The Weirdest Beauty Rituals Throughout History

Crocodile dung baths
Many different animal products and byproducts have been claimed to work wonders on the skin, but this one might be the weirdest beauty ritual — and the grossest. In ancient times, the Greeks and Romans used a special ingredient in their body-toning mud baths: crocodile excrement. Full-body bathtubs were filled with a mixture of earth and freshly harvested crocodile feces, which was also used to make anti-aging face masks.

Bloodletting
Aristocratic women in the 6th century who wanted to attain the extreme pallor that drove all the boys wild would subject themselves to controlled bleeding. This would drain the natural color out of their bodies one drop at a time. Needless to say, this beauty treatment didn’t do wonders for their life expectancy — but the quest for pale skin continued on into the Age of Enlightenment.

You could even say there are some vestiges of it in modern skincare regimens like cupping and microneedling (which is a blood drawing practice that’s said to stimulate the production of collagen).

“The procedure wasn’t very painful for me (I’d say a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most painful), but it’s different for everyone,” Katie Bingham-Smith wrote about her microneedling experience for Mom.com. “About a week after my fourth treatment, I couldn’t believe the transformation. All the tiny, fine lines around my eyes were gone. I have a lot of red in my complexion and it’s completely gone, even now.”

White lead facials
By the time Elizabeth I sat on the English throne, her subjects associated color in the skin with those who engaged in back-breaking labor outdoors. The whiter your skin, the richer you could appear. Since human beings naturally have a bit of color, the beauty treatment back then was to apply a powder made of white lead, calcium carbonate, and hydroxide to every inch of exposed flesh. That powder introduced toxins over time that caused various side effects, including skin inflammation and baldness.

Urine mouthwash
Teeth are a vital part of your overall beauty, but before the invention of modern dental technology, it was tricky to keep them clean and bright. The ancient Romans believed that they had the solution — urine. The ammonia in urine is actually good for disinfection, and it continued to be used as an active ingredient in mouthwash until at least the 18th century.

Tapeworm diet
Beauty starts from the inside out, and maintaining a trim and slim figure was particularly prized in England during the 1800s. One particularly disgusting beauty regimen that gained some traction was the “tapeworm diet,” where people looking to shed pounds would swallow pills containing sanitized tapeworm larvae, which would take up residence in your stomach. The worms would divert your excess calories to their own bodies and grow larger and larger until you had them removed (a very unpleasant process). Thankfully, this particular diet fell out of fashion pretty quickly.

Dimple machines
High-tech inventions to improve your appearance have been around forever, but one of the weirdest is Isabelle Gilbert’s dimple machine. Hitting the market in 1936, the machine consisted of spring-loaded knobs that pushed into the cheeks. Unfortunately for the inventor, the dimple fad didn’t last too long, and wearing the contraption was incredibly uncomfortable.

Fire treatment
A trend sweeping China is huǒ liáo, which translates as “fire treatment.” A towel soaked with alcohol and medicinal herbs is placed on the face or other body parts that need toning and tightening, and then lit on fire for several seconds. Allegedly, this invigorates the skin and helps reduce sagging and wrinkles. It’s relatively safe — the flame doesn’t burn for long enough to cause serious damage — but we're guessing it's not good for you by any means.

Black lacquered teeth
Whiter teeth might be popular now, but it was quite the opposite for those in Japan, from its Kofun period (300-710 CE) into the Meiji era (which ended in 1912). Women who were married used a lacquer dye on the faces of all of their teeth, staining them a deep, brilliant black (single women had white teeth). First, the rind of a pomegranate was rubbed against the teeth to prime the enamel, then the dye — made from iron filings and the gallnuts of the Japanese sumac tree — was applied. It was a foul, time-consuming process that had to be repeated every three days or so.

Wig lard
Big hair has been a symbol of beauty throughout the ages, but most ladies in the Middle Ages didn’t get the kind of nutrition necessary to really grow and style luxurious locks. So they faked it with wigs. However, these giant hairpieces weren’t all too sanitary. Victorian wigs were constructed out of wooden frames that hair was draped over and then glued on with pastes of bear grease and beef lard. That tasty mixture was irresistible to rats, which would often nest inside the hairpieces while they were not worn, until “wig cages” were invented to keep them safe while the wearer was sleeping.

Foot binding
One of the most bizarre and horrifying beauty rituals in world history is the Chinese custom of foot binding. First seen among court dancers in the 10th century, it quickly spread throughout the populace and lasted well into the 1900s. The practice began when a girl was between 4 and 7 years of age. All of her toes (with the exception of her big toes) were broken, and her feet were wrapped with binding cloth to prevent them from growing to normal size. This was typically done to a family’s eldest daughter to improve her chances of marriage, as normal-size feet symbolized the ability to work.

New beauty trends are being rolled out every day. Will these stand the test of time, or will we look back on them as just weird beauty rituals of the past?

Cosmetic tattoos
Beauty treatments like permanent eyeliner, microblading, and powder effects all come under the banner of cosmetic tattooing, says makeup expert Carla Riccadone, co-founder of Sculpted Studios in New York City.

“Permanent makeup is also known as cosmetic tattooing. It is a tattoo treatment that artists use to create subtle and natural enhancements to your facial features, or for the bold seekers, it can mimic the bolder makeup looks. The most commonly treated areas are lips, brows, and eyes,” Riccadone explained to Mom.com.

Riccadone advises those considering one of these beauty treatments to do their homework. “It is imperative to research and see the healed work of the artist you choose; video is best. Even though your color will soften over time, it is permanent, just like a tattoo, and anyone who may tell you differently doesn’t have the proper experience to know better,” she cautioned.

Freezing facial
According to Vogue magazine, “the best way to brighter, tighter skin” is a cryotherapy facial: a dermatologist's office or skin spa procedure where a client’s face is exposed to extremely cold vaporized nitrogen (as cold -200℉ to -300℉) for two to three minutes.

“Cryotherapy has been used in some form for millennia to improve health and wellness. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used cold water immersion for pain relief and the treatment of various medical conditions,” Alina Mehrle, creator of Ameon, a line of home cryotherapy products, told Mom.com.