Beauty history - Russian beauties and traditions

The perception of beauty is very different. Even within the same country, for example, in modern Russia, you can see different ideas about beauty. In order not to go far, take a look at social networks, look at the pages of popular users, read comments on photos and see how different they are.

Of course, a huge mass of negative comments are written due to the envy of dissatisfied people, but many express opinions based on their true perception, which may differ from mine and yours. As a result, we have a variety of ideas about beauty.

Although there are beauty standards, mystylex.techinfus.com/en/ has written on this topic more than once, for example, in a publication - the most beautiful girls in the world... And today, let's remember the history of beauty. How our ancestors perceived the beauty of girls - Russians who lived many years ago.

Beauty (bass, bass, goodness). The popular name for attractiveness, mainly referring to girls who are still in girlhood and have not had time to get married.

In traditional Russian representations, beauty is very strongly associated with girlhood, hence various statements such as - a red girl, beautiful girls. As a rule, a girl before marriage was considered “beautiful”. This performance is reflected in various songs, fairy tales and ditties.

My mother Elena picked some flowers in the field.
She ruined my beauty, gave her away in marriage early.

After marriage and loss of virginity, beauty was also lost. Such were the popular beliefs. At the same time, one could part with beauty without even getting married, but simply saying goodbye to virginity. Everything is so strict.

“As soon as she starts doing the wrong thing,” our ancestors said, “so she wilted. And if she keeps herself all the time, twenty-five and thirty - she is still young. " The concept of beauty here actually coincides with the concept of girlhood.

It turns out interestingly, today glossy magazines, various psychologists, doctors and scientists argue that keeping virginity is not necessary and even dangerous. As if virginity after a certain age is the cause of various female problems and diseases. It turns out that our ancestors were completely wild and deluded?

Not at all! If you deeply study many sciences, medicine, psychology, history, sociology, be well versed in art and deeply understand the essence of life through rich experience and spiritual knowledge, you can understand that our ancestors were not mistaken and virginity itself is wealth. True, everything has changed in the modern world, and now many of us have a firm belief in the need for sex, because we are permeated with many information flows that push us to various experiments and adventures.

Therefore, the average modern girl will suffer from a lack of intimate relationships, and as a result, she will acquire the problems and diseases promised by doctors and scientists. The only reason for this is not virginity or the lack of regular intimate relationships, but dissatisfaction with herself, because she is convinced that she does not live as it should, and her life does not correspond to the norms of modern society. She's a failure by modern standards!

These are the things, only we have distracted from history, let's go back to the past.

Cosmetics and beauty standards in Russian history
The basis of folk cosmetics was whitening of the face and body, dyeing of cheeks, blackening of eyebrows, that is, the same triad was cultivated in cosmetics: white - red - black, which was used in the colors of East Slavic and Indo-European folk clothes.

Ideas about the beauty of the body were reduced mainly to signs of physical health - full legs, a white and ruddy face - "blood and milk".

Skin on the face
To keep their faces white, girls and young women avoided tanning by covering themselves with a handkerchief pulled low over their eyes during field work. The girls washed themselves with milk or milk whey, cucumber pickle, birch sap. For whitening of the face used various whitewash.

White girls, where are you crammed?
- We milked the cows, washed ourselves with milk.

Blush of Russian beauties
The blush was achieved by rubbing the cheeks with bodyagi, lily of the valley berries, red beets, red sandalwood vodka, alum solution, and other means.

Eyebrows and eyelashes
For the eyebrows, a special dye was prepared from antimony, and more often just from soot mixed with fat, or they drew the eyebrows with charcoal. "Sable eyebrows" are an important component of girlish beauty that is constantly mentioned in folklore.

In some regions, there were periods when the custom of blackening teeth took root, only such a dubious beauty remedy did not last long. Basically, always and everywhere, most of the girls wanted to have the most white teeth. There were old recipes for teeth whitening, which we will talk about in the future.

Beauty and marriage
Previously, as in our days, a beautiful girl had great chances for a successful marriage, because beauty has always been the most important factor in choice. Although, in general, Russian men from the past chose a "beautiful" bride according to their taste and capabilities.

Ugly girls
Not everyone was lucky to be born beautiful; some did not meet the standards of traditional Russian beauty. These are, first of all, very small and vice versa, excessively tall girls, thin girls and girls with thin legs. Poor gait and stoop were considered disadvantages.

Therefore, many especially diligent girls, even then, hundreds of years ago, worked on their appearance. They did not have beauty salons and plastic surgery at their disposal, but they had many folk remedies. At the same time, like today, in those ancient times, beauties were ridiculed, whose beauty seemed overly artificial.

They even wrote poems and ditties about such beauties - her curls are twisted, and her cheeks and lips are smeared with blush and lipstick!

Many years have passed, but nothing has changed. Today, just as many people hate created beauty... Although in most cases this intolerance, both then and today, was based on envy.

In addition to material cosmetics, girls also used other means. To induce beauty, Russian girls read various conspiracies, prayers, which were called “for beauty”. These conspiracies and prayers were pronounced during the time when the girls washed, dressed, looked after their face, body and hair. This practice may seem ridiculous, but in fact it is effective, because the girls convinced themselves of their beauty, thanks to which they felt better and more confident.

The girl tuned herself in to what would be the most beautiful, so that everyone “looked up and looked at her, did not take their eyes off”, “loved, respected, everyone respected”. These words became more effective if you pronounce them on Maundy Thursday or Midsummer Day, washing your face with the first morning water. Conspiracies "for beauty" can be viewed as a way of psychological preparation before a public appearance at youth games.

Modern girls rarely braid a braid, some are too lazy to do this, and most simply have nothing to braid, if only a thin ponytail.

Braids used to be highly prized. The braid was another symbol of beauty and girlhood. The girls used various natural and magical remedies for hair growth and the richness of the braid. The length and thickness of the braid were objects of pride and boast in front of girlfriends.

If a girl wasted her virginity in casual relationships before marriage, in many regions she was deprived of the right to wear a braid. It was believed that with the loss of virginity, beauty was also gone, therefore, the braid was unwound or cut off.

During the wedding, they also had to say goodbye to the braid, they would solemnly unravel it and style the hair like a woman's, hiding it under a headdress.

Various ornaments of girly hair: crowns, ribbons - were called "beauty". Before the wedding at the last bachelorette party, the bride gave this "beauty" to her girlfriends, sometimes only one, beloved girlfriend or younger sister, which meant a wish for her to get married. "Beauty" could be symbolized by a Christmas tree or other tree, decorated with ribbons, sweets and placed on the table during a bachelorette party. Girls, saying goodbye to the bride, mourned her "beauty".

Grown women did not lose their beauty, but in the understanding of our ancestors, they possessed a different beauty that was associated with fertility.

“The chicken rushes - and the comb is red; stopped rushing - and the comb turned blue, ”says the proverb, hinting that a woman retains her beauty while giving birth to children. At the same time, pregnancy and childbirth, over time, carried away the female beauty, which was passed on to children.

According to our ancestors, the beauty of women who gave birth exclusively to girls was especially fast disappearing, because each had to give a piece of her beauty - each should grow up to be a beauty.