# Extreme Beauty Practices
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 1, 2005, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878 "2005-11-01T07:43:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/1 "2005-11-01T07:43:11Z")
I’m doing an Cutltural Anthropology paper on strange Beauty practices in other countries. Namely extreme beauty practices.
I’ve got Asia and Africa covered, but I’m trying to cover the America’s (central, north and south) and the Islands (all them included in this)
For instance I have the Padung Women of Thailnad, who are known as the “Giraffe” women for their practice of placing brass rings around their necks every year to help elongate their necks as a form of beauty, wealth, and status…the same is with the Massai women of Africa. And the foot binding thing in China.
For Africa I have the same thing with the neck rings and then there’s scarification as form of beauty to the indigenous and tribal people there.
I can’t think of anything or find anything on the internet pertaining to the America’s.
I think I might have something for the islands…maybe “Tatoo”. But the America’s thing is killing me.
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/2 "2005-11-01T07:53:33Z")
bikini waxing
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/3 "2005-11-01T08:01:47Z")
cosmetic surgeries of all kinds, hair bleaching, gastric bypasses (not solely for beauty purposes)
pulling eyebrows, getting teeth capped, chemical peels, botox
tattooed lipliner, tattooed eyebrows, tattooed eyeliner
wearing a bra, wearing a girdle, wearing pantyhose
wearing contacts, wearing colored contacts
starving yourself to death
working out with weights
wearing spike heels with narrow pointy toes
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/4 "2005-11-01T08:03:33Z")
cooking the skin in the sun
mud baths
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/5 "2005-11-01T08:03:52Z")
Michael Jackson or plastic surgery addiction. Piercing, bodybuilding (steroid enhanced)
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/6 "2005-11-01T08:11:28Z")
Sorry for multiple posts. I just keep thinking of all the things we do that are so common.
Fake fingernails. (I don’t think they are acrylic anymore, but I don’t know what they call it.)
Fake eyelashes
Piercings
jewelry
huge wardrobes
Electrolysis
Wigs
Hair transplants
I’m beginning to wonder if any other culture does so much!
Cosmetics
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### Author:  [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/7 "2005-11-01T08:23:51Z")
I’ve got all those already.
what I mean is for indigenous tribes or native american. something that was in practice until modernism came along and made people change their ways to conform with the current society. Doesn’t even have to be that, but just need some odd beauty practice.
anyone know of any severe pierceing tribes in the america’s, that the women did as a sign of beauty? Something thats on the way out the door.
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/8 "2005-11-01T09:03:31Z")
> [@Zoe](#):
>
> working out with weights
Well, this one does have some health benefits. Although it’s somewhat associated with vain, competitive narcissists.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/9 "2005-11-01T11:15:40Z")
> [@levdrakon](#):
>
> what I mean is for indigenous tribes or native american. something that was in practice until modernism came along and made people change their ways to conform with the current society. Doesn’t even have to be that, but just need some odd beauty practice.
A number of native tribes of North America used to use boards to purposely flatten and deform the skulls of infants. This did not cause any harm, but it did result in some very strange head shapes. Think it was mostly a northwest coast of North America thing.
And the Central/South American civilizations like the Maya and Inca were heavily into ear and nose piercing.
The Nez Pierce tribe acquired their French/English name because for awhile they were piercing their noses, but the practice died out.
A number of tribes, particularly among the artic peoples, practiced tattooing. The Inuit practice was a little different than most, in that they didn’t jab a needle into the skin but rather used a needle to draw a thread covered with pigment just under the skin surface, which sounds very nasty-painful to me.
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### Author:  [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/10 "2005-11-01T14:17:32Z")
The Mayans did that head-flattening thing to infants. They would tie a board to a baby’s forehead for weeks or months until it attained the correct shape. It was thought that a flat elongated head - kind of angled straight back from the tip of the nose to a “point” on the back-top of the head (almost like no forehead) - was the most beautiful shape. I think you can read about this in Wikipedia, for a start; and I think there are other links provided there.
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### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/11 "2005-11-01T14:45:06Z")
What about permanent makeup?
Aboriginals (some tribes) pulling out hair into a mohawk?
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/12 "2005-11-01T14:56:16Z")
You forgot pussy shaving, **Zoe**.
That’s what, all of 10 or 15 years old?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/13 "2005-11-01T16:27:08Z")
Does this just refer to females? Among the Guaymi Indians of western Panama, males often file their front teeth to points. I have not heard that women do it.
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### Author:  [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/14 "2005-11-01T16:39:02Z")
> [@missbunny](#):
>
> The Mayans did that head-flattening thing to infants.
