Rosalie Gilbert

Attempting to recreate a medieval recipe can be tricky because the amounts given are often described as "some," "a little," "twice as much," and "enough." Some proportions can be gathered from this. Use twice as much rosewater and plain water, for instance. other times, one is flying blind. As part of my new medieval bath display, I hope to have a hair powder made from a medieval recipe. I'll be making it for the first time next weekend at an historical event and taking notes. At this point, I have the recipe and the ingredients, some grown and dried, others sourced from a local spice shop.

Medieval women were just as concerned with beauty products for their skin and hair as women are today. Many herbal preparations were used to cleanse, protect, lighten or dye the hair. Hair loss was also a concern which was attended to with herbal balms and tinctures. These recipes were found in manuscripts like the Tacuinum Sanitatus, which were copied and recopied.

Most recipes were herbal, but some had more exotic ingredients. The Trotula, or the texts attributed to Trotula, include On Women's Cosmetics, and include recipes for beauty including a beautiful-smelling hair powder, so that the hair remains sweetly scented. In the section about On Various Kinds of Adornments, it reads:

 
This is the recipe I will attempt to recreate.

It was a wonderful Abbey Medieval Festival at the Rosalie's Medieval Woman tent! I had a very special visit from Heraldic Illuminator, Tania Crossingham who did the cover artwork for my book, The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women.

Tania is Australian born but had made a wonderful life in Finland and flew in especially for the festival and some workshops on illumination for the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology. 

Pictured here, are myself, Tania and the original artwork she created for me.