The Great Victorian Hair Experiment: What, You Egg?
Technically my second wash of the two weeks was supposed to be tomorrow, but since I’ll be coming in late after work and too tired to deal with anything more complicated than shampoo and conditioner, I bumped it up to tonight.
And this was my hair wash:
Is that just an egg yolk in a bowl? Of course not!
It’s an egg yolk diluted with two teaspoons of water. In a bowl.
I wanted to try another, less harsh method, since I spent the past week reading horror stories about any kind of alkaline hair cleansers (like Castile soap). It seems even with an acid rinse, they can wreak havoc on your hair- and it can take as little as two washes. So I went with the humble egg instead.
This particular "shampoo” appears in plenty of period sources. An 1869 issue of Godey’s Lady’s Book recommends it. Empress Elisabeth “Sissi” of Austria swore by egg yolks and brandy to clean her floor-length tresses. And most distinguished of all, my mother remembers her grandmother- born in 1903 -washing her hair this way when she went to visit as a child. Bolstered by these shining testimonials, I picked a specific recipe, mixed it up, and applied it liberally to my scalp.
For once, here’s a method that was probably more pleasant when done fully clothed with a basin at the kitchen table than in the shower. The egg has to be washed out with water no hotter than lukewarm, lest it cook in your hair. I live in Boston, where it’s currently 19 degrees Fahrenheit and snowy, in a 100-year-old house with drafts aplenty. Getting under tepid water for even a few minutes took a lot of sheer willpower.
The egg mixture just felt watery. Other people online complained of the smell, but I couldn’t detect one. Not even as I sit typing this with my damp hair all around my face. My main complaint was that washing without lather always makes me feel like more of my hair is shedding and breaking when I scrub. That being said, I shed a fair bit every time I wash my hair with shampoo, so I think it was the same amount but more noticeable because it wasn’t getting washed away with the suds.
Also, I have a lifetime of experience telling when all the shampoo is out of my hair. How the hell does one tell when all the egg is out of one’s hair?
Well, I did my best. We’ll see the results tomorrow.