 16th centuries in Western Europe shaving their nether regions and then wearing wigs known as a merkin where there used to be this allowed them to still keep some semblance of modesty and still avoid the lice problem over the years mens wigs became more restrained in nature moving from the large perform tasks headpieces to fired by people like charles ii to more restrained powdered ponytails seen atop the head of everyone from the founding fathers to the prime minister of england curiously although he's the president most associated with possessing a luscious perfectly thames locks and curls with a tightly drawn ponytail george washington reportedly never wore a wig guns in fact sported shoulder-length hair that was carefully and somewhat painfully styled each day no doubt having to frequently tell the ladies yes it's real and yes it's spectacular although a bit of a fun fact while his hair may have been real his teeth were not though contrary to popular belief he never seems to have worn wooden teeth with Emeth possibly being connected to the fact that the physician who made his false teeth at one point being called dr. John Greenwood whatever the case Washington's actual false teeth were carved from ivory and also contained quite a bit of gold and some LEDs humans that was a good idea LED human and animal horse and donkey teeth were then riveted to the gold and ivory ins the whole thing was set in place by a spring Merrick the spring mechanism actually made it so that Washington had to constantly very forcibly hold his mouth shut with his draw muscles which is why he probably always looked extra Stern in portraits in early models of his dentures the false teeth would be Hoechst to his remaining real teeth with metal wires eventually he lost all of his teeth and the dentures relied completely on the spring mechanism to stay in place at this point I'll just comment that oh my god I'm glad I don't live in the past as to how he lost his teeth Washington actually had pretty meticulous dental hygiene for his time including brushing his teeth and using mouthwash and a tongue scraper however he also suffered from constant tooth aches and frequently took calomel mercurous chloride which can lead to the destruction of the teeth he also like many of his day used substances that were very abrasive to clean his mouth which probably also led to the decay of his tooth enamel so by a combination of that and probably having naturally bad teeth this led him to losing his teeth steadily from the age of 22 until 55 when he officially had lost them all indeed by his inauguration in 1789 he had only one natural tooth remaining which I like to imagine that he called old Chomper going back to hair of those there were some exceptions the majority of wigs worn by men were powdered to make them as ghostly white as possible the poor amend this powder often consisted of flour but rich men like to use starch powder infused with lavender and other pleasant smelling things to make them more pleasing to the nostrils it's noted that some men would cleverly powder their natural hair to give the illusion that they were wearing a wig to avoid the costly and time-consuming process of actually having one custom mate that's got to be the only example of history where people made their natural hair look like a wig on purpose the best and most ornate wigs could cost as much as a year's wages for a common Londoner though typical everyday we extended to run about a week's wages on the same scale so this brings us to the world's most influential haircut the use of hair powder in England anyway was so ubiquitous that in 1795 then Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger assured in attacks on the product attempt to raise money for the country which chance was often the case back then was warring with the scourge of humanity the French the tax required any man wishing to purchase hair powder to pay a Guinea about equal to 70 pounds or $100 today for a certificate that would grant them the right to buy hair powder for a year as so often happens when new taxes are introduced people were not happy about this one person in particular who was annoyed by the tax was the den duke of bradford frances russell he refused to pay it on principle in protest the duke had his hair cut short and scandalously wore it unpowered and unstyled in court the duke no interest how unpopular the tax was also encouraged his friends to adopt a similar natural hair style in political protest which they will did agreeing to as reported by the London Chronicle forfeit a sum of money if any of them wore their hair tied or powdered within a certain period their stall was dubbed the Bedford level by the Duke Spears as a nod to a large area of marshy lands in the fences family had drains or levelled recently known funnily enough as the Bedford level the name was also a playful allusion to the Dukes somewhat controversial and reformist political views the style quickly became popular throughout the Dukes not unimpressive circle of influence and even became something of a symbol of protesting new taxes even among the common man as a result of all of this the star slowly disseminated throughout the country over time and as short closely cropped hair became the norm men began to experiment with different styles mostly modeled after classical images from Greek and Roman art in particular men took inspiration from the two Roman emperors Caesar and Titus as well as Brutus all of whom are classically portrayed as sporting shorter hairstyles of varying sales by the time the government stops the power to tax in 1869 powdered wigs were almost unheard of with less than a thousand people still paying the tax when it was finally repealed at this point the shorter more economical style introduced by Bedford was firmly ingrained in modern English men something that has really changed too much in the time since and speaking of emancipation from the real scourge of humanity that would be hair and that's where I'm gonna mention today sponsored Dollar Shave Club how's that for a transition Dollar Shave Club covers all of your grooming needs shower oral care deodorants and of course most importantly shaving did you know they did all those other things as well now obviously you're looking at me any thinking Simon you've got a massive beard not a massive it you've got a reasonably sized beard you clearly don't shave Oh contraire I shave my head not so I can fit a glorious powdered wig I I just shave it so I don't know bald all the time I mean you know you've got the strip of hair around the side Dollar Shave Club sent me there ultimate shame starter set let me lay it all out there what have you got going on first of all prep scrub hit that up get that on your face next up shave butter slap that all over your face shave or in my case just imagine I'm saying head shave boom afterwards post shave do you now my hair tends to get a little bit dry after a shave this stuff I whack it on and it's great keeps it nice and moisturized super hydrated so visit dollarshaveclub.com forward slash brain food you'll get this ultimate shave starter set for only $5 but why not round it out and get some of their other high quality products after that the restock box ships full size products at a regular price and let's get into the bonus fact speaking of looking fabulous high heels which it turns out were all the rage among men long before women the first high heel where as are believed to have been Persian horseback warriors sometime around the 9th century the extended he always reportedly developed specifically for riding to keep the rider's foot from slipping out of the stirrups it also helped to steady the rider when standing up in the stirrups and shooting arrows a group of Persian diplomats visited Europe in 1599 to recruit allies to help Persia defeat the Ottoman Empire a craze for Persian culture developed as a result and Persian style high-heeled shoes were adopted enthusiasts Stickley by Western European aristocrats the shoes became a status symbol and the heels were extended to make the men look even taller this is thought by many autumn ologists to be where the term well heeled meaning wealthy originally came from just as the 1980s at notorious shoe collector Imelda Marcos the sixteen hundreds had rabid shoe collector and trendsetter louis xiv of france that dude we mentioned earlier while he was a powerful leader his height left something to be desired at five feet four inches tall one point sixty meters which was slightly below average for his day a king being slightly shorter than average was not ideal for his ego so louie took measures to make himself look taller sporting four-inch heels often decorated with elaborate battle scenes eventually he switched to having red heels on all of his shoes and decreed that only the upper echelons of society could have matching red heels it became a simple matter of looking at the color of a man's heels to see if he was in the kings in a circle not to be outdone though women of the 1600 started wearing heels as a way of showing their equality Elizabeth Sano a curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto and author of heights of fashion a history of the elevated shoe says the rage of that period in parts of Europe was for women to dress and act like a man it should be noted though that at the time men's outfits by today's standards were extremely effeminate a la king louis xiv many portraits you can find of him with long hair tights high heels intricately pass into dresses etc Similac states you had women cutting their hair adding elements to their outfits they would smoke pipes they would wear hats that were very masculine and this is why women adopted the heel it was in an effort to masculinize their outfits as usually happens high fashion is adapted into more affordable versions and filters down to lesser humans and the lower classes started to wear high heels the elite responded by making their heels increasingly higher to maintain the distinction of being better than everyone else the either heel the more expensive the shoe typically was so obviously you're a better person because of that they also began to differentiate heels into two kinds fat heels for men and skinny heels for women then got away from the he'll almost completely to show their distinction from women since the late 18th century men's shoes have had primarily low heels except for cowboy boots and some shoes worn by rock stars who occasionally have a propensity to wear a feminine garb similar to before the great male renunciation when men switched from wearing Julian's elaborate outfits with highly decorated cloth too drab darker colored simple clothing basically when Western men on the hall stopped trying to beautify themselves starting at the tail end of the 18th century for a time women also drifted away from the heel as it truly wasn't practical particularly on old muddy or cobblestone style streets where heels were nearly impossible to walk in they weren't gone long though the heel came back into fashion in the mid 19th century with the advent of photography why as seems to happen often when new technologies are introduced pornographers are always among the first to take advantage ins they were among the first to embrace photography this pertains to high heels in that they often dressed models for escape postcards and other photographs in nothing but a modern for that time version of the high-heeled since then high heels have come in and out of fashion repeatedly except for seemingly every faucet of the adult entertainment industry where they're seemingly a constant as well as with cowboys who while they still occasionally wear them for practical purposes while riding a horse anyone who's grown up around such horse riding individuals knows the vast majority of the time they actually wear their high heels as a fashion statement so I really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below do not forget to check out our fantastic sponsor for this episode Dollar Shave Club is just five dollars what link below and thank you for watching

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Views: 266,123

Rating: 4.9310465 out of 5

Keywords: today i found out, tifovidz12, tifo, awesome, facts, didn't know, Men’s hair styles, The Hair Cut That Changed the World, Why Did People Wear Powdered Wigs?, Hairstyles Through the Ages, influential haircut in history, francis russell

Id: WeLLzi6YP1g

Length: 14min 57sec (897 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2020