18 December – Elizabethan courtiers dyed their hair and beards red

4 months ago Author: Claire Ridgway

1 Comment

Elizabethan courtiers paid tribute to their queen, Elizabeth I, by dyeing their hair and beards red.

However, the recipe they used for the dye may not have been at all safe!

Posted in : Tudor Times

Tags : Tudor hair dye , Tudor red hair

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C December 18, 2023 at 4:04 pm

Aw she’s so beautiful whenever I see her I want to cuddle her, and she seems very well behaved to, it certainly does make you wonder how man survived through the ages the amount of times they diced death, what with wars plagues and famine then the awful remedies doctors treated them with, then arriving at the subject of beauty, not only was it very dangerous to use sulphur as a means to dye one’s hair, and this chemical was used by alchemists but it must have caused many burns and scarring, then there was the white lead Elizabeth 1st used on her complexion which some doctors have pondered could have contributed to her death, they had absolutely no idea of how poisonous these chemicals were and really it was a case of trial and error, and the lead itself could well have caused brain damage, maybe it brought on early dementia? It was noticed towards the last years of her life the old queen began behaving quite odd, it makes one shudder to think how these people abused their bodies all in the process of divine approval.

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