BEAUTY BATHS
Let me direct the baths of the body and the complexion will take care
of itself.
How shall I impress upon you, my beautiful reader, who would remain
beautiful, my plain reader--if ever a woman was plain--who wants to be
beautiful, how necessary is the frequent bath? By this I mean the daily
bath. Let me tell you that which you may have forgotten, that when we
speak of the skin as “the third lung” we minimize its importance. The
skin discharges twice as much waste matter from the body as do the
lungs. Keep that ever in mind and help the skin in its task.
Again there is the story, which you also may have heard and forgotten,
that the man whose skin has been gilded in an effort to make of him a
man of gold, died in a few hours because his pores, having been filled,
could not discharge their function.
The daily bath, in some instances, the bath twice a day, is not as
persons advanced in some directions and pitiably behind in others
tell us, a luxury. It is a necessity. It does not, as some ignorantly
assume, destroy the oils of the skin. It causes them to circulate more
freely through the medium of the skin.
Permit me to picture to you the condition which a bath changes. Have
you ever seen a shower of ashes? How, from a disturbed furnace, a
gray flurry rises, then falls thickly as snow upon the nearest smooth
surface? That is what happens to the skin. The shower of white ashes,
refuse from the fires in the human body, pushes its way through the
pores to the surface of the body, or the skin. There, in the mouths of
the pores, they remain, obstructing them as a wagonload of soil would
obstruct the mouth of a sewer if poured into it and allowed to remain.
The shower of human ashes must be removed, just as the traces of a
snowfall are removed from city streets, quickly and thoroughly, else
traffic is impeded. The scarf skin must go, and the best and most
direct way to send it is by the route of the bath.
I have described in a previous chapter my own method of bathing. I find
the tepid bath in the morning, followed by a slightly cooler shower, or
splash with sponge or hands, the best for my needs. Also for drying the
skin I prefer a soft towel, for it is best for my skin. But I do not
recommend this as a universal method.
My skin happens to be exceedingly thin and sensitive, annoyingly so.
If it were one of the hardier, more durable sort, with a tendency to a
coarsening and roughening, I should try this much more drastic method
of removing scarf skin. If I were strong enough and my physicians
vouched for the fact that I were, I would try the daily cold plunge
or shower. This I would take in the morning remaining in the icy tub
or under the chilling shower not more than one minute. Then I should
have a brisk rubdown, not with the soft linen towel or cheesecloth,
but with a big, coarse Turkish towel. For this purpose I like best
the big towels that swathe the body completely, which one may wrap
round herself, and, wrapped in them, sit upon a bathing stool and dry
herself with immunity from chill. Unless I were to dress at once, I
should briskly rub the body with alcohol to render less the possibility
of taking cold. But if my room were sunny I would prefer to run about
the room half a dozen times, or a rehearsal of dancing steps for five
minutes, or jumping the rope. One of the greatest authorities on
hygiene in your country has advocated exercise--he called it a sun
bath--directly after the bath.
But this would by no means suffice for my bathing. For every one except
an Englishman knows that the cold bath does not cleanse. It merely
exhilarates. For keeping the skin clean there should be the warm bath.
You observe that I did not say the hot bath, for it is my opinion that
the hot bath enervates. For cleansing the water should be from 90 to 95
degrees Fahrenheit.
A good soap should be plentifully used. White castile, the soaps made
from spermaceti and good glycerine soaps I believe to be the best. The
soap need not be used directly upon the skin. Much better is it that
for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour before you take your night bath
a cake of soap or a quantity of it shaved be thrown into the water, so
that the water becomes a milky color, or that a lather rise to the top
of the water.
Thus soap will never, except in its diluted form, touch the skin. The
per cent. of lye which is used in the manufacture of soaps that would
actually touch the skin would be very small. A soft brush would be
useful for a coarse skin. I never advocate a hard one, for it is liable
to abrade the skin.
No one should remain in the bath more than twenty minutes, and this
time should include the rinsing off of the soapy water by a shower
or spray of cooler, perhaps fifteen degrees cooler, not cold, water.
A cold shower at night, when this cleansing bath is taken, would be
over-stimulative, and tend, as does the strong coffee to certain
persons, to keep them awake.
