How Would You Care for Your Hair in the Renaissance?

Join me, Dr. Julia Martins, as we step back in time to explore the art of hair care during the Renaissance. Ever wondered how you’d manage your locks in an era before shampoo? In this video, I unveil the secrets behind the alluring hair of the Renaissance, sharing insights from historical recipes to the beauty norms and cultural importance of hair care in places like Florence and Venice. We’ll look at the intriguing ingredients used in hair care recipes, from natural dyes to the more surprising elements like dove droppings, and discuss how these concoctions reflect the period’s scientific understanding and societal expectations. I’ll also touch on the significance of hair in expressing one’s social status and identity, from the luxurious locks of the nobility to the simple styles of the common folk. This video is for anyone passionate about the intersection of history and beauty, offering a closer look at how grooming practices reveal broader societal trends and personal expressions of beauty throughout time. Subscribe and join our community of history fans for more content that bridges the past with the present. Chapters 00:00 - Intro 02:43 - Renaissance Beauty Ideals 07:56 - Hygiene and Medicine 12:46 - Fashion and Courtly Life 18:23 - Hair and Sexuality 23:32 - Cultural Hair Codes 28:59 - Hair Care Recipes 35:34 - Final Thoughts 39:03 - Bonus Scene Primary Sources: Aristotle, Historia Animalium (1965). Galen of Pergamum, ’The Best Doctor is Also a Philosopher’, in Galen: Selected Works, P. N. Singer (1997). Isabella Cortese, I Secreti (1565). Castore Durante, Il tesoro della sanità (1586). Di Levino Lennio, Della complessione del corpo humano (1564) Giovanni Marinello, Gli Ornamenti delle donne (1562). Giuseppe Rosaccio, Avvertimenti a tutti quelli che desiderano regolatamente vivere (1594). Giovanventura Rosetti, Secreti nobilissimi dell’arte profumatoria (1673). Arnaldus de Villanova, Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum (ca. 1500). Apparato della Fonderia dell’Illustrissimo et eccellentissimo Signor Don Antonio Medici (BNCF, Magl. cl. XVI, n. 63, vol. IV, 1604). Ricettario 2680 (Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, ca. 1622). Further Reading: Jill Burke, How to be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity (2023). Sandra Cavallo and Tessa Storey, Healthy Living in Late Renaissance Italy (2013). Richard Corson, Fashions in Hair: The First Five Thousand Years (1965). Stephen Dobranski, ’Clustering and Curling Locks: The Matter of Hair in Paradise Lost’, PMLA 125(2), 2010, pp. 337-53. Sarah Jane Downing, Beauty and Cosmetics (1550-1950) (2012). Valentina Fornaciai, ’Toilette’, Perfumes and Make-Up at the Medici Court (2007). Giovanna Hedesan, ’Alchemy and Paracelsianism at the Casino di San Marco in Florence: An Examination of La fonderia dell’ et Signor Don Antonio de’ Medici (1604)’, Nuncius 37 (2022), pp. 119-143. Farah Karim-Cooper, Cosmetics in Shakespearean and Renaissance Drama (2006). Julia Martins, ‘Follow what I say’: Isabella Cortese and Early Modern Female Alchemists (2022). Meredith Ray, Daughters of Alchemy: Women and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (2015). Edith Snook, A Cultural History of Hair in the Renaissance (2021). Evelyn Welch, ’Art of the Edge: Hair and Hands in Renaissance Italy’, Renaissance Studies 23(3), 2008, pp. 241-68. _______, ’Signs of Faith: The Political and Social Identity of Hair in Renaissance Italy’, in La fiducia secondo i linguaggi del potere, ed. by P. Prodi (2008), pp. 371-86. Intro Music: Folk Round by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Source: Artist: