Member-only story
5 Weirdest Beauty Trends from History
From foot-breaking to plucking every eyelash, the bizarre trends you wouldn’t use today
World’s beauty standards keep changing, making it impossible to adjust accordingly.
The beauty standards altered throughout history, shifting to the extent that they became more horrifying. Let’s dig into the list:
1. Japanese women and their obsession with black teeth
Today any same person would not leave brushing. But back then, Japanese women intentionally foretold the idea. They would blacken their teeth permanently after marriage. Why?
It’s because, for them, it symbolized marital commitment as well as beauty. Well, what’s even weirder is that such beauty practice continued till the 19th century.
2. Forcing incredibly small feet
Chinese practiced the horrific act of making the foot aesthetically appealing. Footing binding was the infamous body modification where 13th-century girls would undergo this practice. When a girl was five years old, she would get bandaged tightly.
The intensity of tightness was so great that it would eventually cause the bones in her foot to break and toes to bend. One had to keep that bandage on her feet while growing up, so the sexual appeal of her tiny feet remained in place.
3. Plucking every eyelash
Today we have eyelash procedures to ensure they appear longer and darker, but European women of the middle ages intentionally plucked them back then.
Having eyelashes in the Renaissance symbolized over-sexuality. So women would undergo painful practices for…
