lulu ⋆

TW: disgusting information

I mean the eyelash-sewing scene. I used to think it was some kind of historical myth about "terrible 1800s" so I didn't take this information seriously. The release of this film motivated me to do more research and I found something interesting:

Eyelash sewing is mentioned in many newspapers from 1880-1890s. For example, here is an article from the Dundee Courier newspaper:

"There are specialists who make a handsome living out of the process of transplanting hair from the head to the eyebrows or eyelashes. The specialist works by putting in, not on, the new eyelashes and brows wherever they are absent or grow thin, and so cunning is be in his work that not even the closesr scrunity can detect any difference.

This is the way nes eyelashes are put in: - An ordinary fine needle is threaded with a long gair, generally taken from the head of the person to be operated upom. The lower border of the eyelid is then thoroughly cleaned, and in order that the process may be as painless as possible rubbed with a solution of cocaine. The operator then by a fed skilful touches runs his needle through the extreme edges of the eyelid between the epidermus and the lower border of the cartilage of the tragus. The needle passes in and out along the edge of the lid, leaving its hair thread in loops of carefully graduated length"

1899

And here's what was written in The Truth:

"Truly the inventions this nineteenth century has brought forth are wonderful, but surely one of the most marvellous in this: - The Parisians have found out how to make false eyelashes. I do not speak of the vulgar and well-known trick of darkening the rim round the eye with all kinds of dirty compositions, or more artistic plan of doing so to the inside of the lid. No, they actually draw a fine needle, threaded with dark hair, through the skin of the eyelid, forming long loops, and after the process in ober (I am told it is a painless one), a splendid dark fringe veuls the coquette's eyes"

1882

Here the author of the article mentions Paris. So what about French magazines? I found a short article from La croix:

Translate from French (there may be mistakes, I'm sorry): "The operation by which this precious result is obtained closely resembles a torture, but creatures patient enough to remain for four hours of clock in the hands of an enameller who covers their face, arms and shoulders with varnish, are able to face all the sufferings to reach the illusion of plastic perfection. Armed with a thin needle from which hangs a long hair of a shade matching the patient's hair, sometimes a hair borrowed from this very hair, the operator attacks the extreme edge of the eyelid between the epidermis and the slight greasy hem that ends it. The needle is connected to it in the manner of a small-point seam, the hair remaining loose and forming on the outside a loop two centimeters in diameter. When the entire eyelid is sewn in this way, a stroke of a chisel separates the hair into two rows of thick eyelashes that then just need to be rolled up using a small silver curling iron, large at most like a knitting needle. The same is done for the lower eyelid by curling the natural false eyelashes in the other direction. The patient then keeps an oil blindfold on her eyes for half a day; and the very next day there is no trace left of the operation"

1895

Also there's a small note from La Charente:

Translate: "...the operator takes a number of hairs, as long as possible, threads one into a needle, grabs the edge of the eyelid to be adorned and sew there, at the small point, the hair that must form a serie of loops that will be separated by small scissor strokes to form the eyelashes, Then, a hot iron blow gives the roll-up natural and the patient must keep for a long time- ze hours, applied to the eyes, a blindfold oiled that activates the healing of bites from the needle, - and voila!"

1908

Strangely, none of these newspapers provides a specific source of information. There's no mention of any specialist involved in this, nor the names of places where such a procedure could be performed (it seems it was done by hairdressers who had experience in stitching wigs). At the same time, the Dundee Courier, La croix and La Charente provide anatomically detailed descriptions of such procedures. La croix and The Truth are extremely conservative publications, so they could spread unverified but scandalous information. But The Truth had reputation as an "exposer" (at least in the 1880s)

These articles can't be considered as advertisement because for the most part they're disgusting, which suggests that perhaps journalists exaggerated the real events. But something about this whole story seems really disturbing to me