Straps, Bandages and Tapes

Wrinkles, sagging necks and double chins, characteristics of many women over the age of thirty-five, were commonly treated by early beauty culturists by combining massage and skin-care products with straps, bandages and/or tapes.

Straps

In salon treatments, strapping was usually an extra in a regular salon facial. Clients could ask for it specifically or would be tactfully informed that it was needed. For many woman over the age of thirty-five, a strapping treatment would have been considered mandatory but they were also recommended to younger women as a preventative. Clients were also encouraged to buy their own straps to continue the treatment at home; wearing them while sleeping at night or at some other time of the day in private.

A wide variety of straps were available in the past covering all areas of the face and neck.

Above: 1928 Straps sold by the Institut de Beauté Klytia (Paris).

The two most common forms of straps were chin straps, used to lift sagging neck muscles and reduce double chins, and forehead straps, worn to smooth out wrinkles above and between the eyebrows.

Chin straps

Facial treatments using chin straps, sometimes referred to as ‘tie-ups’, were presumed to ‘restore muscle contractility and aid in the breaking down of accumulated fat cells’, so were recommended for mature women with flabby facial muscles, saggy throats and/or double chins.

Chin straps were commonly used with skin foods and/or astringents and were generally combined with some form of muscle stimulation to ‘improve circulation and tone muscles’. This might involve a facial massage before or after the strap was applied and/or tapping the skin with the fingers (tapotement) or a patter.

Above: An oiled silk chin strap holding a cotton wool pad, dampened with astringent or stimulating camphorated oil (Verni, 1946).

Forehead straps

Forehead straps were employed to remove or diminish frowning lines and wrinkles. Before the strap was applied, the skin would be treated with a skin food and, if considered necessary, muscle oils would be patted in over the deeper lines like those between the eyebrows.

Towels and bandages

Salons that did not have the resources to make and use ready-made straps could achieve similar effect by using surgical bandage or a small towel. These would be tied or wound around the chin and/or forehead. Towels were generally used dry, whereas bandages were sometimes applied wet. Small towels were also used by women who wanted to do a ‘tie-up’ at home, something regularly suggested by beauty writers providing advice though newspapers or magazines.

If you want to keep your chin and throat pretty—keep your chin up.
A chin strap will help you get sagging muscles working correctly. It’s of most use when applied expertly, and when you massage and exercise too.
You might ask the operator who gives you a facial treatment to complete it with a “tie-up.” The operator first thoroughly cleanses you face and neck, massaging with a good emollient cream. Then she adjusts the chin strap.
The same routine should be followed at home. Good ready-made chin-straps are cut on the bias, or are made of elastic material. A towel folded diagonally to make a three or four-inch band is effective if used correctly. The bandage should hold the tissues smooth and flat, should not distort the face. Let it just be comfortably snug.

(Chin Strap Aids Beauty newspaper article, 1942)

Some notable promoters

Straps were widely used in beauty salons in North America, Britain and Europe but two figures stand out for special mention: Eleanor Adair and Elizabeth Arden.

Eleanor Adair: Although many of her contemporaries – such as Frances Hemming (Cyclax) and Marie Earle – also employed them, no one promoted the use of straps in facial treatments to the same extent as Adair. In 1902, she was granted two British Patents, the first for a forehead strap, the second for a chin strap. Pictures of models wearing forehead and chin straps figured prominently in her advertising and she was reputed to have a wax head wearing straps at the entrance to her salons.

Adair’s ‘Strapping Electrical Treatment’ combined straps, manual work and electrical treatments with Ganesh preparations such as Eastern Muscle Oil, Diable Skin Tonic and Eastern Skin Food. Adair used chin straps to ‘remove double chins and restore lost contours’ while forehead straps were used to reduce ‘deep lines between brows, corners of eyes and over the forehead’. Adair also sold a Domino Strap to help ‘cure puffiness under the eyes’ and Ganesh Wrinkle Plasters for the expression lines around the eyes and mouth.

Tapes

Tapes were used to correct or delay the appearance of expression lines between the eyebrows and the corners of the eyes or mouth.

Did you ever go to see a lady, not of uncertain but of uneasy age, and find yourself ushered into the family sitting-room by a new servant, who did not know the ways of the house? Did you find her with a court-plaster lozenge an inch wide between her eyes, and one at the outer ends of her eyebrows? At sight of this remarkable ornament, did concern express itself lest she had fallen down stairs, or had a difference with the cat? Were these insinuations parried with veteran resources, and were you dissuaded from further inquiry by the delicate remark that she could interest you better than by giving the history of her scratches? Of course you knew there was a mystery about those bits of court-plaster, and perhaps feel so to this day, unless Nature have given you the mind of a detective. If so, your patience is to be rewarded. The secret of those patches was not scratches, but wrinkles.

(The ugly girl papers, 1874, pp. 212-213)

Taping was widely promoted but not everyone was convinced that they had any effect.

It has been supposed that when once the skin has been thus corrugated into folds, it were possible, by stretching it with adhesive strips, to restore it to its natural evenness and smoothness. This has failed in every instance we have known it tried, and we consider it time [they were] thrown away.

(Brinton & Napheys, 1870, p. 254)

A number of different companies produced commercial versions. For example, the B. & P. Company sold ‘Wrinkle Eradicators’ and ‘Frowners’ through drug and department stores from 1899. The Wings Products Co. – organised by Mrs. Mary Roebling in 1937 – sold Hollywood Wings – medicated pink tabs shaped like wings – for use on facial frowns and wrinkles. They were still being sold in the 1950s. Similar products are still sold today.

Current usage

You can still buy straps and tapes that promise results similar to those put forward in the 1900s but neither are commonly used in the beauty industry today their place in salon treatments taken over by face masques. These come in a wide variety of forms, can be customised to an individual client’s requirements, and have the added advantage of not needing a laundry service.

First Posted: 22nd October 2011
Last Update: 31st August 2021

Sources

Ayer, H. H. (1892). My lady’s dressing room adapted from the French of the Baronne Staffe. New York: Cassell Publishing Company.

Banford Academy of Hair and Beauty Culture. (1938). Theory and practice of scientific facial culture and muscle strapping. New York: Beauty Laboratories, Inc.

Brinton, D. G., & Napheys, G. H. (1870). Personal beauty: How to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health. Springfield, Mass: W. J. Holland.

Elizabeth Arden Ltd. (n.d.). The quest for the beautiful. New York: Author.

Verni, M. (1946). Modern beauty culture (2nd ed.). London: New Era Publishing.

Wall, F. E. (1946). The principles and practice of beauty culture (2nd ed.). New York: Keystone Publications.

Wall, F. E. (1961). The principles and practice of beauty culture (4th ed.). New York: Keystone Publications.

W. M. Meyer Co. (1936). The cosmetiste: A textbook on cosmetology with special reference to the employment of electricity in the care of the hair, scalp, face, and hands, also permanent waving and hair curling. Chicago, Ill: Author.

The ugly girl papers; or hints on the toilet. (1874). New York: Harper & Brothers.

Woodhead, L. (2003). War paint: Miss Elizabeth Arden and Madame Helena Rubinstein. Their lives, their times, their rivalry. London: Virago.