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The Bride In Red
Have I ever told you about where the tradition of hair removal on women comes from?
In early European times, when people only lived typically into their late 30s or early 40s men who owned any land, estate, or holdings, etc needed an heir to pass on their legacy. The mortality rate among women in childbirth was high. As soon as a girl started menstruating she was considered to be eligible for marriage. Usually with the onset of puberty came body hair.
In order to make girls more attractive if they weren't married off yet, they began removing body hair to hide their true age and make them appear younger, hence more attractive as a prospective child bearing wife. Also the reason sometimes for the large number of children if the wife survived each, until a male was produced. This is also where the erasing of the girls last name and adding the name of the "man of the house" or "lord and master" comes from. The girls were typically - during these times - under the age of 18, so a legal adoption took place. We still carry this tradition today, in the form of a legal contract of marriage. So outdated!
Threading, candling, carving, shaving, waxing, plucking, and chemically dissolving hair can be traced back thousands of years in some cultures.
During Elizabethan times it became a nobility practice reserved for the Queen initially, to remove hair in it's entirety from ear to ear forward, including eyebrows and eye lashes. It was thought to give the Monarch the appearance of a larger head,
To support the theory of having a larger brain than normal, thus being smarter and superior to all others to support being "chosen by God" to rule over others.
A presentation I gave in highschool, included pictorial slides I narrated about the many strange and interesting ways men and women used to practice fashion and what was considered fashionable....
My grandmother was a model before leaving Europe, and she always believed that natural beauty far outweighed artificial makeup. She always told me to only wash my face with hot water, then cold water.
To not use makeup, and to never do nails....as there was a small ostrich leather manicure case in her apothecary by the front door. She would tell me, that when she had her television cooking show she would get a manicure, but the girls who did them always worked so hard and hardly made any money. The more Hindu based philosophy of my grandfather left me thinking that if I had to choose to do only 1 thing in life it would be wise to work hard and be paid little, my suffering would ensure being reincarnated to a higher purpose than what i was born into this time.
My grandfather believed I was "chosen" somehow, as they wanted something about me to be shared and reproduced and was beneficial to them and to mankind.
I got to go to a Hindu wedding with my grandfather once. A man playing a Sitar high up on a balcony in a large open home was mesmerizing, I'd never seen or heard one before. But even more captivating was the bride...
They laid red rose petals along the floor, in a path from the doorway where she emerged, across the floor to the place where she would stand for her vows. It smelled heavenly, and she emerged very slowly as the room fell silent, barefoot she carefully walked along the rose petals, only her eyes and nose visible...yards of red silk covered in sheer red fabric around her and a red stone in her nose....I will never forget the experience.
One of the most regal, beautiful and simple weddings I've ever had the pleasure of attending.
© All Rights Reserved
In early European times, when people only lived typically into their late 30s or early 40s men who owned any land, estate, or holdings, etc needed an heir to pass on their legacy. The mortality rate among women in childbirth was high. As soon as a girl started menstruating she was considered to be eligible for marriage. Usually with the onset of puberty came body hair.
In order to make girls more attractive if they weren't married off yet, they began removing body hair to hide their true age and make them appear younger, hence more attractive as a prospective child bearing wife. Also the reason sometimes for the large number of children if the wife survived each, until a male was produced. This is also where the erasing of the girls last name and adding the name of the "man of the house" or "lord and master" comes from. The girls were typically - during these times - under the age of 18, so a legal adoption took place. We still carry this tradition today, in the form of a legal contract of marriage. So outdated!
Threading, candling, carving, shaving, waxing, plucking, and chemically dissolving hair can be traced back thousands of years in some cultures.
During Elizabethan times it became a nobility practice reserved for the Queen initially, to remove hair in it's entirety from ear to ear forward, including eyebrows and eye lashes. It was thought to give the Monarch the appearance of a larger head,
To support the theory of having a larger brain than normal, thus being smarter and superior to all others to support being "chosen by God" to rule over others.
A presentation I gave in highschool, included pictorial slides I narrated about the many strange and interesting ways men and women used to practice fashion and what was considered fashionable....
My grandmother was a model before leaving Europe, and she always believed that natural beauty far outweighed artificial makeup. She always told me to only wash my face with hot water, then cold water.
To not use makeup, and to never do nails....as there was a small ostrich leather manicure case in her apothecary by the front door. She would tell me, that when she had her television cooking show she would get a manicure, but the girls who did them always worked so hard and hardly made any money. The more Hindu based philosophy of my grandfather left me thinking that if I had to choose to do only 1 thing in life it would be wise to work hard and be paid little, my suffering would ensure being reincarnated to a higher purpose than what i was born into this time.
My grandfather believed I was "chosen" somehow, as they wanted something about me to be shared and reproduced and was beneficial to them and to mankind.
I got to go to a Hindu wedding with my grandfather once. A man playing a Sitar high up on a balcony in a large open home was mesmerizing, I'd never seen or heard one before. But even more captivating was the bride...
They laid red rose petals along the floor, in a path from the doorway where she emerged, across the floor to the place where she would stand for her vows. It smelled heavenly, and she emerged very slowly as the room fell silent, barefoot she carefully walked along the rose petals, only her eyes and nose visible...yards of red silk covered in sheer red fabric around her and a red stone in her nose....I will never forget the experience.
One of the most regal, beautiful and simple weddings I've ever had the pleasure of attending.
© All Rights Reserved
