If you’re lucky enough to know a Hollywood star who’s been in the business since cameras were first invented, beware! You can borrow their clothes, their cars, their cash, but don’t you ever borrow any of their old Hollywood beauty tips. They’re horrendous! And while some of these seem pretty standard, others will make your skin feel like it’s melting out of your bones. With these controversial beauty rituals, we’re surprised that these Hollywood beauties lasted as long as they did on the silver screen. So here are some extremely controversial beauty regimens from old Hollywood that will make you scream, good grief!If you ever wondered how Hepburn achieved her doe-eyed look, you’ll wish you hadn’t. After applying her mascara, makeup artist Alberto de Rossi would separate her lashes one by one using a safety pin. But luckily he didn’t poke her eye out.
She not only restricted her diet to 500 calories a day, but also rolled around the ground wearing tight clothes to shed the pounds. This was apparently an attempt by Bow to maintain her contractual obligations of staying at 118 pounds.
Dietrich demanded that compressed gold, costing $60 per ounce, be sprinkled on her wigs so that she would sparkle onscreen according to the book “Max Factor: The Man Who Changed The Faces of the World.”
He had three wigs, according to “Max Factor: The Man Who Changed The Faces of the World.” He wore the shortest wig for four days, and then switched it for the medium length one. Then after a couple of days, he’d switch it for the longer wig to make it look like he had natural hair.
The trick was to tie the shin with an old silk stocking, fastened at the top of the head, locking the face to prevent the muscles from sagging and then laying on our back. According to actress Mildred Hollan, everyone thought that their faces would take on the shape of that mold, but obviously it didn’t.
According to the book “Hollywood’s Second Sex: The Treatment of Women in the Film Industry, 1900-1999,” the actress that is best known as Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” was forced to go on a diet of chicken soup, black coffee, and 80 cigarettes a day, which limited her caloric intake, but also got her hooked on diet pills.
“Hollywood’s Second Sex: The Treatment of Women in the Film Industry, 1900-1999” claims that Hayworth dyed her hair, underwent a year of hairline electrolysis, and changed her name from Margarita Carmen Cansino to Rita Hayworth because Hollywood execs claimed she needed to look less ethnic.
According to billionaire director Howard Hughes, not only did the actresses working under him had a curfew and a number of those ridiculous restrictions, that included slowing down when going over bumps to prevent their girls from sagging.
In her book, “My Way Of Life,” Joan kept her eyes clean by using boric acid and cold water twice a day. She’d also place pads soaked in boric acid over her eyelids and listened to some music while they worked their “magic.”
She encouraged women to sprinkle table salt all over them themselves and rub it with a moist sponge. Not only did she claim this would give them a quick pick up physically, but also emotionally because she believed that the salt relieved tension from the nerve endings.
She stuffed her upper lip with paper or cotton to make it appear like her lips were puffier. But this made things really awkward when she went out for dinner or when her co-stars tried to kiss her during a scene.
Frances would do 20 somersaults each night to keep her liver in check as well as indigestion. She also claimed that it would keep her complexion looking young, but that might have just been the result of her eating plain foods and gardening.
So she swung from her door frame, which she believed stretched her spine out, made her arm muscles firmer, and expanded her chest. She even went on record during an interview with Harper’s Bazaar stating that a flexible spine is the key to staying young.
To create the perfect shade of red on her lips, she used five different lipsticks and gloss, starting with darker reds on the outer edges, lighter shades in the middle, and a highlighted cupid’s bow and bottom lip. No wonder JFK couldn’t resist her.
She believed that to slow down the aging process, you need better blood flow, particularly on your face. So, she’d hang upside down for half an hour a day, which allegedly provided the nourishment her skin needed. But maybe she was a vampire trying to hide her true identity.
In 1940, Lupino told Screenland Magazine that a little table salt mixed into cleansing cream would give your skin the exfoliating workout it needed. But slapping your jawline with the back of your hand would restore a firm youthful appearance.
