The Ladies' Toilet
By Annie S. Frost
From the 1869 edition of Frost's Laws and by-laws of American
Society.
To sleep too much is as trying to the constitution as to sleep
too little. To sleep too much is to render oneself liable to all
kinds of minor ailments, both of mind and body. It is a habit
that cannot be too severely censured, especially in the young.
No mother has any right to allow her young daughters to ruin
their temper, health, and complexion, by lying in bed till nine
or ten o'clock. Early rising conduces more to the preservation
of health, freshness, and young looks, than anything in the
world, and even to the proper preservation of our mental
faculties.
The bath is a most important object of study. It is not to be
supposed that we wash in order to become clean; we wash because
we wish to remain clean. The bath should be taken by a person in
good health once a day in winter, and twice a day in summer. For
persons of really robust constitutions, a cold shower-bath may
be recommended; but as a general rule the sponge-bath is safest
and most convenient. Cold water refreshes and invigorates, but
does not cleanse; those persons, therefore, who daily use a cold
bath in the morning should frequently use a warm one at night.
For cleansing purposes, the water should be of from ninety-six
to one hundred degrees, or even one hundred and eight degrees;
but such a bath should be sparingly indulged in, as it exhausts
the physical powers.
It is not well to remain in the bath for longer than two or
three minutes. A large coarse sponge is best for the purpose. It
is advisable to wet the top of the head before entering a cold
bath. Whether soap be used or not, it is well to apply the
flesh-brush gently to the face and vigorously to the whole body.
Nothing improves the complexion like the daily use of the
flesh-brush. When the brushing is concluded, a huck-a-back or
Turkish towel should be used for the final process of drying.
The teeth must be scrupulously cared for. If proper care were
taken of the teeth in youth, there would be less employment for
the dentist in after life. The Americans ruin their teeth by
drinking iced drinks with hot dinners; the Spanish ladies by
eating sugar all day long; the Mexicans by smoking cigarettes.
Very hot and very sweet things should be avoided. The teeth
should be carefully brushed, not only night and morning, but
after every meal. Very hard tooth-brushes are not advisable, and
a simple tooth-powder of common chalk is safer and more
effectual than any quackeries. The onion, we need scarcely
observe, must be the forbidden fruit of the Eve of the
nineteenth century. Indigestible food is also certain to affect
the sweetness of the breath. As soon as the breath becomes
unpleasant, one may be quite sure that the digestive machinery
is out of order.
The nails must always be fastidiously clean, and never allowed
to grow inordinately long. In the cutting of the nails, every
care must be given to the preservation of the shape, and to the
removal of superfluous skin. A liberal use of the nail-brush,
warm water, and best Windsor soap will insure the preservation
of a delicate hand. Gloves must of course be worn out of doors;
and even in doors as much as possible.
The hair requires a good deal of care, though of the simplest
and most [natural] kind. The secret of fine and glossy hair is a
clean hair-brush; and ladies who keep no maid to perform those
offices for them should wash their hair-brushes in hot water and
soda every day. Every other day is the minimum of washing that a
hair-brush should have.
Once secure the perfect cleanliness of your hair-brush, and the
rest will be easy. Brush the hair carefully both at night and
morning; let it be occasionally cleansed with yolk of egg beaten
up, or a mixture of glycerin and lime-juice, and you will find
no need to resort to hair-doctors or quacks; Pomade and oil are
strictly to be avoided; but after a sea-water bath, or during a
sea journey, a little warm pomade will be useful in softening
the hair.
Above all things, never attempt to change the color of the hair
by means of fashionable dyes and fluids. Color so obtained
cannot harmonize naturally with the skin, eyes, and eyebrows
that Nature has given. Practices of this kind are simply and
strictly immodest. They evince a senseless desire for fashion,
and an equally senseless eagerness to attract. Auricomus
hair-dyes, like painted lips and cheeks, and penciled eyebrows,
and complexions purchased, are disgraceful to the wearers. With
regard to the art of obtaining a good complexion, let ladies be
careful in regard to diet, take regular exercise in the open
air, wear broad-brimmed hats in the sun, and veils in the wind;
let them avoid pearl powders and washes of every kind; let them,
above all things, go early to bed, and rise betimes in the
morning; and if by so doing they are not made "beautiful
forever," they can never be made so.
The face should never be washed when heated from exercise. Wipe
the perspiration from the skin, and wait until it is
sufficiently cool before you bathe, even with warm water.
Rain-water is best for the bath. In case of any eruption upon
the skin, no time should be lost in procuring medical advice. He
who doctors himself, says the proverb, has a fool for his
physician.
With regard to dress, it is impossible to do more than offer a
few general observations. The fashion of dress is for to-day;
but the esthetics of dress are for all time. No matter to what
absurd lengths fashion may go, a woman of taste will ever avoid
the ridiculous. To dress well demands something more than a full
purse and a pretty figure. It requires taste, good sense, and
refinement.
Ladies that are neither very young nor very striking in
appearance cannot do better than wear quiet colors. Ladies who
are not rich can always appear well dressed, with a little care
in the choice and arrangement of the materials. Whatever the
texture of the dress, it should be made by the very best
dressmaker you can afford. As well go to a third or fourth-rate
dentist, music-master, or doctor, as go to a third or
fourth-rate dressmaker. The dressmaker is a woman's good or evil
genius.
Much jewelry is out of place for young ladies at any time; and,
indeed, there is as much propriety to be observed in the wearing
of jewelry as in the wearing of dresses. Diamonds, pearls,
rubies, and all transparent precious stones belong to evening
dress, and should never be worn before dinner. In the morning,
one's rings should be of the simplest kind, and one's jewelry
limited to a good brooch, gold chain, and watch. Diamonds and
pearls are as much out of place during the morning as a low
dress or a wreath.
It is well to remember in the choice of jewelry that mere
costliness is not always the test of value; and that an
exquisite work of art, such as a fine intaglio or cameo, or a
natural rarity, such as a black pearl, is a possession more
distingue than a large brilliant which any one who has money
enough can buy as well as yourself. Of all precious stones, the
opal is the most lovely and common place. No merely vulgar
woman purchases an opal.
Gloves, shoes, and boots must always be faultless. Gloves cannot
be too light for the carriage, or too dark for the streets. A
woman with ill-fitting gloves cannot be said to be well dressed;
while to wear soiled ones at your friend's soiree is to show her
that you think lightly of herself and her company. Perfumes
should be used only in the evening, and with the strictest
moderation. Some people, of a sensitive temperament, would be
made ill by the smell of musk or patchouli.
Finally, let every lady remember Dr. Johnson's criticism on a
lady's dress: "I am sure she was well dressed," said the Doctor,
for I cannot remember what she had on."
Young Ladies’ Toilet
Ladies’ Repository, 1857
Young unmarried ladies ought always to appear what they really
are, and not affect womanhood prematurely. Simplicity is always
becoming to their years; and they have one attraction which no
art can heighten, and that is, the fresh bloom of youth. It is
labor in vain to gild refined gold, or add a perfume to the
violet. Flounced dresses should be absolutely banished from the
toilet of young ladies, except for special occasions, and even
then the double skirt is preferable. Nothing can be more
charming than the following toilet: A frock of white silk, blue
silk, or pink silk, with a double skirt, having a plain hem; the
body plain pointed, and ornamented with braces of roses, forming
a bouquet at the waist, and on each shoulder. In the hair, a
group of roses on one side, or a bunch of them on the back hair.