Between the two extremes of gentle and drastic bathing lie many
intermediaries known as beauty baths. There is, for example, that
simple and efficacious starch bath, taken by women whose skins are
tormented and disfigured by pimples.
To an ordinary bathtub half filled with water add one pound of pure
starch. Let it dissolve in water at 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. To
this many French women choose to add one wineglass of toilet ammonia
for its whitening effect.
The oatmeal bag is an old and admirable remedy for rough or stained
skin. The best is made in this way:
Oatmeal, 1 pound; pulverized orris root, ½ pound. Stir well together
and sew into a large square bag. Toss the bag into the tub and let it
remain in the warm water for fifteen minutes. It will give the water
that delightful milky aspect so pleasant to the luxurious bather. Bran
may be manipulated in the same way with equally good results.
For whitening and softening the skin a bath powder may be made at home
from these ingredients:
Bicarbonate of soda, 6 ounces; cream of tartar, 5 ounces; starch, 8
ounces; oil of lemon, 1 dram; oil of bergamot, 10 drops. If another
scent is preferred to bergamot it can be substituted; for instance, 5
drops of oil of rose geranium.
For a person not strong enough to endure the cold bath, this tonic in
tepid water is recommended by many European physicians:
Aromatic vinegar, 1 pint; tincture of benzoin, 1 wineglass.
A delicious bath used by our grandmothers, and that is as efficacious
for their granddaughters, is made by boiling for three hours two pounds
of bran. Strain the bran through a sieve. To the remaining liquor add
some scent of your choice, let us say 10 drops of bergamot, 5 of rose
of geranium, or 5 of oil of lavender.
A belle of limited means utilizes all the left-over bits of her toilet
soap. These she grinds or chops with a knife into a fine powder. To
two ounces of this powder she adds four tablespoonfuls of borax. She
sifts these into two quarts of bran. A pint of this mixture poured into
an old linen or cheesecloth bag and the bag used as a washcloth gives
a pleasant touch of luxury to a bath, besides greatly softening and
whitening the skin.
Many women prefer to make their own toilet or aromatic vinegars to be
used in the bath. For them I recommend this formula:
Camphor, ½ ounce; oil of rosemary, ½ dram; oil of cloves, ½ dram; oil
of bergamot, 1 dram; acetic acid, 4 ounces; alcohol, 8 ounces.
When for any reason the perspiration is odorous in spite of the bath,
this sprinkled upon the offending portions of the body destroys the
unpleasant condition:
Subnitrate of bismuth, 1 ounce; pulverized boric acid, ½ ounce;
pulverized alum, ½ ounce; oil of eucalyptus, 10 drops; oil of rose
geranium, 5 drops; oil of lemon, 5 drops.
For those of full habit I recommend a Russian bath once a week as
beneficial to the complexion. I prefer those given in the cabinets. For
myself, being meager, there would be after six of them nothing left.
Let me suggest this means for the invalid or the person of lean purse,
of taking the Russian bath at home. There are inexpensive cabinets,
folding or stationary, made for this purpose, of wood or tin. Even a
packing box would suffice. But a good Russian, which means vapor, as
distinguished from the Turkish, or hot air, bath--and the Russian I
think much to be preferred, because it does not involve breathing hot
air--may be taken at home.
The home-made Russian bath requires: Three or more blankets; a
cane-seated chair; a spirit lamp; a can containing one quart of water.
Place the can upon the lighted spirit lamp, the spirit lamp beneath the
chair, and yourself, enveloped in blankets, upon the chair. The water
in the can can be replenished from time to time.
Drinking three or more glasses of hot water during the bath aids in
perspiration. If there are more blankets available lie down swathed
in from four to six dry ones, and the process of perspiration will
continue for twenty minutes longer.
In Turkey baths are regarded not only as means of cleanliness but as
agents of beauty. Here is a tonic Turkish women pour into the tub to
tone the skin and through that the whole body:
Ammonia (pure), 100 grams; cooking salt, 500 grams.
This is of special value when one is tired and listless. It is called
the Stimulant Bath:
Oil of turpentine, 100 grams; carbonate of soda, 50 grams; oil of
rosemary, 10 grams; oil of eucalyptus, 5 grams.
