Those Ponytails Stuck on the Top of Samurais' Heads



The iconic image of a Japanese warrior (or today, sumo wrestler) comes complete with a weird hairstyle in which the front of the head is shaved while the remaining mullet is bound up in a bun or topknot. The origin of this bizarre haircut, called "chonmage," goes all the way back to the age of the samurai, as it helped to keep a samurai's helmet on his head.





Since the samurai class were wealthy and influential nobility, it didn't take long for the style to catch on among the Japanese public, who longed to be sword-slinging badasses. Over time, it became traditional for boys turning 13 to shave the front of their heads and adopt the samurai hairstyle to signal that they had become men. Hair neatness was so important in Japan that artists usually employed messy hair as shorthand to represent someone who had been in some way disgraced.




The fashion was pretty widespread until globalization forced the Japanese to realize that the rest of the world found their hairstyles absolutely ridiculous -- which is a ballsy claim, considering everyone in the West was wearing powdered wigs at the time (but more on that later).



A story from 1863 recounts the adventures of two Japanese students who covered their chonmage hairstyles with hats while visiting Holland. When forced to remove the hats at the theater, they caused such an uproar of hilarity that the play had to be stopped, and the story made the national press the next day. It's just another example of a national pastime ruined by racism.



These days, the legacy of chonmage remains almost solely with sumo wrestlers, who are too fat to be bothered with your criticism of their hairstyles.

Neck Rings



In certain African and Asian cultures neck rings are worn to assist a woman’s matrimonial chances. Girls as young as two were fitted with spiraled metal coils, and these were gradually increased, some by as much as twenty turns.



The neck doesn’t elongate of course. That’s called execution by hanging and as such is not a very effective fashion trend. What happens is the weight of the collar depresses the collar bone and ribs down to a position forty five degrees below what is normal.

Huge, Ridiculous Powdered Wigs



The fastest way to identify a movie as a period piece is when everyone important in the film is wearing a stupid-looking wig. Kings and aristocrats, presidents, politicians and composers are always decked out in elaborate white/blond curly wigs, often adorned with plaits, ribbons and bows. In Britain and Australia, judges and barristers still wear them. So who the hell thought that was a good idea?



Blame King Louis XIII of France. The French monarchy had long suffered from a hereditary condition of embarrassing male pattern baldness, and so, tired of being mocked by the King of England, Louis wore a badass wig to show that he was the most virile king around. Before long, his unconventional style became a fashion statement in the royal court, with most of the king's men adopting the elaborate hairpieces, whether they were bald or not.



With France being the center of European culture in the 17th century, anything that was sexy in France quickly spread to the rest of Europe. As aristocrats tried to outdo one another, the wigs, called perukes or periwigs, became more and more fabulous. This led to the creation of a whole industry of wig-makers, who established their own guild in 1665. The wigs became such a part of the culture that you had to wear a wig to move upward in society. By the late 1700s, men were pouring a starch-based powder over their wigs to make them as white as possible.



The wig craze died in England when the government sensed a money-making opportunity and imposed a hefty tax on hair powder. At the same time, a minor incident in France called the French Revolution made it kind of uncool to be seen in public wearing a symbol of the aristocracy. But until then, the peruke phenomenon had been one of the most long-standing and weirdest fashion crazes in European history. All because the King of France was self-conscious about his bald spot.

That Dark Eye Makeup Egyptians Wore



The Egyptians produced so much art in their time that you can almost certainly reproduce your average Egyptian fresco from memory with a pencil and paper -- everyone in profile, standing around and staring out with one giant eyeliner-ringed eyeball.



There was a practical purpose behind the distinctive Egyptian chic. It turns out that the Egyptians' affinity for eyeliner served the same purpose as the black smears on a modern football player's cheekbones -- it helped to reduce glare from the oppressive desert sunlight.



Not only was the Egyptian desert bright enough to begin with, but as we've pointed out before, the pyramids were originally covered in a white limestone coating so that every venture outside your hut was like someone shining a spotlight directly into your eyes for 10 hours. Slapping a thick layer of black gunk around their eyes was a minor but welcome relief from the constant light assault the Egyptians were subjected to.



Also, see those little cone things on their heads? They really served as the Egyptian method for dealing with the fact that they all reeked like nothing you could imagine. The lifestyle of a desert environment comes prepackaged with the reality that most of your daily activities are going to revolve around contact with somebody else's sweat. The cones were actually composed of animal fat and perfume, which would melt during the day and produce an aroma to offset their intolerable stench.

The Lip Plate Custom



The lip plate, also known as a lip plug or lip disc, is a form of body modification. Increasingly large discs (usually circular, and made from clay or wood) are inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. The term labret denotes all kinds of pierced-lip ornaments, including plates and plugs.



In many older sources it is reported that the plate's size is a sign of social or economical importance in some tribes. However, because of natural mechanical attributes of human skin, it seems that the plate's size often just depends on the stage of stretching of the lip and the wishes of the wearer.



Many recent sources claim that, for Mursi and Surma women, the size of their lip plate indicates the number of cattle paid as the bride price.