Apparently parts of the Incan Empire did as well.
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### Author:  [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/15 "2005-11-01T16:44:09Z")
Anal bleaching. I think that is about as extreme as you can get.
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### Author:  [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/16 "2005-11-01T16:45:05Z")
Here’s an article you may want to look at
[http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/100best/storyB\_story.html](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/100best/storyB_story.html)
It references Copper Eskimo women wearing boots that made them walk attractively, but let in the snow. It’s compared to Chinese foot-binding.
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### Author:  [@GirlyGurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GirlyGurl)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/17 "2005-11-01T18:30:21Z")
[QUOTE=Broomstick]
A number of native tribes of North America used to use boards to purposely flatten and deform the skulls of infants. This did not cause any harm, but it did result in some very strange head shapes. Think it was mostly a northwest coast of North America thing.
QUOTE
That’s really interesting. I never knew that.
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### Author:  [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/18 "2005-11-03T00:00:51Z")
> [@levdrakon](#):
>
> I can’t think of anything or find anything on the internet pertaining to the America’s.
>
> I think I might have something for the islands…maybe “Tatoo”. But the America’s thing is killing me.
Well, there’s a lot of different cultures in the Americas.
You might have this one already, but the Northern California tribes often tattooed themselves, at least the women, who would do various chin designs or lines across the cheek bones.
[http://home.att.net/~Naahneesh/krhbf45.jpg](http://home.att.net/~Naahneesh/krhbf45.jpg)
Women’s tattoo. a, Yurok and northwestern tribes; b,c, San Francisco, probably Costanoan; d, Sinkyone; c, northwestern valley Maidu; f, northeastern and southern Maidu; g, Yuki; h-l, Chukchansi Yokuts. Compare the Wailaki, Yuki, Huchnom, and northern Pomo tattoos shown in Powers, Tribes of California, pages 116, 130, 140, 142, 144, 158."(Kroeber, HB, fig.45)
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### Author:  [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/19 "2005-11-03T01:01:11Z")
Not an indigenous tribe, but didn’t Southern women used to ingest small amounts of arsenic to attain a white complexion?
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2005, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-beauty-practices/328878/20 "2005-11-03T02:05:14Z")
> [@levdrakon](#):
>
> I’m doing an Cutltural Anthropology paper on strange Beauty practices in other countries. Namely extreme beauty practices.
> …
> I can’t think of anything or find anything on the internet pertaining to the America’s.
>
> I think I might have something for the islands…maybe “Tatoo”. But the America’s thing is killing me.
Maybe you should have tried Google. 😉
[http://www-mcnair.berkeley.edu/98journal/mshakoor/](http://www-mcnair.berkeley.edu/98journal/mshakoor/)
> [@](#):
>
> The Chokwe [who file their teeth to points] say that teeth not filed to points are like the teeth of animals" (1997). The Cadureo Indians say “An unpainted body is a stupid body” (The’voz, 1984, p. 50).
> …
> Perhaps the most radical form of body augmentation or ornamentation is found among Native Americans. Mandan, Cheyenne, and Sioux punctured themselves with knives and spear in ceremonies that Michel The’voz (1984) has bluntly characterized as torture. Some ceremonies even involve celebrants hanging themselves from trees with ropes attached to spikes skewered into their bodies. These ritual initiations of warriors were intended to physically scar, but more importantly, to spiritually transform. The significance of this ‘torture’ is that “symbolic death and rebirth accordingly have to be experienced intensely, both in mind and body, in terms of physical suffering” (The’voz, 1984, p. 46). The’voz provides gruesome descriptions of the ritual:
>
> The first doctor raised up between his fingers about an inch of flesh which he cut right through with his scalping knife, the latter being carefully notched in order to make the cutting more painful. . . .The torturers approached and examined his body with scrupulous care. Before the ordeal could end, the initiate had to be, as they termed it, wholly dead, that is, in a faint. (The’voz, 1984, p. 47)
And so on and so forth.
You should also not forget that the Americas incorporate two continents. The people form the Southern continent tended to go in for more obvious if not more extreme beauty practices.
Have we all forgotten [Chief Raoni](http://www.v1.paris.fr/fr/La_Mairie/relations_internationales/RELATIONS_INTERN/RAONI.jpg) and his lip plate so soon? He was that Indian guy who got around with Sting about 10 years ago. There are also various other South American Indian tribes that put plates in their [earlobes](http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-5/714886/blowgun2.jpg) and stretch them in a similar manner. Other tribes apparently do the same thing to their foreskins.
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