ORIGINATED IN ENGLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1938, Page 8

ORIGINATED IN ENGLAND

POWDERING THE FACE AND HAIR.

Powdering in a modern sense appears to have originated in England towards the end of Elizabeth’s reign, and many allusions to its use were made satirically during the reigns of her successors. In time nearly every house of any pretensions had its powdering closet, which was sometimes lined with tin, and had a divided curtain hung in the middle of it. The person wishing to be powdered put his head through the curtain, and the powder was sprayed upon him. The ladies covered themselves with a dust-cloak and buried their faces in a long cone-shaped glass cover, which kept the powder out of their eyes and noses. The Puritans naturally were very against this habit, and in the “Musarum Delicae” of 1655 we read:

At the devill’s shopps you buy A dresse of powdered hayre, On which your feathers flaunt and flie; But I’de wish you have a care, Lest' Lucifer’s selfe, who is not prouder, Do one day dresse up your haire with a powder.

On May 5, 1795, William Pitt, being hard put to it to raise money, thought a lax of one guinea on everyone using hair-powder would bring about £200,000 into the Exchequer, so the duty was levied. The idea acted very well the first year, but after that it rapidly sank, as everyone began leaving off the use of hair-powder, to the great detriment of the barbers and hairdressers. In 1869 the tax was repealed, and then only about ,800 persons were using it, and it brought in about £l,OOO per annum.