What's the strangest beauty ritual you've ever heard of? We took a look at some of the most extreme treatments around the world, and one thing seems very clear …
There is no one "ideal" for beauty. It varies widely from culture to culture.
Would you try any of these beauty rituals?
Image via MyLoupe/UIG via Getty Images
Snail Slime
The practice of using snail secretions as moisturizer began with the Ancient Greeks and later with Chilean farmers. Snail gel entered the modern beauty market a few years ago in Korea and has jumped the pond. You too can get your hands on the snail stuff! Then again, you could probably harvest your own from the backyard.
Lip Plates
Mursi women of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia wear disks of clay in their lower lips. Starting at the age of 15 or 16, girls have an incision made in their lips where small plates are inserted. Gradually, those plates are replaced with larger and larger plates as the skin stretches. Their original use was to serve food to their husbands.
Lashing With Tree Branches
In a Russian banya, or bath house, you soak in a hot tub of water first. Then, someone lashes you with young reeds or birch branches, and you soak in a cold bath. Or you jump into some snow. It's a bracing spa treatment. Finally, you go eat pickled fish and drink vodka. Nostrovia!
More from The Stir: 8 of the Weirdest Beauty Treatments You Can Try
Scarification
Fulani women in Western Africa consider this facial scarring beautiful. First, they incise the design with a razor blade, then they rub charcoal powder mixed with cream into the wound to tint the scar.
Nightingale Poo Facial
They call it a Geisha facial, and it's a Japanese treatment now available in the U.S. The droppings of nightingales are collected, santized (hopefully), and dried. Finally, they're mixed with rice ban and water to make an enzyme-rich face mask.
Neck Rings
The so-called Giraffe Women of Kayah, Burma, start wearing these brass rings around their necks starting as early as the age of 5. The rings don't actually lengthen the necks — instead, they push down the muscles around the collar bones and compress the ribs.
V-Steam
The Korean practice Chai-yok involves squatting pantless over a steaming-hot pot of wormwood and mugwort in order to cleanse your vagina — and now, you can get the treatment stateside! Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan. (But most doctors advise against it.)
More from The Stir: 10 Totally Bizarre Beauty Treatment Ingredients
Foot Binding
Foot binding has all but disappeared in China. But at one time, girls would have their feet wrapped in bandages so tightly their arches would break over the span of months and years. The process created smaller-sized, lotus-blossom-shaped feet. This photo shows a foot from the Liuyi "Bound Feet Women" Village in the Yunnan Province, where 100 women over 70 still show the results of this ancient beauty ritual.
Fish Pedicure
Tiny Garra rufa fish have been used for centuries in Turkey for a special pedicure treatment. The fish suck away rough skin from your feet (they don't have teeth, so they don't bite). The treatment became popular worldwide a few years ago, but concerns about the spreading of infections (there's no way to sanitize the water the fish live in) has led to fish pedicures being banned in several states in the U.S.
Kohl Eyeliner
Your favorite heavy black eyeliner has ancient roots. Lining eyes with kohl began in regions like Egypt and India. The highest-quality cosmetic was made from lead sulfide (though you could stretch your supply with soot). It was used by women and men, it was thought to have magical properties, and it helped cut the sun's glare in the desert. It's even antimicrobial, so it was kind of healthy.
More from The Stir: 11 Embarrassing Celebrity Beauty Blunders