This oil bath is rubbed into the skin to render it soft and smooth. It
is an admirable remedy for a dry skin. The harem women style it “The
Beauty Bath”:
Rosewater, 100 grams; glycerine, 60 grams; starch, 50 grams; oil of
lavender, 15 grams.
Famous beauties were always careful about their baths, even in a
period when baths were disregarded or were despised as the habits of
the unduly effeminate. Marie Antoinette, for her full bath, used a
mixture of wild thyme and marjory, with sea salt. In the winter the
baths were taken cold, in the summer warm, it being the fancy of the
court physician, Dr. Fagoni, that the temperature of the bath should
correspond to the temperature of the outer air.
The wine bath is not a fiction of the imagination, but rather a fact
of history. The beautiful Russian, Marie Czetwertynoska, favorite
beauty of the Court of Alexander the Great, insisted upon the tonic of
a weekly bath in Spanish wine. Poppæa bathed in asses’ milk, and was
renowned for her complexion.
Novel was the method of Isabeau, Queen of Bavaria, for toning the body
and beautifying the complexion in spring. Each morning during May, June
and July she bathed in strawberry juice.
Mme. Tallien, whose skin was flawless, preferred raspberries, as
at once milder in effect and yet of more lasting quality. Ninon de
l’Enclos bathed alternately in chickweed water and milk, using oatmeal
freely in her face bath.
Enid Wilson, often alluded to as “the most beautiful woman in the
British Empire,” had a favorite bath, which she declared was the chief
secret of her wonderful English complexion. “Into a wide-mouthed gallon
jar I cram as many elder flower blossoms as it will hold. Over this I
pour boiling water,” she said. “After letting the jar and its contents
stand in a cool place for six hours, I strain the liquid and pour a few
tablespoonfuls of it into my bath.”
The beautiful women of every civilized nation are nowadays taking less
medicine and more baths. The medical directors, who are probably the
greatest beauty doctors, because they teach that beauty depends almost
wholly on health, are teaching them the tonic and sedative influences
of the bath. They are teaching them that of varieties of baths there is
no end. They tell them there is one sort of bath for the anæmic person,
another for the too full-blooded person, one for the person who sleeps
too little, another for the one who sleeps too much.
For every temperament and for every condition there is the special
bath. But there are some general rules which all should know. For
instance these:
The best average temperature for the bath is 68 to 72 degrees
Fahrenheit. The temperature of the bath should always be tested before
using.
The bath of cistern or rainwater is the best for the skin, because it
is the “softest”--that is, the purest water, being unmixed with the
minerals which well water collects on its tour through the various
strata of earth, and which “hardens” it.
The starch bath is one of the best to allay itching or cure annoying
skin eruptions. It is made like this:
Into a tub of say ten gallons of water drop one-half pound of starch.
The gelatine bath serves a similar purpose. It is soothing to an
irritated skin. The proportions are two hundred and fifty grams of
white French gelatine to ten gallons of tepid water.
The cold bath is a stimulant for those who are strong enough to react
from it. The test is whether after the cold plunge the skin turns red.
If it turns blue the vitality is not sufficient to bear such heroic
treatment. Cold baths should not be taken without the advice of a
competent physician.
The hot bath is soothing, but if taken too often is enervating. Once a
week, under ordinary circumstances, is often enough for a hot bath.
The tepid bath, graduated to a cool bath by letting the cold water run
in as the warm water runs off, is the best daily bath.
For the person who perspires excessively, a wineglass of ammonia to ten
gallons of water is a good corrective.
For the seaside bath, five pounds of table salt dissolved in a tubful
of water at home is a very good substitute. This, followed by a shower
or spray, will lend the illusion of Ostend or Atlantic City.
But besides these simple baths, that any one may take, there are some
that are complex, and that only those who have, for a time at least,
some spare hours to spend at their toilets may trouble to take. This is
what my physician ordered when I had come from a Russian tour, weary
from travel and in that state of depression that follows extreme
weariness. Used in tepid water every morning I found it invigorating:
Bromide of potassium, 1 gram; carbonate of calcium, 1 gram; carbonate
of soda, 300 grams; sulphate of soda, 300 grams; sulphate of iron, 3
grams; oil of lavender, 1 gram; oil of thyme, 1 gram; oil of rosemary,
1 gram.
