Beauty salons and beauty procedures have changed quite a lot throughout the years. I’d like to think they changed for the better. They’re more effective, more relaxing and less painful these days. It wasn’t always like this. Beauty procedures and beauty salons in the past, specifically throughout 1920’s, 1930’s and even 1940’s, looked quite different to the ones we have now. I mean, we still look a bit silly with a facemask on, and there’s no denying that we look quite ridiculous while bleaching our hair or waiting for curls to set, but it’s nothing compared to the beauty procedures of the past. Those procedures look like they belong in some sort of a horror movie. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Perfect Curls
In order to achieve the most perfect curls women were prepared to do almost everything. That included having to sit in a chair for multiple hours, with their hair wrapped around multiple heated metal prongs. This procedure was uncomfortable, since you couldn’t really move your head around much, it took a few hours and you usually needed a couple of assistants to get it done. Oh if only heated rollers were invented earlier, am I right?
Say Bye-Bye To Wrinkles
In order to get rid of wrinkles and all sorts of skin imperfections, it was common for women to wear rubber masks. I have no idea how that would help to achieve perfect skin, but that’s what people believed in the 20’s, so that’s what they did.
Slender Legs For All
Is it possible to slim down without doing any exercise? In the 1940’s beauty salons offered a lot of different procedures that promised to make you look more slender. Slenderizing massage chairs were exceptionally popular at the time. All you had to do was sit and read or knit or do whatever you want, while your legs were being massaged with metal rollers. The procedure promised to make your legs smoother and more slender. I supposed a massage couldn’t hurt anyone.
Epic Blow-Drier
Before handheld blow-dryers were invented women had to find alternative ways to dry their hair. Air drying took forever and it’s hard to achieve any volume the natural way. Beauty salons of 1920’s came up with an interesting solution. They had huge stationary blow-dryers that they just aimed in the general direction of your head. There’s no way to style your hair this way, but it sure helped to dry your hair faster.
Skin Vacuum
This strange looking contraption was used to achieve smooth, pimple-free skin. It was essentially a vacuum for your face. The glass suction cups were attached to your face and were supposed to quite literally such away all the dirt from your pores. It sounds like they were headed in the right direction, but there’s little to no chance that this contraption actually cleaned pores.
Freckle Remover
We love freckles now, but back in the 30’s freckles were frowned upon. It was unfashionable to have freckles, they were seen as skin imperfections and everyone was trying to hide them or get rid of them. They even came up with a special procedure to get rid of freckles. Carbon dioxide was used to freeze off each individual freckle. After a week your skin would heal freckle free. Sounds like too much work to me. Why did women torture themselves so much? Freckles are so cute.
Beauty Calibrator by Max Factor
This horrific looking contraption, called the beauty calibrator, was invented by Max Factor in the 1930’s. The purpose of it was to aid proper makeup application. It was supposed to help figure out which areas on the face should be enhanced or reduced with the help of makeup.
Hangover Heaven
This genius mask was supposed to help combat face puffiness after a wild night out. It consisted of plastic cubes that you were supposed to fill with water and freeze and then apply to your face. I suppose this weird looking ice-pack could work, but did it have to look so strange?
Heated Face Mask
On the other hand, here’s a heated face masks. It looks like something out of a bad dream or a horror movie, doesn’t it? It plugged in and heated your face. The idea behind this mask, was to warm up the skin to promote better blood circulation in your face and give you a beautiful rosy complexion.
Skin Tightening Mask
Helena Rubinstein’s beauty salon made quite a lot of money on this mask back in the 1940’s. It was supposed to tighten your skin, minimize the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. Was it effective? There’s no way of knowing for sure. But Helena Rubinstein believed that “There are no ugly women, just lazy ones”, and that motto did a great job of attracting women to her salon.
