Personal Habits and Personal Style - Hair - Body #1

[bluetoria]

I wondered that but didn't like to ask!  

[etonexile]

Long ago I'd read the boigraphy of Helena Rubintein,the cosmetics tycoon. She speacialized in giving products and treatments to women in society and royalty(like Queen Mary of Britain)...I wonder if she or her ilk might have been "treating" the Czarist ladies of Petersburg...?

[bluetoria]

It's slightly off the main topic but I thought it was interesting in Sir James Reid's (QV's doctor) biography that on the day of the Jubilee procession he recorded in his diary that he treated Ella for a small spot on her face with nitric acid!!!!!! Bet that hurt!

[moonlight_tsarina]

Wouldn't be surprised.  I'm sure that official portraits were touched up and they probably were powdered up, etc - no bags under the eyes!  And like Annie said in the 1913 photos of Alix with the girls her chin was touched up so it didn't show that she had a double chin.  Some people just naturally have thin eyebrows, though; maybe they got lucky!

Is it 1913 or 1914? I always get that wrong!  
But how did they "trim" Alix's chin? I doubt powder could conceal that.

[Lanie]

The photograph itself was touched up.  That one's 1913; the young girls are wearing lace.  The 1914 photos are the ones where MN and AN are wearing beaded gowns similar to ON and TN's.

[moonlight_tsarina]

Ah, so that's the difference! Lol...
Personally i like the beaded ones...did any of them have sequins on them?

[ferngully]

I wondered that but didn't like to ask!  

trust me, its quite as scary as you might think! i've had it done and do it more often now, after the first time it isn't SO scary
selina              xxxxxxxxxxx

[Yoyo22]

Since we are in the beauty regimes and too embarrassed to ask mode, I would also like to ask a related question, which I have asked before, but did not receive an answer. What about manicures and pedicures? I am assuming that women in that age did have them, but did OTMA?
Yoyo

[ashanti01]

I had heard that Alexandra had manicures.


This was how the finger found by the gravesite was claimed to be Alexandra's because it was claimed to be " manicured" like the empress.

[Lanie]

In FOTR (I think it was that book) there is an account that  some women who came to clean the Ipatiev House.  The girls helped and their fingers were manicured...but got all messed up after cleaning!

[Yoyo22]

Thanks ashanti and Lanie
Yoyo

[ChristineM]

I think the answer to the waxing/shaving question is simple.   If indeed they did depilate, they most probably used the ancient Egyptian technique of sugaring.

Please don't ask me about sugaring because I do not know how it works.   I do know it has been a method of removal of body hair since the days of the Pharoahs.  

It is also used by Moslems.   In Islam, the body must be free of hair in order to be 'clean'.   Only when the body is 'clean' is the person fit to pray.

tsaria

[bluetoria]

Tsaria, why do Moslem men have long beards, then?

(Please find out more about sugaring & share it with us - it might be far less traumatic than waxing!  )

[Merrique]

I just found this bit of info on sugaring...

Ancient Egyptian Art of Body Sugaring

Body sugaring is a method for removing body hair that is a cheap, homemade alternative to waxing (or shaving). The theory behind body sugaring is that the hair is removed by the root, and when it grows back there will be less of it, and it will be softer and not stubbly as it is if a razor had been used.

Body sugaring is done by making a paste of sugar, water, and lemon juice that has been heated to the softball candy stage.

After you have let the paste cool enough so that it won't burn, you spread it on your skin, cover it with cotton strips of cloth, and then rip the cloth off like one does a bandaid. Most find sugaring less painful than waxing.

there is even a recipe on this website for it if anyone is interested in trying it.

http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/self/432

[Kimberly]

Its supposed to be more time-consuming but less traumatic!!!! A mixture of sugar,lemon juice and water is boiled up into a syrup. The syrup is rolled into balls and ppressed onto the skin and then pulled off. Now where is my husbands razor.