Nose Clips and Chin Straps

"The Strand", Volume 33

"The Strand"', Volume 33

Text from "My Secrets of Beauty", by Lina Cavalieri, 1914:

"The nose clamp is a new and amusing device adopted by beauties and would-be beauties to prevent the spreading of the nostrils and to give the nose, that would otherwise be too round, a delicate point. I have called on my friends in the morning and have been received in their bedrooms. They looked very charming in their night robes of delicate batiste, embroidered and further ornamented with pink and blue bows, not pink and blue bows on different gowns, but combined in the same gown. Their hair carefully parted from the point of the forehead to the back of the neck, and braided in two loose braids, either hangs becomingly over their shoulders, one braid tied with a blue bow, the other with a pink, to match the ribbon garniture of the night robe, or is twisted loosely around the head. Their complexions looked fresh and cool from their bath of cold cream, but they all looked odd, and I shrieked with laughter at them because they wore nose clamps. One who disliked the touch of the cold metal substituted the homely domestic article, the clothespin. Both the clamp and the clothespin are well protected by a lining of white silk or velvet. Absurd as these things look, I was assured by all who wore them that they served admirably their purpose...

...Women are beginning to realize that sagging muscles, rather than a superabundance of flesh, are the cause of the double chin. They are preventing, as far as possible, the falling cheek muscles and the pendulousness of the chin muscles by hardening them with lumps of ice held in the hand and pressed against those muscles as long as the pressure can be endured; also by wearing chin bandages.


First the fancy, then the fad, then the flitting. This is the history of most announced discoveries of the means to heighten beauty. They have their little hour of discipleship; their impulsive following; their period of vanishing. Yet beneath nearly all the beauty fads there is a more or less well applied principle of science.


For instance, there is the rubber chin band. The band to control the usurping flesh of the double chin was first of muslin. Then it was improved by the use of elastic. Now it has evolved to its best state, that of strong yet light rubber, made with a throat latch resembling the lower part of a horse's halter. Attached by a clasp on either side are straps that fasten at the top of the head. The original idea of compressing the flesh so that it would form in a smaller and becoming mold was sound, but the later idea of using rubber appeals still more to common knowledge. The wearing of rubber next to the skin causes perspiration.


Therefore, the rubber band will not only hold the flesh of the pendulous chin in place, but by causing free perspiration it will gradually reduce its size. The rubber band, worn at night, and frequently during the day, for a half hour or more at a time, is the best cure for the double chin the new year has offered us."

"The Strand", Volume 33

Lina Cavalieri, "the Most beautiful woman of her time", image source, wikipedia

New Noses in 40 minutes!

From Popular Science Magazine, 1937. The enduring popularity of the nose job stems from a fear of looking "ethnic".  The definition of beauty has thankfully expanded in recent years to include all ethnicities but we are still bombarded with images of celebrities with their trimmed, "anglo" noses.

In the early part of this century there was a concerted effort to market cosmetics and cosmetic surgery via the newly coined "inferiority complex". Not happy with your skin, hair, figure or nose? We have lotions, potions, powder, exercise devices and surgery to correct these problems!

A Beauty Factory

Everybody's Magazine, 1900

Apparently dimples, in chins and in cheeks, were quite desirable back in the day...

Renaissance Rhinoplasty

Early Rhinoplasty was performed for two reasons. Syphilis was common in the Renaissance and advanced syphilis ate away the flesh and cartilage of the nose. There was also the fact that duels were common and the nose was an easy target~! I was surprised to learn that experiments in plastic surgery were performed at such an early date. Not many were successful, a notable exception was the Vianeo bros. method of rhinoplasty.  The surgery was complicated and the recovery time long...

Calabrian Method of Rhinoplasty, 1597

The above illustration and following text are taken from the book, "The Professor of Secrets", by William Eamon.


"First they gave the patient a purgative. Then they took pincers and grabbed the skin in the left arm between the shoulder and the elbow and passed a large knife between the pincers and the muscle, cutting a slit in the skin. They passed a small piece of wool or linen under the skin and medicated it until the skin thickened. When it was just right, they cut the nose to fit the end of the little skin flap. Then they snipped the skin on the arm at one end and sewed it to the nose. They bound it there so artfully that it could not be moved in any way until the skin had grown onto the nose. When the skin flap was joined to the nose, they cut the other end from the arm. They skinned the lip of the mouth and sewed the flap of skin from the arm onto it, and medicated it until it was joined to the lip. Then they put a metal form on it, and fastened it there until the nose grew into it to the right proportions. It remained well formed but somewhat whiter than the face. It's a fine operation and an excellent experience."


Eamon is quoting from the writings of Leonardo Fioravanti in the above referenced material. The emphasis on "excellent experience is mine... sarcasm ON.  I... think... NOT.


from Eamon:


"One can only imagine what excruciating agony the operation must have caused. Added to the pain of surgery was the discomfort the patient had to suffer during the prolonged healing process. The entire operation could take as long as 45 days, including 15 days in which the arm was bound to the head in a harness as the skin graft took hold. The risk of infection to the open wound also must have been high...


...Those who endured the operation seem to have deemed the discomfort and inconvenience well worth it. The humanist Camillo Porzio, who underwent the procedure in 1561 to restore a nose that had been cut off in a fight with a jealous husband, admitted that he had "suffered the greatest trials" during the operation, yet he was pleased with the results, deeming his new nose "so similar to the first one that it will be difficult for those who do not know to realize that it is not the same.""