In recent times, facial modifications are increasingly popular.

[img]http://4.bp..com/-oDYab3hCQ8w/UJ2R2yVNYAI/AAAAAAAABsg/WKGezK_vULs/s400/10815h.jpg[/img]

Foot Binding

[img]http://3.bp..com/-WtrSjN0wuI0/T5D3UpgAPTI/AAAAAAAAA-U/l1hlRUxu5Pc/s320/582px-A_HIGH_CASTE_LADYS_DAINTY_LILY_FEET.jpg[/img]

Footbinding first became fashionable China in around the eighth century and persisted for almost a thousand years. Women were literally crippled by this custom.



A noble woman in Imperial China with normal feet was practically unmarriageable. (Only peasants had normal feet, because they needed to get about in the fields and work. A real lady showed her status by staggering around in agony or having someone carry her.)

[img]http://3.bp..com/-NDv-BOD88kA/T5D4QBIUvgI/AAAAAAAAA-c/LN7EypBtZ-0/s320/769px-Bound_feet_%28X-ray%29.jpg[/img]

While still a small child a rich girl had her feet soaked in a bath of urine and vinegar, then all the toes except the big one were folded under the foot, and secured with tight bandages. This soaking and binding process would continue throughout the girl’s childhood, with the result that the feet never grew more than three inches long

Often this disgusting procedure led to gangrene; this was considered a good thing as the rotting toes would then fall off and cease being a nuisance! The ideal of perfection was to have hardly any foot at all.

sources: http://www.cracked.com/article_19347_6-weird-fashions-from-history-with-weirder-explanations.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip_plate
http://colin-falconer..co.uk/2012/04/six-more-strange-fashion-trends-from.html
https://www.google.com
OP

Wow

I KNOW RIGHT !!!

#1 is the most shocking and intriguing of them all.

People suffered due to what was deemed aesthetic at the time

But some pple dull sha o,imagine feet binding! Nd dat plate carrying lip thng?
God av mercy...weird is an understatement for all wat I jst read nd saw.

Vickii Ro: But some pple dull sha o,imagine feet binding! Nd dat plate carrying lip thng?
God av mercy...weird is an understatement for all wat I jst read nd saw.

I tell you!

In fact, I just googled the definition of fashion once more lol

I wonder what our generations would think about our fashion sense.

I'm yet to get over the foot binding that must have hurt!! damn!!

aniiii:

I tell you!

In fact, I just googled the definition of fashion once more lol

I wonder what our generations would think about our fashion sense.

I'm yet to get over the foot binding that must have hurt!! damn!!

Different strokes for different folks....As long as it hurts,I aint doing it even if its d latest fashion
Wetin? To look" in d now" na by force

aniiii:
However, because of natural mechanical attributes of human skin, it seems that the plate's size often just depends on the stage of stretching of the lip and the wishes of the wearer.



Many recent sources claim that, for Mursi and Surma women, the size of their lip plate indicates the number of cattle paid as the bride price.

.... Used to tink dis lip plate stuff was sumtin sum slave trade era sh...t by em slave masters... Din knw twas fashion..

the asian foot stuff s jst STUUUUPID!!!!

Gzus!!!... foot binding , lip plate *faints*.

ocephraim:

.... Used to tink dis lip plate stuff was sumtin sum slave trade era sh...t by em slave masters... Din knw twas fashion..

the asian foot stuff s jst STUUUUPID!!!!

we learn new things everyday

ikr!! It is an extremely bizarre fashion idea.

pocahontess: Gzus!!!... foot binding , lip plate *faints*.

All in the name of fashion !

Foot binding Dats bizarre
Neck rings Dats extremly stupid
Worst of dem all, lip plates, jeeez dats nonsence, hw d hell do dey eat

lol

I think their lips are the only affected areas.

Surely, the ability to munch is still intact.

Na wa oooo

Blood of Abu Mikey!!!.......I sweri Gad if to say na this Modern era,dem nor go do me like dis oo...cos I nor go gree!! Fuccccck!!!

lol i'm sure you wear male skinny jeans

dat wan na punishment na

its d lip plate thing that has me roflmao,its actually making a comebak in d modern era,dis time its called d duckface phenomenon(u kno d faces most ladies make tryin to tak a pic)

yeh, I get you.

But, damn!! I would rather have my lips elongated than to lose my foot

I thought this was a really cool thread when I first saw it, glad it made front page.

I just might add more, great job aniii

I think the inspiration for those elongated neck rings must have come from giraffes!

I fuxx with the Egyptians - they were trendsetters.

However those mofos with gaddemn plates in their mouths must be waiting for manna from heaven.

Where they do that at? - fixing plates permanently in their mouths and shyte.

Those people must be from somewhere in the horn of Africa.

Is that neck for real?

BLIND FASHIONS mteeeeew

Inyanga de pain

Haha diz one na iyonu o.....no b fashion.....

Hmmmm, that foot binding is so gross, it would involve crushing the metatarsals. The lip plate is even nothing to talk about.