Old advertising. Armpit hygiene, at the beginning of the 1900s, did not include the use of modern deodorants
Today the hygiene of the armpits passes through a thorough washing with soap and water and a generous spray of deodorant.
This was not the case at the beginning of the 1900s.
After a long period of pause, from today I resume posting some information taken from an old manual of female beauty belonged to an elderly aunt of mine.
It is a fun and curious text, which helps us understand the extraordinary progress of aesthetic treatments in just over a century.
I refer to To be beautiful ( Sonzogno, Milan 1906 ).
Read the extravagant recipes in vogue at that time, it makes you smile now, but it is still an important historical document to understand how our grandmothers and great-grandmothers took care of themselves at the beginning of the twentieth century ( see also: https://www.pilloledistoria.it/11915/storia-contemporanea/pomata-per-unghie-fai-da-te).
In an era in which deodorants as we know them today they did not exist yet, more rudimentary remedies were used for the hygiene of the armpits.
I quote verbatim: “[…] care must be taken to make abundant lotions every day with fresh alcoholized water, under the armpits.
In case you are particularly prone to armpit perspiration, I would advise you to dust them with alum and apply poultices of boiled thistle and yellow lily roots , in equal proportions. ”
I don't know about you, but I much prefer our deodorants! ( Photo from :focus.it).