Ancient Egypt: Personal Hygiene and Cosmetics: Cosmetics - Perfumes - Washing - Laundry - Hair and Wigs - Preservation of youthful looks
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Toiletry casket IV dynasty (After a picture on the Tulane University site) |
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Personal Hygiene and CosmeticsCosmeticsUse
Egyptians used cosmetics regardless of sex and social status for both aesthetic and therapeutic reasons. Oils and unguents were rubbed into the skin to protect it from the hot air. Most frequently used were white make-up,
black make-up made with carbon or manganese oxides and green make-up from malachite and other copper based minerals. Red ochre was ground and mixed with water, and applied to the lips and cheeks, painted on with a brush. Henna was used to dye the fingernails yellow and orange.
Make-up Most people will have applied the make-up themselves, but for those who could afford it, there was the professional cosmetician, the zXA.yt, the face painter. Even after death one had to take care of one's looks. When presenting oneself before the gods during the Judgment of the Dead one had best observe certain rules of dress and make-up in order to make the right impression: A man says this speech when he is pure, clean, dressed in fresh clothes, shod in white sandals, painted with eye-paint, anointed with the finest oil of myrrh.Because of their importance in the afterworld cosmetics were among the offerings left in tombs. Seshat-Hetep, called Heti, lists among the offerings in his mastaba at Giza: Incense, green make-up, black eye-paint, the best of ointment ... The production of cosmeticsOil was the base of most cosmetic products. The finest oil was pressed from the fruit of Balanites Aegyptiaca. Behen, oil from Moringa nuts, and a kind of almond nut oil were also used [6]. These oils were mixed with organic and inorganic substances finely ground up [15], serving as pigments. At times the quality of these ingredients left much to be desired which might lead the makers of cosmetics to rebuke their suppliers:The King's order addressed to the High Priest of Amen, king of gods, Ramses-nakht.One surmises that the High Priest had the 100 deben of galena requested farther on in this letter checked more closely before despatching them. 
Kohl [16] is the eye paint of choice in eastern countries. In ancient Egypt it was made by grinding green malachite, galena - a gray lead ore, cerussite, a white carbonate of lead, and sometimes small amounts of the lead compounds laurionite and phosgenite, into a powder and mixing it with oil or fat. Black eye-paint was referred to as msdm.t, while the green variety was called wAD.w.According to ancient records eye paint was also imported: an unidentified eye-cosmetic was brought from Punt by Hatshepsut's expedition together with, among other things, ihmut-incense, sonter-incense, apes and monkeys, and Thutmose III gathered an unspecified amount of it as booty from his campaign in Naharin. Philippe Walter and researchers from the Laboratoire de recherche des musées de France and L’Oréal-Recherche found, when analysing the contents of 49 containers from the Louvre Museum, that the cosmetics contained, in addition to commonly used lead-based minerals , synthetic compounds derived from a process called wet chemistry: Crushed lead oxide was mixed with water and sodium chloride (rock salt), then filtered repeatedly, a procedure which may have taken weeks to complete. The resulting lead chloride was used as an ingredient for eye make-up. By adding fats and oils to dry powders a wide range of unguents could be concocted. Containers
Cosmetics jars
Cosmetics containers have been depicted since the first dynasty and are among the earliest archaeological finds. At Saqqara fragments of a salve chest with thirty compartments for unguents and oil jars were uncovered. The jars were first made of granite and basalt, later of alabaster and had a pronounced lip. They were covered with a piece of leather which was tied around the neck of the jar underneath the lip. Other materials were also used, such as ivory:
Source: University of Illinois website) I have ordered you to make this excellent galena eye-paint in the ivory (vessel), about which Pharaoh, l.h.p., my lord, has said: "Let it be brought again and again!" |
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Perfume flasks
(Source: Tulane University web site) |
Perfumes
Egyptian perfumes [12] were famous throughout the Mediterranean. Pliny described a perfume which still had its full fragrance after eight years.
