10 incredible historical examples of how our ancestors were killing themselves in the name of fashion

People, especially the fairer sex, has always sought to follow the fashion. Sometimes the desire to be in the trend extends beyond the boundaries of common sense. Lipstick containing lead, shoes impossible high heels harmful creams. But all this is minor compared with what the dangers were the health of our grandparents who wanted to look fashionable.

Depilation using radiation.

1. Bleed and whitening

Alabaster skin was considered a sign of beauty during the Elizabethan era. Also pale, as they are considered to be a symbol of wealth, because only rich women should not have to work in the sun. That is why many women are trying to whiten their skin, rubbing it in a deadly mixture of lead and vinegar. Others used for this purpose chalk, and some have even experimented with human and animal urine.

Women are often applied to the face of such a thick layer of white powder, which could not even smile to their "mask" is not cracked. And those who are afraid or do not want to use bleach, resorted to the help of leeches to drain the blood and thus achieve pallor.

alabaster skin - fashion trend of the times of Elizabeth I. The

2. The crinoline

Crinoline (also called an adaptation hoops or pannier) - internal skirt with broad scope of the baleen cane or steel. Half a century ago, these skirts were very popular among women. There was even such a thing as "krioliomaniya". Women who wore a 2-meter wide crinolines, often could not even get in the door at home or crew.

Besides the obvious inconvenience, crinoline also a danger for the owner of the fact that flammable materials, silk, cotton, and can easily ignite. case of fire resulting in death have been reported. Also huge skirts women sometimes delayed under the wheels. The crinoline - a dangerous outfit from the past.

3. Poisonous polished shoe

Nitrobenzene - a toxic chemical used in the manufacture of shoe polish. Unfortunately, nitrobenzene may enter the human body and cause convulsions, coma or even death. I wonder what our ancestors knew about the dangers associated with nitrobenzene, but continued to use it.

The fact is that when the Polish producers have made non-toxic analog of nitrobenzene, it did not buy. The reason for that was simple - people are accustomed to a specific smell of shoe polish and a felt novelty fake.

Poisonous shoes.

4. depilation using radiation

Before people learned about radiation, our grandmothers used electrolysis, which has been slow, ineffective, painful, expensive, but safer method of hair removal from the face. The radiation was the exact opposite: it was fast, efficient, painless, inexpensive, and deadly. Some women who have initiated such a procedure, said about the side effects, such as the appearance of wrinkles, skin cracking and cancers.

A few years later, the woman began to plead with Albert Geyser (the inventor of the radioactive device for hair removal "Tricho System") due to side effects. Radiation was fatal beauty products for women in 1940 (20 years after the procedures taken by them), when many of them developed cancer and subsequently died.

Depilation using radiation.

5. Chopin

Chopin - weird shoes worn in the 16th century in the Italian Venice. These shoes on a very high platform (15-70 cm) had to show their wealth and noble birth. Women's shoes were so abnormally high that it is often needed help to owners of the maids, on which they have relied on walking. Chopin later were banned and declared illegal in Venice, when women began to happen after the fall of miscarriage with this shoe. Chopin - weird shoes.

6. Arsenic dresses

During the Victorian era, Karl Wilhelm Scheele devised a green dye that is without the slightest modesty called "green Scheele." This paint has become a hit among fashionistas. Until its invention only green color was obtained by mixing blue and yellow colors.

Scheele also used a mixture of copper and arsenic, which was poisonous and deadly as arsenic can penetrate the skin of a person wearing colored clothes for them. Dye got on the mucous membrane of the human and an irritant. "Green Scheele" used not only in clothing, they painted the walls of rooms, putting people at risk of death in the house.

Arsenic dresses.

7. Simulation TB

In the 19th and 20th centuries, when people knew little about the importance of sanitation, the world rolled several epidemics of tuberculosis. In 1915, one in four people in Britain die from TB. In 1918, in France from the same disease he died out of every six. The symptoms of TB are fever, excessive weight loss, bloody cough, and eventually - death. It is interesting that a couple of centuries ago, it was fashionable to be ill with tuberculosis.

Women admired victims of tuberculosis because of their fragility, pale skin, bright eyes and red cheeks, which was fashionable in those days. They also believed that death from tuberculosis interesting and romantic as the infected person died slowly. Even Lord Byron succumbed to this hobby, claiming that he would die from tuberculosis to women admired him. Healthy people do everything possible, including, ate poisonous arsenic that their skin has found a fashionable pallor, like tuberculosis victims. The aristocratic pallor.

8. Caries

Caries was quite common in the days of our great-grandparents, who believed that his cause worms in his mouth. It was not until 1890, when Willoughby D. Miller found that tooth decay is actually caused by bacteria. Tearing decayed tooth was previously very painful process. When in Europe appeared sugar, cases of tooth decay among wealthy people (who could afford sugar) have increased tenfold. Tooth decay suffered even Queen Elizabeth I, which removed most decayed teeth. She was forced to walk in public with a rag in his mouth to his cheeks were not too hollow due to the absence of teeth.

The rag in the mouth as an anti-caries.

9. Fontanges

High ladies hair Fontanges, consisting of a combination of starch and curls tattoos, first appeared in the 1680s. One of the favorites of French King Louis XIV (Angelique de Fontanges-Russil) during hunting accident ruffled his hair, and so they do not interfere with her to hunt, tie them with a piece of lace. King Louis XIV was so pleased with this hairstyle, he asked Angelica to wear it.

Initially Fontanges were low, but over time, the women began to complicate the hair and make it higher (up to 50-60 cm). Of course, to maintain the hair in an upright position was not easy, so the ladies began to spread egg white head that their hair has become a more stringent as possible. This led to the fact that the hair begins to exude a stench that had poured the whole bottle of perfume. Some hairstyles added to the flour and the starch, leading to the appearance of lice. Women have also been forced to sleep sitting up because to go from half a meter above the mop head seemed impossible. Fontanges - combination locks and starch tattoos.

10. Celluloid combs

Celluloid combs hair used by women of the lower class in the 1870 - 1920 years. These scallops were advertised as made from "enhanced tortoise shell", but in fact were made of plastic. Celluloid combs hair was light, cheap and ... dangerous. The fact that the cellulose plastics are often melted in human hair exposed to sunlight and could ignite near flame.