With a ruler known for kicking ass and taking names, the Mongol empire is considered one of
the most savage yet effective military expansions in the history of humankind.
Maybe that’s why beauty and grace aren’t the first words that jump to mind
for this bath-loathing “empire on hooves.” But surprise! Their beauty standards were actually
pretty woke. Today on Nutty History, we’re exploring the radically different
idea of beauty in the Mongol Empire. Saddle up for Genghis Khan’s glow up!
The 13th century was not an easy time to be a woman...is it ever? In western civilization,
aside from the general male dominance of society, a woman had to look so pale that if she walked
out at night, people might mistake her for Dracula. Things weren’t much better in Asia,
where female subjugation was a norm of many countries. Along with generally being a second
class citizen, shudder-inducing practices like feet-binding were all too popular. To sum it up,
women had a rough time maintaining their nickname of “the fairer sex.” Enter Mongolia! Mongol women
actually lived a very liberal life for their time, maybe even for ours. They enjoyed an equal status
to Mongol men, and while beauty was important, it didn’t matter as much as brains and brawn.
According to ancient Mongol literature, to look beautiful a woman must have “light in her face
and fire in her eyes.” No, they weren’t buying fire-colored contact lenses from the gas station.
The general sentiment was that attractiveness was less about physical looks and more about
intelligence and bravery. Perhaps something similar to what Jon Snow
liked about Ygritte in Game of Thrones. Of course, she’s also super good-looking...
Not only did Mongol women prefer riding horses and setting up tents to contouring,
Mongol men shared their nonchalance toward beauty. They preferred women of
their society to be hardworking and wise, and outer beauty fell lower on the priority list.
Pretty surprising considering Genghis Khan made conquered women of other cultures perform
pageant competitions for his pleasure...but we’ll take our historical wins where we can get them.
Of course, prioritizing intelligence doesn’t mean the Mongols were completely
immune to beauty standards. I mean...look at those rosy cheeks and that fanciful ‘fit.
These two look runway ready. Their signature look - the ruddy cheeks - were actually a
product of their location. The cold winter and high altitude of the Mongolian empire worked as
a natural rouge. As royal families were expected to look better than the rest of the subjects,
they would apply red paints on their cheeks to further enhance their distinctive pink color.
Blessed with naturally high cheekbones and oval eyes, Mongols used the soot of
castor oils as homemade eyeliner. This was actually common among both men and women,
so you can credit Genghis Khan as the trendsetter of the guyliner craze. Sorry Pete Wentz.
In the current world, most beauty practices begin with a thorough cleansing. Saunas,
deep face washes, bubble baths...exfoliating that dead skin, dirt, and pollution is a key first step
to that fresh smooth skin. Gotta begin with a clean canvas. Yeah that’s gonna be a hard pass
from the Mongols. They were more terrified of the bath than your cat. But unlike Fluffy, they
had an explanation. In the old Mongol religion of Tengrism, Genghis Khan and his subjects believed
that using water to clean oneself would pollute it and thus anger the Dragon god that controls
the water cycle. The same rule applied to clothing. Mongols never washed their clothes,
and only changed them for special occasions or when they became too worn and torn to wear. So the
outfit of the day was...pretty much the outfit of every day. But hey, the musk was half the charm!
For a society so passionately anti-bath, amazingly, Mongols had pretty good-looking skin.
To maintain smooth skin, Mongol women applied a thick paste of fresh yogurt made of cow or goat
milk to their bodies. A moisturizing routine that doubles as breakfast! Another expensive
and rich skincare solution was sheep tail fat. It’s probably not part of your skincare arsenal,
but maybe it should be...It’s thought that sheep tail fat actually has more collagen and offers
more moisturization than modern skincare products. Since Mongolia has a very arid climate,
that tail fat was working double, giving some extra moisture to these Mongol queens.
One of the most important parts of Mongol beauty was long hair,
and tying those long locks into braids strong enough to scale Rapunzel’s tower. After all,
all that long hair flying around on horseback would probably get in the way of your arrow aim.
This was kinda compulsory for both men and women. In general, there wasn’t much distinction between
genders in old Mongol society except division of labor, which also sometimes overlapped.
Fashion and hair care were no exception, and practices were shared between the two sexes.
Braiding was only differentiated by the method. Men would braid their hair behind their back
while women would go for two sideways braids that went over their shoulders. Ok, we don’t
have evidence that Genghis Khan sat in on a braid circle, but I’m just going to imagine that he did.
Mongol men and women also decorated their braids with velvet fabric and wove silver
and coral ornaments to bling them up. But having two braids to men’s one wasn’t enough of a pop for
the women - they also wore decked out head pieces that they somehow worked without toppling over.
These elaborate headdresses that went along with the braids were quite a statement piece. Made
with hardened mutton fat, silver, and turquoise, these huge head toppers were a sign of wealth.
The exotic headdresses even inspired the Star Wars franchise - a spin off version earned a
role crowning the head of Queen Amidala in the prequels. Obviously a royal-worthy fashion. So,
what do you think? Could you give up bathing and live on dry mountains for the free blush?
Or would the trip be worth it just to rock that headdress? Tell it to us in the comments, along
with what other nutty times of beauty you’d like to see next. Thanks for watching Nutty History.