The same physician recommended for the skin that was too sensitive to
endure soap:
Tincture of quillagac, 10 grams; glycerine, 20 grains; oil of bergamot,
3 drops.
The extremely nervous person, whose skin is much irritated, may take
the starch bath I have described and add to it a pint of vinegar.
Discreet bathing, besides its first office of cleanliness, aids and
even cures anæmia, biliousness, obesity, rheumatism, neuralgia and even
St. Vitus’s dance.
The hot water treatment for pimples is more efficacious than most
medicines given for that purpose. The application of soft cloths dipped
in hot water has effected a cure in a few days.
A class of skin diseases that produce postules on the skin, these
postules eventually bursting and forming crusts, are alleviated and
sometimes cured by a systematic course of warm baths. The falling of
the crusts like dandruff, and the gradual healing, may be brought about
by two warm baths daily. Tetter is one of these forms that has been
cured by warm water baths and careful, tender drying with soft towels.
An object lesson in the value of the warm bath in soothing the nervous
system is seen in the case of children screaming with the colic, who
cease their cries and grow sleepy as soon as they are placed in a tub
of warm water.
If possible, bathe not less than two hours before eating nor less than
three hours after eating.
Never take a bath while very tired. There will be no reaction--that
is, the blood will not leap to the surface as under favorable
circumstances it makes its response to the bath, and the bath will
merely reduce further the lowered vitality.
A little exercise just before bathing and a little exercise after, aids
the good effects of the bath. The exercise before opens the pores for
the reception of the water. The exercise afterward permits the entrance
of sun and air into the pores too little accustomed to either.
Light exercise after the drying of the skin with a soft towel and
before enveloping it with clothes is a splendid tonic and a wonderful
beautifier. I know a half dozen beautiful Parisiennes who have had
their bathrooms built in that part of the house most exposed to the
sunshine, and at the top of the house, and, opening from these, have
built small sun parlors, square rooms with roofs and sides entirely of
glass. Here they exercise for from five to ten minutes, jumping the
rope or flexing the arms and legs and head. One vigorous beauty has a
blanket spread upon the floor of her sun parlor, and upon this turns
somersaults, to make her body pliant and to assure herself that her
circulation is free. Some of these exercises are illustrated by the
silhouettes on this page.
During the sunbaths they are unclad, or if clothed are merely wrapped
in a light, loose dressing gown. After the bath and the exercise some
Parisiennes repose for an hour upon a couch in the sun parlor, their
hair hanging loose and their faces protected only by a delicate shade,
like a fire screen, from the too strong rays of the sun.
Bathe briskly in the water. Never stay in it more than twenty minutes.
Indeed, a good scrub can be taken in three minutes. A brush is better
than a sponge. It pries open the pores. Do not use coarse towels. They
abrade the skin. Use soft towels or bath gloves. Dry thoroughly and
quickly. Many bathe the face and neck first to prevent a possible
unpleasant dash of blood to the head. Bathe in a room whose temperature
is at least 68 or 70 degrees. Ordinarily the room should be as warm as
the water in which you bathe.
For those who dislike soaps, or if they do not dislike, at least
distrust them, lanolin milk is a valuable aid or even a substitute for
the bath:
Lanolin, 35 grains; water, ½ ounce; pure castile soap, 30 grains. Pour
the lanolin into the water. Heat slowly. The soap should be dissolved
in a half ounce of water. Mix and shake well.
Glycerine soap is one of the best for the winter. Those soaps
containing bran and oatmeal are also excellent for preserving the
softness of the skin in this trying season.
Almond meal poured into the wet hands and forming a paste, which is
gently rubbed upon the face and hands, is the best substitute for soap
for the face bath.
The ordinary daily bath is not enough for the feet, which are of
coarser fiber. They have larger pores, from which much perspiration
is discharged. And there is a greater discharge of dead matter from
the soles of the feet than from any other part of the body of the same
area. For this reason and because the feet are more exposed to dust
than any other part of the body except the face, there should be a
special daily footbath. It is best to take this just before retiring.
It is, by the way, helpful in calling the blood away from the head
to the feet. I always take my footbath a little warmer than my body
bath. I scrub them with a flesh brush well soaped, for there cannot,
fortunately, be too much soap used upon the feet. A teaspoonful of
borax or a teaspoonful of ammonia aids the cleansing.