Perfumes were mostly based on plants: the roots, blossoms or leaves of henna, cinnamon, turpentine, iris, lilies, roses, bitter almonds etc. were soaked in oil and sometimes cooked. The essence was extracted by squeezing, and oil was added to produce liquid perfumes, while creams and salves were the result of adding wax or fat. Many perfumes had more than a dozen ingredients. During the New Kingdom people were depicted carrying little cones in their hair, which are generally interpreted as having been made of solid perfume. But examinations of wigs and hair have shown little evidence of fatty residue. O all people, remember getting drunk on wine, With wreaths and perfume on your heads!Like the lotus flowers hovering over the heads of revellers they may be symbols of good cheer rather than representations of actual greasy cones balanced precariously on heads not altogether too stable after their owners had downed a few drinks. Pleasant smells were associated with the gods. Amen and Queen Ahmose, wife of Thutmose I, seem to have had a special relationship according to inscriptions describing the conception and birth of Hatshepsut He (i.e. Amen-Re) found her as she slept in the beauty of her palace. She waked at the fragrance of the god, which she smelled in the presence of his majesty. He went to her immediately, coivit cum ea (slept with her), he imposed his desire upon her, he caused that she should see him in his form of a god. When he came before her, she rejoiced at the sight of his beauty, his love passed into her limbs, which the fragrance of the god flooded; all his odors were from Punt.That the god's odours were from Punt is hardly surprising as the best incense ingredients were imported from there. Frankincense, myrrh, fragrant woods etc. were all brought from East Africa and Arabia [7] and accordingly expensive. Only the very rich could afford to use them, if they were not reserved for the exclusive use of the gods. Wearers of my fine linen looked at me as if they were needy,Perfumes and creams were generally kept in stone or glass vessels. As the Roman Pliny the Elder remarked in his Natural History Unguents keep best in boxes of alabaster, and perfumes when mixed with oil, which conduces all the more to their durability the thicker it is, such as the oil of almonds, for instance.
WashingFor soap Egyptians used swabu (derived from (s)wab meaning to clean), a paste containing ash or clay, which was often scented, and could be worked into a lather. The Ebers Medical Papyrus, dating from about 1500 BCE, describes mixing animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts. The soap-like material was used for treating skin diseases, as well as for washing.
Early dynastic footbath At Tebtunis public bathhouses have been excavated, the oldest dating to the third century BCE. They had showers, stone basins and a stove to heat the bath water.[3] While a few bathrooms and tubs have been discovered most Egyptians seem to have been content with cleaning themselves by aspersion or by a dip in a canal or the river. They had wash basins and probably filled them with a natron and salt solution from jugs with spouts and used sand as a scouring agent. They washed after rising and both before and after the main meals, but one may assume that their ablutions were mostly perfunctory. As mouth wash they used another solution called bed (bd: natron). If washing did not help to get rid of body odour one might seek the advice of a physician who had a number of recipes at his disposal: Drive the odour of sweat from the body of a person in summer LaundryHerodotus wroteThey are very careful to wear newly-washed linen all the time. They circumcise their children for the sake of cleanliness, they would rather be clean than better looking.The importance upper-class Egyptians attached to cleanliness is reflected by the fact that the royal supervisor over the laundry was a prominent personality at court. But in many ancient societies the act of washing clothes was considered to be demeaning. An Egyptian scribe who described the various trades in his Satire of the Trades in a most unfavourable light, thought so as well and displayed his scorn for the trade of the washerman in the following passage: His food is mixed with dirt, |
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Comb, hairpin and wig piece (Source: Rosicrucian Order website) |
Hair and Wigs
Rahotep, excerpt May my mother be my hairdresser, so as to do for me what is pleasantThe men were generally clean shaven. Rahotep (picture on the left), a 3rd dynasty official, sporting a small moustache, was rather an exception, though moustaches were not as rare during the Old Kingdom as they were to become later on. During the Middle and New Kingdoms the shaving was done with copper and bronze razors, metals not renowned for keeping a sharp edge, and must have been somewhat of an ordeal. Only during the Late Dynastic came iron razors into use. Rich women used elaborately carved combs, hairpins, razors and hand held metal mirrors and curled their hair. 
Barber shaving the head of a soldier The barber barbers till nightfall. He betakes himself to town, he sets himself up in his corner, he moves from street to street, looking for someone to barber. The beards worn by the pharaohs including Queen Hatshepsut, were artificial and indicative of their status as kings. |
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Royal child with side lock Teen-age girls and young women [8] wore their hair long enough to be able to braid it: My heart thought of my love of you,
Braided hair of Anhapu, New Kingdom. Upright neck, shining breast,There were periods when the hair was worn shoulder-long or even longer by both men and women. But at times, adults, men and women, had their heads shaven, priests seemingly most of the time. The reason generally given for this by historians following Herodotus, is the prevention of head lice: The priests shave themselves all over their body every other day, so that no lice or any other foul thing may come to be upon them when they minister to the gods. 
For body depilation a mixtures of crushed bird bones, oil, sycamore juice, and gum, or like concoctions were heated and applied to the skin [9]. After cooling the hardened layer was then presumably pulled off, removing the hair. They also used tweezers, tj'ait-iret, to pull out unwanted hair [1].
