Were Men Or Women The First.to.wear Makeup

David Yi, the founder of Very Good Low-cal, wants you to know that men have been beautifying since 50,000 BCE. In 2010, archaeologists discovered a bunch of bright, ground up minerals in a Spanish Neanderthal encampment—the earliest known cosmetics. Cavemen were using foundation, blush, and glitter at the dawn of the species. Cosmetics, he argues, are part of what makes u.s. human, and men have used it for most of human history.

Many of us, nonetheless, have lost sight of the ancient relationship between men and beauty. To resurface that history, Yi wrote a book, Pretty Boys: Legendary Icons Who Redefined Beauty (and How to Glow Up, Likewise), most cultures through the ages that historic beauty as a course of self-care. "I've e'er wanted to explore this thought that men and masc-identifying folks have always tried to amplify their power through cosmetics and skincare and beauty," he told GQ. "Beauty is transformative, pretty is pretty powerful, and I wanted to write a history book that proved that notion."

Yi explains that before the 18th century, at that place weren't such clear fashion distinctions between men and women. Then came something historians call the Nifty Male Renunciation. Emerging from an Enlightenment obsession with studying and taxonomizing, scientists and philosophers showed a new obsession with differences between men and women. This was eventually reflected in policy and public contend. In the U.s., William Henry Harrison unseated President Martin Van Buren, presenting himself every bit a manly alternative to the New Yorker governor who kept makeup in the Oval Part. In England, men could be sentenced to difficult labor and imprisonment for wearing pulverisation or dresses. These rigid gender binaries were exported around the world thanks to Victorian colonialism and two globe wars. "[The Great Male Renunciation] was a time when men abandoned their merits to be considered beautiful and henceforth aimed to only be useful," Yi explains. "Women were being marginalized and men who refused to conform to Enlightenment thinking were being silenced."

Today, we still live in a world that's still massively shaped by the narrow, Enlightenment definition of gender. "In the W nosotros've gotten so used to looking at masculinity through a claustrophobic lens," says Yi. "But I do recall things are irresolute, considering Gen Z and the TikTok generation and celebrities have a more expansive sense of masculinity. We're talking about Harry Styles, who wears a dress on the comprehend of Faddy, nosotros're talking well-nigh Bad Bunny, who loves acrylic nails, we're talking Frank Ocean, who talks to GQ virtually retinol, and we're talking about BTS, who wears makeup and color their pilus."

GQ talked to Yi about some highlights from Pretty Boys. 18th century influencers, Viking with custom grooming kits, sexy sixth century Korean assassins—information technology turns out history is full of beautiful men.

The Egyptians Exfoliated

In many cultures effectually the world, beauty (and beautifying through makeup) was a sign of godliness. This was especially truthful in ancient Egypt, where pharaohs were thought to be human being manifestations of gods. Many pharaohs used extremely luxe eyeliner, a charcoal blended with gold, emerald, and rubies.

"Pharaoh Ramses had these amazing facials mixed between honey and milk," says Yi. "Milk has lactic acid, it'south a great manner to exfoliate, and beloved is a natural clarified and dandy natural way to have supple skin." Ramses besides had a dedicated skincare routine with Sephora-worth's set of creams and potions. Historians plant a recipe for an anti-crumbling cream made of love and lotus flowers that was basically one of the primeval known SPF moisturizers.

There Were Killer Looks in 6th Century Korea

The Hwarang were military assassins called past the King of the Silla dynasty for their dazzler. "It'south like a K-Pop contest in the 600s where this king believed that the spirit of Maitreya, a Buddhist god who was said to be a pretty boy, was in the soil of Korea and beautiful men and boys had Maitreya's spirit in them," says Yi. "Then he went around the Korean Kingdom Silla, chose the well-nigh beautiful men, plucked them into his regular army, and said, 'You are part of the Hwarang, a special military machine force, because you have that godly power.' These men beautified as a spiritual exercise. Chinese envoys from the Tong Dynasty were like, 'These Hwarang are the about handsome creatures that I've ever seen!'"

The Vikings Were Squeaky Clean

The popular, History-channel version of Vikings suggests a civilization of brutal, unkempt warriors. The Vikings were absolutely big and tough, but they were actually some of the cleanest men in Europe at the time. Laugardagr was a weekly bathing day in Norse culture for Vikings to hit the spa. "They would get to natural hot springs and bathe their entire body, which was considered sacrilegious at the time," says Yi. "Anglo-Saxons never bathed because they idea it was sinful to get naked."

Vikings took hygiene seriously the rest of the week, too. "Vikings carried these training kits on their belts, correct next to their sword and their shield," said Yi. "They had ear wax pickers, tweezers. They had a separate brush for their beard and for their pilus. And they would comb their hair all mean solar day so information technology had a squeamish sheen! They were so obsessed with their hair that they would necktie information technology into a bun earlier battle and so information technology wouldn't go stained with blood."

Gen Z, only in 18th Century England

It turns out kids take been glowing upwardly on their semester abroad for centuries. Consider the English youth known as Macaroni, who Yi calls "the influencers of their twenty-four hour period." They would visit French republic and Italy and bring continental mode back to England—tight clothes, wigs, makeup, and then on. "They were men who looked so improvident with stark white makeup and rouge on their lips and blush," Yi said. "They wore these stickers, these velvet patches, to hide pockmarks. They came in crescent moon shapes, star shapes and heart shapes." The looks were so wild that they dominated the popular culture of their time—there were art, essays, and whole magazines dedicated to Macaroni. You know that vocal Yankee Doodle that you sang in kindergarten? In that location'south that lyric, "Stuck a feather in his cap and called information technology macaroni"—now you lot know where it comes from. "That's Americans poking fun," Yi explains, "like, 'Oh, we can just stick a feather in our cap and information technology'll be fashionable.'"

ARod and Makeup