Beach Bathing

I had posted before about Victorian and Edwardian ocean bathing as a health practice, and about saltwater as a hair tonic. I lately got to experience firsthand ocean bathing on a visit to Hermosa Beach, California.

I can attest that bathing in an actual ocean is much more "refreshing and invigorating" than any bathtub of kelpy sea salt. (Though trying to keep the waves from sucking off my very modern bikini swimsuit might have been part of what was keeping me on my toes...) The effect on my hair was pretty much identical to the hair tonic experiment, however -- though this time there was less salt on my comb and more on the brush for some reason.

My sister was with me at the beach and tells me some middle aged man who was staring at me in the water made a remark about, "She's going to have to brush her hair for a long time." I left my hair loose in the water, and actually didn't find my long hair much more tangled than it normally is after just waking up in the morning. It again was slightly lightened and given a coarser texture by the salt buildup.

I had seaweed and some other oceanic debris in my hair and on my skin when I emerged from the sea, but, I think it came off me mostly on its own once I was dried out. I've been told that sea water is a great cure for acne -- a problem from which I badly suffer. Back in the days when I was attempting home remedies I recall that applying poultices of salt water to my face overnight was absolutely the only thing that seemed to help the trouble at all. I don't imagine I'll get much acne-fighting benefits of this adventure, since I wasn't submerged all that long AND I had a coat of spray-on-sunscreen over my face already anyway.

I did feel a little weird being out in the sun without any hat. In the 19th century a swimsuit ensemble originally included a swimming bonnet for sun protection, and I could go for that.

I was actually hoping to gain a little bit of tan on my legs during this adventure since they so badly match my arms, nowadays -- but if I did make any gains in that area, my arms much have grown darker too in turn so that it's not much noticeable. I will definitely be checking out a few homemade skin whitening recipes in the near future to try to unify my skin tone again.

1860s style swimwear, with hats.

1900s style swimwear, hatless.