Historical clothing is fun but to really look like you stepped out of a portrait you need to think about your outfit from head to toe. In the 18th century people used pomatum (essentially old time-y pomade) and powder to both style their hair and keep it clean. The American Duchess Guide to Beauty has a ton of great research on this and I highly recommend it. To achieve my own historical hair dreams, I decided to finally use their recipe to make my own pomatum.
I gathered my ingredients and got ready to go. The two main ingredients are lard and tallow which sounds gross to most people, however it’s not like putting bacon grease on your head as both the lard and tallow are thoroughly washed. The reason animal products are used is because it works with human body chemistry (since we’re animals). This is explained really well in the American Duchess book so I’ll refer you there again if you want to know more (this isn’t sponsored it just really is a great resource).
It was a little intimidating to be working with such weird ingredients (or at least weird to me) but it actually ended up being fairly simple and I soon had a bunch of little jars of pomatum ready to use. The recipe made a lot so I think I’m set for many years to come.
The best part about the pomatum is that it is a natural bug repellent because it has lavender and clove oil in it! I actually use it on my skin as a normal bug repellent because I think it works just as well or better than the modern spray on stuff, it smells much better, and it doesn’t leave me feeling greasy.
The pomatum makes it much easier to do historical hairstyles because it, combined with hair powder makes your hair really sculptable. My mom kindly let me put it in her hair as well as mine so I could practice historical hair on her.
It was a fun project and a great way to learn even more about 18th century women.
Love always,
Victoria
History On A Budget 