Ever caught yourself thinking, “Things were better in the past”? Especially when confronted with modern fashion. But delve deeper into centuries past, and you’ll realize why time travel isn’t on everyone’s wishlist. From colorful brows to corsets that squeezed down the waist to 13 inches, the historical panorama of fashion holds some intriguing, yet sometimes eyebrow-raising secrets.

In the late 14th century, during the reign of Queen Isabeau of Bavaria, fashionistas sought to emulate the features of infants with high foreheads and graceful swan-like necks. Women enthusiastically pursued this trend, resorting to extreme measures such as shaving their hairlines and plucking their brows to achieve the pure and innocent resemblance of babies.

In Ancient Rome, noble women spared no expense for flawless complexions, resorting to a rather unconventional skincare regimen: the sweat of gladiators. This bodily secretion was collected, mixed with olive oil, and touted as a miraculous elixir for improving skin tone. The Romans, it seems, had a rather unique interpretation of beauty.

The Mayans had a distinctive beauty standard: they preferred flat and elongated heads, inspired by the shape of corn, which they linked to their deities. To achieve this look, parents would flatten their infants’ soft skulls using wooden boards. While this practice was most common among the nobility, it was also widespread throughout Mayan society.

In the 1940s, heated face masks weren’t as common as they are today. However, a beauty expert named Ann Drew came up with an innovative solution. Her helmet heated the scalp electrically while the mask warmed the face, providing a unique and advanced beauty treatment for the era.

During the Georgian era, individuals resorted to painful methods to attain the look of flawless porcelain teeth. They used a powder, often containing sulfuric acid, to whiten their teeth, which unfortunately resulted in their decay. Wealthy patrons sought alternatives, such as “implants” made from live donors’ teeth. These teeth were inserted into empty spaces and secured with wire, offering an expensive yet highly sought-after solution

In the 17th century, dresses for women featured daringly low necklines that might even shock today’s fashionistas. Yet, women of that era not only embraced these revealing styles but also enhanced their allure by painting blue veins on their skin to create the illusion of delicate, translucent beauty.

Throughout history, eyebrows have borne the brunt of conforming to ever-changing beauty standards. Ancient Greece, for instance, popularized the unibrow, and those lacking naturally occurring ones resorted to goat hair “wigs” to comply.

During the 2nd to 3rd centuries in China, colorful eyebrows became all the rage after an emperor ordered his wives to wear blue-tinted arches. To fulfill this request, women shaved off their natural brows and meticulously drew on new ones using expensive imported ink. This not only pleased the emperor but also showcased his wealth to others, as only the wealthy could afford foreign inks.

In the 18th century, England saw a surge in the desire for extremely pale skin. To achieve this, women resorted to unconventional methods, including the use of exotic ingredients like dried horse dung. However, the most hazardous practice involved the use of lead-based whitewash for the face. Interestingly, the highest concentrations of lead were often found in the red paint used to accentuate the lips and cheeks for contrast.

Corsets, precursors to the modern waist trainer, made their debut in Europe during the 15th or 16th century and gained prominence under Catherine de’ Medici’s reign. These constricting garments were capable of reducing waistlines to 13 inches, albeit at the expense of internal organ health, and epitomized the era’s beauty ideals.

Here are some more fashion trends from the past that reveal the extraordinary measures people took in the name of beauty.