Hello it's Ruby and today I am going to be showing you a Victorian morning routine.
So the morning starts at 7:30am. A Victorian upper class woman would have been woken by
her lady's maid. When I actually tried following this routine, that obviously didn't happen.
But for the purposes of this video, my mum has stepped in and pretended to be a lady's
maid. Just so you get a better idea of what this would have looked like.
So you might be wondering why this window has been left open overnight in winter! Dr
Henry Chavesse said it was "madness to sleep in a room without ventilation".
If it was too cold, you could put a bowl of water in the room instead and it was thought
that the water would absorb all of the bad toxins in the air.
So first thing's first -- it is time for TEA! Tea would be brought up by
a lady's maid. Drinking this tea in bed was such a massive
treat and I kind of wish I could do this every day.
Still in the night dresses, women would bathe standing up. Some used cold water because
it was thought it could improve circulation but I used warm because it's January!
If you wanted to use soap, you had to use hot water because Victorian soap didn't lather
in cold water. Soap was also still quite expensive in this
period, but the Industrial Revolution made it cheaper and more accessible (soap brands
like Pears).
You would then use a powder puff to dry off and as a deodorant.
Victorian ladies would be dressed by their lady's maids, but I obviously didn't do that!
After getting dressed, there is more getting ready! So going back over to the wash basin.
A really key part of a Victorian woman's morning routine was caring for her hands, which I
found quite funny when researching. So, first, you put your hands in a bowl of
warm water for a few minutes to soften the nails. This actually feels so nice.
Next she would rub lemon into her nails to bleach them for a few minutes.
Then she would trim and file her nails. Then for five minutes on each hand according
to Goodman, she would polish the nails. That is a long time polishing!
And finally she would put hand cream on her nails.
Some of these rules were outlined in the Lady's Every Day Book.
Perfect nails and very pale hands were fashionable in this period because it was a sign that
somebody hadn't worked.
So the face would be washed with lemon to remove blemishes (the most popular face treatment).
I really didn't like doing this - it made my skin sticky!