If you know anything about lead, you know that one of the side effects of constantly rubbing it on your face causes hair loss. So I don’t have to write the following in my own words, I’ll write the Miriam Webster Dictionary definition:
Definition of scald head
archaic: any of several diseases of the scalp characterized by falling out of the hair and by pustules the dried discharge of which forms scales.
Thank you.
Ringworm was also common among the Victorians. While prevalent in children, the poor, and those living in orphanages and institutions, the upper class also fell to the fungus.
The Victorian age, in which fell the Industrial Revolution, was not a particularly good time for cleanliness. In England, the influx of factory and slaughterhouse workers crowded cities and those without access to indoor plumbing threw whatever liquid they produced into the street. Graveyards were overcrowded as well, as bodies were dug up to make room for new ones. Along with every other smell imaginable, the smell of rotting death was ever present in the cities.
The upper class, as a result, was obsessed with cleanliness, and disease and stench were associated with the lower classes. Lower classes were associated with the idea of vulgarity, which, in this context, means of the masses. And the masses were dirty.
I am sorry if that sounds offensive, or callous, or in blatant disregard for human suffering. I can do nothing about the past.
Anyway, the upper classes, without much access to running water, did their best not to get the diseases, and tried their hardest not to fetch the stench of the masses. Disease and stench, however, are probably the most egalitarian part of world history, rendering us all part of the vulgar masses set free in this world.
As a result, of both the dirtiness and the lead, people became afflicted with scald head—and they also got ringworm. Very much the same, yet slightly different: ringworm can appear on more parts of the body than scald head. The Victorian toilet had more to do with masking the disgusting maladies of the day than with actually improving anyone’s looks. It was widely believed, as a result, that women start to “lose their looks” at the age of 20. Crazy time.
So, to treat both scald head and ringworm, people would use pitch pomade to treat these two funguses.
As a result of the Industrial Revolution, there was no shortage of materials that were the result of coal mining. One of these materials was pitch. Pitch is a viscoelastic polymer, which means that it had properties of being both elastic and viscous. It’s made from coal tar, and today is also used in asphalt. It can also be derived from pine trees, and when it is, it’s called pine tar, which is a resin with the same properties as coal tar (viscosity and elasticity), but it’s on the lighter side.
Pine tar has anti-fungal qualities and has been used throughout the ages to treat conditions like ringworm. The Victorians were no different in their approach to treating skin fungus. It was also used to treat ship decking to protect against harsh elements.
Pomade is a waxy substance that people put in their hair to keep it in place.
Combine the two and you have resin and wax. And what did the Victorians use for wax? They used lard. The sulfuric, fatty smell of the Victorian upper class must have made you choke.
Here is the recipe:
Pitch Pomade:
- 1 drachm of pitch
- 1 ounce of lard
In this recipe, you’d use cold lard and mix that with the pine tar. You wouldn’t melt the lard first, like in other recipes. The point was to make a wax, rather than a cream. The fat, in this case, was used to essentially “cut” the pine tar. To make it less elastic, and more viscous. Essentially preventing it from becoming a solid resin mass that was stuck to your head and body parts. And to make it able to be washed off your body. It was like rubbing your head with smearable tree sap. I don’t know how people got this off their skin.
You’d apply this disgusting concoction twice a day.
Once again, do not make this. I will not be responsible.
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