Wig 
perfumed and their style and length were subject to the changing fashions, men occasionally wearing very long and women short cropped hair [5].
Hair pieces were also worn at times to hide deficiencies, even in death.
Mummy of New Kingdom female (possible queen Nefertari). | ||
Preservation of youthful looksGiven the fact that most ancient Egyptians were dead by the age of forty, one may well ask oneself what they were worried about. But life was full of risks. Accidents happened and scars often did not heal very well. Burn marks were thus hidden by an ointment made of red ochre, kohl and sycamore juice. Honey, an antibacterial, was often applied to the skin [1][10]. The oil extracted from fenugreek (Greek hay) seeds was used to improve the skin's condition [6].Wrinkling of the skin, an effect of excessive exposure to the sun and not just of old age, was treated by applying a wax-based remedy containing gum of frankincense, moringa oil, ground Cyprus grass and fermented plant juice.[1] Grey hair was hidden by the application of henna since the middle of the 4th millennium BCE at least. Sometimes it was tinted with an ointment containing the astringent juniper-berries and two other, unidentified plants which supplied the colouring agent. But magic was also tried: blood of a black ox, the ground black horn of a gazelle or putrid donkey's liver were hoped to prevent greying [11]. One should think that in a society were people often had clean shaved heads baldness would not be much of a problem, but it seems some disliked losing their hair and combatted it by applying oils and fats or placing chopped lettuce leaves on their skin. Remedy for making hair grow MenstruationMenstruation was seen as a time of cleansing. Men seem to have avoided intimate contact with women who were menstruating and were considered unclean during their period. Women used folded strips of linen as sanitary towels, which were washed and reused.[2]
[3] Egypt Revealed: Life on the Edge of the Desert, accessed at http://www.egyptrevealed.com/fieldreports/041900-field-lifeonedge-3.shtml [5] Egypt Revealed: Ancient Egyptians Wore Wigs, accessed at htp://www.egyptrevealed.com/052900-wigs.shtml [7] Attempts were made to grow incense trees in Egypt under various kings like Hatshepsut and Ramses III I planted incense and myrrh sycamores in thy great and august court in Ineb-Sebek, being those which my hands brought from the country of God's Land...[8] In the tale of The Two Brothers, Anpu and Bata, the younger brother returned home to fetch seed grain: His young brother found the wife of his elder brother seated braiding her hair.[9] Papyrus Ebers (No.447) and the Hearst Papyrus have a few such recipes: Remedy for removing hairs from any body parts[10] The Hearst Papyrus proposes: Renewing the skin[11] The Hearst papyrus has three recipes for preventing greying, two of which would have appealed only to the desperate vain: Remedy for preventing the greying of the hair[13] Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website => aaew => Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Briefe => Briefe des Neuen Reiches => Verwaltung/Alltag => Briefe aus Theben => pCairo ESP: Document B [14] deben: about 90 grammes 
[15] During the pre-dynastic and early dynastic period stone slabs were used for this purpose, often beautifully shaped.
Cosmetic palette, Naqada II (3200BCE-3500BCE) [17] Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae website => aaew => Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Briefe => Briefe des Neuen Reiches => Verwaltung/Alltag => Briefe aus Theben => pCairo ESP: Document E | ||
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 | [12] Scents - incense and perfume | |
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| Index of Topics | |
| Main Index and Search Page | |
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| Offsite links | (Opening a new window) | |
| These are just suggestions for further reading. I do not assume any responsibility for the availability or content of these websites | ||
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 | [1] Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt | |
| [2] Menstruation, Menstrual Hygiene and Woman's Health in Ancient Egypt | |
| [6] Beauty secrets of ancient Egypt | |
| Ancient Egyptian Hairstyles | |
 | Wig of human hair , 18th dynasty (British Museum) | |
 | Mudstone cosmetic palette, Predynastic Period (British Museum) | |
 | Glass kohl tube in the form of a palm column, 18th dynasty (British Museum) | |
 | Wooden cosmetic pot of Ahmose of Peniati , 18th dynasty (British Museum) | |
 | Black steatite statuette of a girl holding a kohl pot , 12th dynasty (British Museum) | |
| Shell cosmetic container , 7th century BCE (British Museum) | |
| Cosméticos by Xavier Sierra Valentí (If you do not understand Spanish use Babelfish to translate (most of) the page into "English") | |
| Crystals give clues to ancient cosmetics by Katie Pennicott | |
| Combs (Brian Yare's website) | |
| Cosmetic Recipes and Make-up Manufacturing in Ancient Egypt | |
| Feedback: Please report broken links, mistakes - factual or otherwise, etc. to me. Thanks. | ||
I came at a run to find you,