Health & beauty tips

for the Woman of the 1920s

Health and Beauty Tips for the Woman of the 1920s

By Leslie Drollinger Stratmoen

For Flappers to Fringe 

Surprisingly enough, the health and beauty tips for the woman of the 1920s were not that much different than today’s – eat right, exercise and get plenty of rest. They just went about it a little differently than we do nowadays. That’s why I found this article from an old Woman’s Weekly supplement so fascinating, and actually, offering some pretty good words to live by that hold true today. 

The writer kicks off her series with the following premise, which I’ve included in quotes, before I address the rest of the article. Read on.

HEALTH AND BEAUTY

Edited by Edith Allen 

“Health and beauty are in large degree synonymous. Yet, as few of us attain absolute physical perfection and as our mode of life, especially in the larger cities, is largely artificial, we must give special attention to health and appearance if we wish to ‘keep fit.’ The following pages give attention to some of the more usual problems faced by women who care for their appearance.” 

“The remedies suggested are simple and can be followed with ease. In fact, the very simplicity of the best methods of keeping the body functioning properly make many persons avoid them. The daily regime of simple living, with plenty of fresh air, properly limited diet with exercise and sleep of sufficient duration, is far less attractive than the over-night cures widely advertised. But the latter, if they work at all, must be persisted in even as are the rules of rational living and the results are seldom so beneficent nor so lasting.”  By Edith Allen, published in Woman’s Weekly’s Home Arts and Entertainment supplement, 1922.

She then starts her article with “good looks.”

GOOD LOOKS

The First Requisite – A look of “healthful vigor” 

Now, who doesn’t want that, I ask you? Yet, she says, such an appearance is not to be found in anyone who is “over-fat, too thin, suffering from chronic indigestion or other physical ill …  or not well groomed.” 

She prefaces her recommendations by setting the stage in which she’s taking a few things for granted. That you’re already bathing daily, “either in the tub or as a tepid sponge,” that you’re sleeping in a well-ventilated room, or better yet, on a porch or outdoors, that your clothing is aired and changed frequently, and that food “is taken in quantities sufficient to nourish the body without overfeeding it.”

“We still have several matters to consider in trying to feel at our best as well as look it,” she says.

CLOTHING

She maintains that “the problem” with clothing is that it has much influence on appearance and while some women “deplore the exaggerated style some young women indulge in, (not sure what that is) on the whole we have not had such sane and good-looking styles in many a day.”  

Better no corset at all, she says, than wearing the styles of the Victorian era, “which compressed a woman’s internal organs until free exercise was out of the question and the lungs were cramped to a point that made the vogue for fainting an easy one to follow.”

Isn’t that hilarious? That fainting was “en vogue.” Yikes!

The woman of today (1922), she says, has “free play for her lungs and her waist is free enough to allow space for her digestive organs without pushing them downwards and out of their natural place.” (Ugh! That makes me hurt just thinking about it.)

A woman, then, she says, has no excuse for “great bulges of flesh and fat above and below her spindling waistline, for the waist is not unnaturally cramped.”

Wow! We need to take a cue from that sentiment and force the current fashion influencers to do away with the skinny-jeans and elastic undergarments that hold you in at the hips and tummy, which only makes the flab come spilling out over the top in folds creating what my husband calls the Michelin Man silhouette. (Some of you will get that, I’m sure.)

Moreover, she says, “while the beauty of skirts worn to the knee may be questioned, there is no doubt that this fashion is far more sanitary than the long skirts that swept our streets a generation ago or the sheath (hobble) skirt of a few years ago that bound our ankles when we tried to step on to a street car or climb the stairs.”

Both of these styles, she maintains, were “conducive of many accidents as well as deterrents from proper exercise.”

She’s absolutely right, but who would have thought it?

Nor, she says, “are the mass of women wearing their dresses so low-cut as they did a few years ago, while the collarless style not only is a comfortable one, but also is a great help in keeping one’s throat well-shaped. Only those who wore stiff, close collars can appreciate the difficulty of having a well-rounded throat without double chin or yellow discoloration under such handicap.”

I love this, I’m learning so much. I didn’t realize the necklines at this time were perceived to be “so low.” I’m going to be looking into that one.

