The old-time texts of the Edwardian era usually advise washing hair once a week. Some take this even further: they say that, in fact, hair should never be washed more than once a week.
The natural oil of the hair and scalp doesn't seem to have been considered a dirt like it is nowadays. In fact, it was considered healthy and beneficial. Books of the era advised to keep the hair combed and brushed to distribute the sheen, and that one should avoid adding other pomades and greases to any but the driest of hair.
I decided to brave this tactic and put it to test. Usually I'm a person who shampoos and conditions every day or every other day. A week without washing my hair would be a bit of a task. I made sure to arm myself with period-correct styling tools: a natural boar-bristle brush (stiff, like the texts direct -- so it will "stimulate the scalp") and a wooden comb.
It is notable that the wooden comb does a fair job of keeping the hair clean on its own. Something about its texture makes it very good at picking up any lint, dust or other things that have gotten into the hair. Maybe for this reason, Mme. Qui-Vive had made it a point to say that all combs and brushes should be always kept "scrupulously clean." I made sure to give my hairbrush a wash and comb-through as well.
I shampooed my hair on Saturday. By Monday my hip-length hair was looking typically oily, at least down to about the shoulders. A whitish film -- I assume the oil and dead skin from my scalp -- was beginning to collect on the wooden comb when I'd run it through. By Thursday, my hair looked as if I had intentionally greased it up with styling pomade, and dandruff was becoming a bit of a problem: nevertheless, at the store that day the clerk (whom I had never seen before) complimented me on how I looked so "Victorian" in the way I'd done my hair. The greasiness was, admittedly, giving the hair a bit of body and hold, very much like a styling pomade would. It was interesting to see that only the upper part of my hair around my scalp was getting oily: everything from the shoulders down stayed pretty dry. On Thursday night I decided to follow some in-period advice and brush a little bit of castor oil into the ends, to help keep them moisturized (usually my hair would be conditioned frequently to keep the ends nourished and strong.) This now allowed my hair to be uniformly greasy.
By Friday the dandruff seemed to have cleared up, for no apparent reason. Hair still looked very slick and well-greased. Brushing hair was becoming a high point of the day -- the 'stimulation' of the brush made my scalp feel just a bit less oily and nasty.
Interestingly, on Saturday, prior to any washing, that disgusting feeling had mostly gone away. My hair was still undeniably oiled looking, but it was very shiny, and the oil seemed to be leveling out some, so that the strands weren't inclining to clump together so much. In fact, Saturday's hair probably looked better than Monday's.
Some months prior I'd actually done another Edwardian hair experiment, washing my hair according to the recommended historical mode and then applying a period-correct concoction of castor oil and alcohol as a sort of conditioner. It too had left my hair greasy but shiny. At left is my "shampooed and conditioned" Edwardian look: right is my "natural" Edwardian look. Note that while in both pictures the hair just looks nice and shiny, I don't think in real-life view you'd perceive the hair, in either case, as not being a bit greasy looking: the sheen is definitely that of oil, not of healthy, clean hair.
Much like today where that which is "artificial" is frowned upon, the Edwardians would have considered the naturally oily hair to be the healthy and correct version of beauty, whereas they'd have had some kind of excuse for why the applied oil was unhealthy for its being "unnatural." Nowadays we tend to feel somewhat opposite to this; oil secreted from the body is perceived to be more unhealthy than applied botanical oils. As my experiment shows, in any case, the better part of a week's nastiness can be avoided but a similar result obtained, with the artificial application of oil.
The recipe for my applied hair oil -- called Brazilian Amber Gloss -- is as follows:
1 part castor oil
7 parts 80 proof alcohol
Essential oil perfume may be added as desired: the original recipe used a perfume made from 1 part each thyme and clove oil to 2 parts geranium oil. To use, apply the final mixture with a brush to freshly washed and dried hair. Keeping the hair very well combed and brushed is the key to making this "well-oiled" look work in one's favor.
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