Barley in Beauty Treatments?
Von Bingen included within her treatise a number of recipes for cosmetics and beauty products (Throop, p12). Once such recipe suggested that:
One whose face has hard and rough skin, made harsh from the wind, should cook barley in water and, having strained that water through a cloth, should bathe his face gently with the moderately warm water, the skin will come soft and smooth, and will have a beautiful colour.
As many of the recipes are for internal consumption (and haven’t been tested for human safety), we decided that we would stick to those external cosmetics recipes that we could ascertain would not be harmful. Recipes for the treatments we have included as part of our entry are as follows.
One whose face has hard and rough skin, made harsh from the wind, should cook barley in water and, having strained that water through a cloth, should bathe his face gently with the moderately warm water, the skin will come soft and smooth, and will have a beautiful colour.
As many of the recipes are for internal consumption (and haven’t been tested for human safety), we decided that we would stick to those external cosmetics recipes that we could ascertain would not be harmful. Recipes for the treatments we have included as part of our entry are as follows.
For Golden Gleaming Hair
Hair wash (Trotula, p169)
Take the ashes of burnt vine, the chaff of barley nodes and liquorice wood (so that it may more brightly shine) and sowbread.- boil the chaff and sowbread in water. With the chaff and the ash and the sowbread , let a pot having at it's base two or three openings be filled , let the water in which the chaff and sowbread were previous cooked be poured into the pot, so that it is strained by the small openings. With this cleanser let the woman wash her head, after washing, let her leave it to dry by its self and her hair will be golden and shimmering.
Redaction
Strain the water, removing all solid particles. Place the water in a pot. Place the the boiled chaff, ash and sow bread root into a linen bag, the let the water from the boiling strain through the mix. This water is then used to wash the hair.
*Note: Grape is one of our other Pentathlon pouch ingredients. Click here for information on burned grape vine as a pigment.
Take the ashes of burnt vine, the chaff of barley nodes and liquorice wood (so that it may more brightly shine) and sowbread.- boil the chaff and sowbread in water. With the chaff and the ash and the sowbread , let a pot having at it's base two or three openings be filled , let the water in which the chaff and sowbread were previous cooked be poured into the pot, so that it is strained by the small openings. With this cleanser let the woman wash her head, after washing, let her leave it to dry by its self and her hair will be golden and shimmering.
Redaction
- 100gm barley chaff
- 1 sowbread root sliced
- 30gm
ashes of burnt vine *
- 1/3 cup licorice root, ground
Strain the water, removing all solid particles. Place the water in a pot. Place the the boiled chaff, ash and sow bread root into a linen bag, the let the water from the boiling strain through the mix. This water is then used to wash the hair.
*Note: Grape is one of our other Pentathlon pouch ingredients. Click here for information on burned grape vine as a pigment.
To Cure Baldness
This is one of the more interesting recipes we have found which will be trialed on the day.
So that hair might grow wherever you wish. Take barley bread with good crust and grind it with salt and bear fat. But first burn the barley bread. With this mix annoint the place hair will grow.
Redaction
Burn the barley bread and grind the remains. Add the salt and lard and mix into an unguent. This makes enough of a rather pungent black ointment to annoint a willing guinea pig.
While we could have ordered bear fat off the Internet, this is neither morally acceptable nor feasible (given the permits required to import the product as all bears are protected internationally). So we decided to identify a fat which could be used in place of the bear fat. http://www.foodrenegade.com/healthy-fats/ is one of many sites discussing animal fats. Bear fat, lard (pig fat) and tallow (beef fat) have very similar qualities in their rendering, acidity, and quality in cooking. For the purpose of this exercise we substituted lard for bear fat.
So that hair might grow wherever you wish. Take barley bread with good crust and grind it with salt and bear fat. But first burn the barley bread. With this mix annoint the place hair will grow.
Redaction
- Approx 33gm barley bread (we used the bread from the bread test cooking as discussed above)
- 15 grams salt
- 50 grams of lard
Burn the barley bread and grind the remains. Add the salt and lard and mix into an unguent. This makes enough of a rather pungent black ointment to annoint a willing guinea pig.
While we could have ordered bear fat off the Internet, this is neither morally acceptable nor feasible (given the permits required to import the product as all bears are protected internationally). So we decided to identify a fat which could be used in place of the bear fat. http://www.foodrenegade.com/healthy-fats/ is one of many sites discussing animal fats. Bear fat, lard (pig fat) and tallow (beef fat) have very similar qualities in their rendering, acidity, and quality in cooking. For the purpose of this exercise we substituted lard for bear fat.