“The woman who wears exaggerated styles we have always with us, no matter whether skirts be short or long and blouses be of thick or transparent materials. That is merely a question of good taste or bad taste and some people seem to prefer the latter, but on the whole, we have had few such eras of sanity in dress as shown in the simple ginghams in vogue during the past summer or the woolen tailleurs seen on the streets during the remainder of the past year.”

I just love her diplomacy.

“All this talk of clothing is really a very vital part of any discussion of health and beauty,” she says, “for we need loose, attractive garments if we are to maintain health and attractive appearance.”

She even addresses the underwear – saying the new usage of cotton over wool is healthier because you don’t get overheated and sweat yourself into a cold.

“The vogue for heavy woolen underwear of some years ago has given place to lighter underwear. This is most fortunate as wool retains moisture longer than cotton, so that the person who was overheated and perspired freely was liable to catch cold from his damp clothing. With cotton underwear, or wool and linen or cotton combination, the perspiration evaporates more quickly so that the danger of colds is lessened.”

COMPLEXION

Then, too, she says, we need to strive for a good complexion by heating and cooling our homes properly and using the right products.

“We keep our rooms too warm in winter, so that lighter indoor clothing with heavy wraps for outdoor wear is the best combination. Rooms should not be over 70 degrees and below that is better for persons in good health, excepting babies and very old folk.” (Again, so nicely put.)

“In few ways,” she continues, “do we notice the evidence of health more than in the appearance of our coloring.” (That explains the pension of women pinching their cheeks into a rosy glow.) The over-fat person usually flushes too easily and has tendency to coarse, reddish skin if the fat comes from too much food and too little exercise. While diet and exercise will do much to aid complexion ills, common sense in the care of the skin is also necessary. The soap that soothes ad cleanses one skin may prove an irritant to another, the powder one likes, may not do at all for another person, nor are the same creams and lotions always effective.”

All anyone can do, she says, is to try various “high-grad soaps and cosmetics” until a suitable solution is found and then stick with it, “unless something better be presented.”

HAIR

The hair, she says, “needs regular care and treatment if it is to be kept glossy and thick.” Brushes must be cleaned, frequently, she says, “for there is no use washing the hair and then using a dirty, dusty brush on it.” (Woah, I’m guilty of that faux pau.)

“Regular, even brushing both night and morning does much to keep hair in good condition for the dust is thus removed, the natural oil spread over the length of the hair strands and air is allowed to get to the scalp. Besides the brushing, a light massage with the finger tips will stimulate blood circulation in the scalp and thus bring renewed health and strength to the hair roots.” (That’s a good one. I’ll be adding that tip to my own routine.)

For even more beautiful hair, she recommends the following: “In hot weather, divide the hair into two strands and shake lightly for a few minutes. This will get the air through the hair and to the scalp and dry the perspiration and shake out dust. Dry hair may be shampooed every two to four weeks, but oily hair needs a washing once every week or 10 days to keep it in good condition.”

At night, then, before going to bed, she encourages you to, “take your hair down and let it hang loose or braided, but do not keep it up in the same position it held when dressed.”

If you don’t, you just might go bald.

Because when “one portion of the scalp is kept without air and overheated,” that becomes “an excellent method of inducing baldness.”

To prove her point, she offers the following note.

In parts of Holland, she says, “where the peasant headdress is made of a thick cap or even metal-lined cap the women have very thin, sparse hair. The scalp really needs air as much as does any other part of the skin surface.”

TEETH

Another important factor, she says, in “keeping one’s looks … is the state of a person’s teeth.”

Americans are noted, she says, “for the amount of dentistry in which they indulge, but this is less because they have poor teeth than because they have learned the value of keeping their teeth in the best condition. The ‘good teeth’ habit should begin early in life. After all, beauty is largely a matter of health and cleanliness.”

THE WRAP

And, there you have it. The words and wisdom on health and beauty from a woman living in the 1920s that’s pretty much, spot on, as they say, to those of today’s modern woman.

COMING UP NEXT IN THE SERIES:

Changing One’s Weight – The Woman Over Forty – Hints for Hot and Cold Weather

From Home Arts and Entertainment, Supplement to Woman’s Weekly, published by The Magazine Circulation Co., Inc. Chicago, 1922 Edition