Buzz
In our quest to achieve beauty, we often engage in peculiar behaviors. Women everywhere rise early, gaze into their mirrors, apply makeup, and shape their eyebrows. We splurge on trendy clothing and go to extreme lengths to alter our bodies, all in the name of adhering to beauty standards.
The definition of beauty has evolved dramatically over the years. Each generation had its own unique ideas about what was attractive, and some of those concepts now seem completely absurd.
10. Attaching a Fake Unibrow to Your Forehead
In ancient Greece, nothing was more unappealing than a woman with two distinctly separated eyebrows. To appear elegant and beautiful, a woman needed a long, dark, caterpillar-like strand of hair running across her forehead.
To the ancient Greeks, unibrows were considered the most alluring accessory a woman could sport. Women applied black powder to the area between their eyebrows to make it appear thicker and more prominent.
If a woman wasn’t fortunate enough to have natural hair between her brows, she found a way. Some would rub black soot on the area, while others dyed goat hair, applied tree resin to the back, and attached it to their foreheads.
9. High Heels That Measured 0.6 Meters (2 Ft) in Height
During the Middle Ages, Florence was the fashion hub of the world. The women there spared no effort in ensuring they looked their best. However, nothing compared to the elegance and prestige of wearing chopines, platform shoes with towering wooden heels that could reach over 0.6 meters (2 ft) in height.
The trend became so widespread that men began wearing them as well. Since they were essentially walking on stilts, it was difficult to move around. But the fashionable residents of Florence managed to get by hopping along with canes.
Most people outside Florence found the look absurd. Some even referred to it as “outrageously vain.” However, the church reluctantly accepted it, at least acknowledging that wearing chopines prevented women from dancing—and that, in their eyes, was the worst sin of all.
8. Poisoning Your Eyes With Drops
Nightshade is one of the deadliest plants known to mankind. A small amount of its poison in someone's drink can send them into a coma, and a little more could prove fatal. But in Renaissance Italy, women applied it directly to their eyes.
The Italians referred to it as belladonna (“the beautiful lady”), as a drop of poison in your eyes would cause your pupils to dilate, giving the impression of perpetual arousal.
It also caused blurred vision and a rapid heartbeat. Using too much of it, however, could lead to blindness. Yet for many, the potential risks were worth it to achieve that alluring look.
7. Bulging Codpieces
Throughout history, various civilizations have agreed that noticeable bulges in men's trousers are quite the stylish statement. In England, this trend has come and gone over the last five centuries. Initially, codpieces were practical and discreet coverings for small openings in men’s tights.
However, by the time of Edward IV, men had realized that the adornments on their groins could be shaped to resemble exaggerated penises. By the reign of Henry VII, codpieces had grown to absurd proportions.
Codpieces faded out when Elizabeth I took the throne, but the trend of prominent bulges returned. By the Georgian era, men were squeezing into pants as tight as possible to flaunt their assets.
Under the influence of fashion, even the severely overweight donned these tight-fitting pants. It was soon widely accepted that it was better to wear something that left more to the imagination.
6. Blackening Your Teeth
Until recently, women in Japan had a unique approach to dentistry. They believed that tooth decay was a symbol of beauty. So, if a woman's teeth weren't naturally falling out, she would paint them black.
Japanese women have been blackening their teeth for so long that it’s unclear exactly when or why the practice began. At least by around AD 900, women were painting their teeth black. Not long after, men joined in as well.
To create the black dye, the Japanese would mix hot water, sake, and red-hot iron in a pot and let it sit for five days. A black scum would form on top, which they would then scrape off and apply to their teeth.
Eventually, the trend faded. In 1870, it was officially outlawed, but this came nearly 1,000 years after the practice began. For most of a millennium, the Japanese sought beauty by mimicking the appearance of tooth decay.
5. Slashing Your Cheek with a Knife
Nothing screams strength more than a bleeding, open wound across your face. In 19th-century Germany, being scarred was considered the ultimate symbol of masculinity. Men made sure to go out of their way to disfigure their faces with cuts.
Self-inflicted wounds weren’t the same, so boys often challenged one another to duels. While wearing a fencing mask to shield their eyes and throat, they intentionally left the rest of their faces vulnerable, hoping to score a few cuts from their opponents.
Afterward, they’d deliberately scar the wound to ensure it left the largest gash possible. The truly fashionable would return to dueling soon after. One man even amazed his friends by strutting around with 14 scars on his face.
4. Wearing One High Heel With One Low Heel
Alexandra of Denmark was a style pioneer. As the princess, everything she wore set off a fashion frenzy across the country. If she introduced a new garment or accessory, women rushed to stores to get their hands on it. When she contracted rheumatic fever and was left with a painful limp, women again followed her lead.
Initially, women dug through their own closets to find two shoes that didn’t match, hoping to replicate the awkward walk that made the prince’s bride even more chic. Soon, stores caught on and began selling “Alexandra Limp” shoes, designed with one high heel and one shorter heel.
Women strutted through the streets with mismatched shoes, using canes to enhance the awkwardness of their movements. They understood that nothing embodied beauty quite like a woman struggling to stay on her feet.
3. Socks With Sandals
Ancient Rome introduced one of the most controversial fashion trends of all: socks paired with sandals. Despite modern fashion taboos, our ancestors boldly wore open-toe sandals with socks underneath, without a hint of shame.
This wasn’t an easy discovery. It required years of painstaking research by teams of archaeologists and historians, all focused on uncovering the footwear combinations used by the Romans. At last, we have “unequivocal evidence” that they wore socks with sandals.
The socks, made of wool, were knitted to rise all the way up to the knee. These were then paired with open-toe sandals. Interestingly, wearing sandals without socks is a rather modern trend.
2. Wearing Seven Shirts At Once
Mao’s Cultural Revolution reshaped the fashion scene. The elite and respectable donned Mao suits with upturned collars, a distinctly Chinese look. Others wore military uniforms to show their allegiance to the party. Meanwhile, some gang members set off the greatest fashion trend—layering as many shirts as they could.
Writer Jung Chang notes that a popular fashion for boys during the Cultural Revolution involved wearing multiple undershirts, popping all their collars up, and then throwing a jacket over it. The belief was that the more shirts you wore, the more intelligent you appeared. Apparently, nothing said ‘clever’ like eight layers of clothing in the heat of summer.
The record for shirt layers seems to be held by a boy who wore seven shirts at once. To top it off, he paired his look with sneakers that had no laces.
1. Wearing A Lightning Rod On Your Head
When Benjamin Franklin attached a key to a kite and flew it during a lightning storm, he did more than advance science—he sparked a fashion revolution.
It seems women in Paris were concerned about the risk of being struck by lightning whenever they stepped outside. They took Franklin’s concept and created a new trend: lightning hats.
The fashionable elite went outdoors wearing metal rods affixed to their heads, with the rods extending to the ground. The truly stylish also carried umbrellas that were designed to channel electric currents safely into the ground.
There’s no evidence that any of these women were struck by lightning, so it’s unclear whether the hats actually worked. However, they were mainly marketed to the wealthy and the most fashion-forward individuals. So, even if the hats weren’t effective, the key takeaway was that these women looked fabulous wearing them.
