20 Bizarre Medieval Beauty Practices That Prove Just How Dark The Middle Ages Really Were

Would you coat yourself in pig’s fat to look your best? Or how about swap shampoo for onion juice? If you thought modern society’s beauty standards pushed people to extreme lengths, think again. The Middle Ages took things to a whole new level. Prepare yourself, because some of these Medieval self-care trends are downright disgusting.

Painful hair pinning

Medieval women were apparently encouraged to have plain and empty faces. And they had one very strange method for achieving this look. Basically, ladies in the Middle Ages would pin their hair back as far as it could go. But if that didn’t do the trick, there was an even more painful alternative...

Forehead plucking

Sometimes, simply pinning back one’s hair didn’t create the desired effect. If a woman didn’t have a naturally large forehead, then some more drastic measures might have been taken. She’d attack her own forehead with some tweezers to pluck out any hairs that sprouted out of line. Ouch!

Bye-bye eyebrows

A plucked forehead might make the face seem bigger, but why stop there? In the 15th century, women were known to actually remove their eyebrows. Yikes! Apparently, they believed — or society led them to believe — that an eyebrow-free face gave off an air of purity.

Ratty brows

But if a woman regretted her decision to remove her eyebrows, she needn’t worry. Instead of having to wait for them to grow back, she could simply apply a pair of false brows. All she needed to do was get hold of some mouse or rat fur and stick it to her face. Simple!