Today we’ve got every kind of beauty and bath product imaginable. Scrubs, shower gels, shampoo, conditioners, lotions, potions, and serums fill the bathrooms of many people. But, in the old days even though women were expected to be quite ladylike, their beauty routines were in some ways were much simpler. Check out some of these beauty and hygiene tips from the 1940s.
A cold cream was used to take off makeup. After washing the face in the shower a woman might choose to use a simple face lotion, though not every women was sold on moisturizers. Bathing was done frequently, but many women only washed their hair once or twice a week. The all important bathing cap was used not only in the shower, but also when swimming, so that the hair didn’t get wet.
Between washes the hair was often set into a wave pattern using rags, pin curls, or curlers. A lot of women then re-curled their hair each night and wrapped their heads in scarves so that every morning they would have that same curl pattern.
When hair was washed, many people grew up with the wisdom that if your hair squeaked when pulled then it was finally clean. And conditioner wasn’t even standard part of the shower yet. We know today that squeaky hair with no aftercare following shampoo is probably very dry hair, but back then squeaky clean really was the standard!
See more about how ladies were expected to maintain their beauty in the video below from 1948.
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