Macassar oil is an oil that was originally compounded from Macassar ebony oil that was used primarily by Western European men throughout the 1800s and early 1900s as a hair conditioner to groom and style the hair. [1]
It was popularised by Alexander Rowland (1747–1823), a celebrated London barber. It was then not uncommon for barbers to make their own hair preparations and around 1793 Rowland began offering Rowland's Macassar Oil. Within two decades it had become hugely popular and was aggressively advertised with extravagant claims of its effectiveness, becoming one of the first nationally advertised products. [2]
The words Macassar Oil were registered as a trademark by A. Rowland & Sons in 1888. Rowland's son (also named Alexander) later stated that a relative living in the island of Celebes in the Dutch East Indies had helped in procurement of the basic ingredient.[ citation needed ]
Although it was originally made with Macassar ebony oil (known as kayu hitam where it is still used in Indonesia), due to the difficulty of obtaining it, as a result of the decline in the availability of the tree (as the result of being overharvested for lumber), it was increasingly made with vegetable oils, such as coconut, palm or Kusum oil, [3] combined with fragrant oils such as ylang-ylang. [4]
Macassar oil was so named because it was reputed to have been manufactured from ingredients purchased in the port of Makassar in the Dutch East Indies. [5] The poet Byron facetiously called it "thine incomparable oil, Macassar" in the first canto of Don Juan , [6] and Lewis Carroll also mentions "Rowland's Macassar Oil" in the poem "Haddocks' Eyes" from Through the Looking-Glass . [7]
Due to the tendency for the oil to transfer from the user's hair to the back of his chair, the antimacassar was developed. This is a small washable cloth (crocheted, embroidered or mass-produced), placed over the back of a chair to protect the upholstery. [8]
"Haddocks' Eyes" is the nickname of the name of a song sung by The White Knight from Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, chapter VIII.
Sir John Tenniel was an English illustrator, graphic humourist and political cartoonist prominent in the second half of the 19th century. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, he was knighted for artistic achievements in 1893, the first such honour ever bestowed on an illustrator or cartoonist.
"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). The book tells of Alice's adventures within the back-to-front world of the Looking-Glass world.
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a novel published on 27 December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, University of Oxford, and the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just like a reflection, everything is reversed, including logic.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 English children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics don at Oxford University. It details the story of a girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. The artist John Tenniel provided 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the book.
Alice is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). A child in the mid-Victorian era, Alice unintentionally goes on an underground adventure after falling down a rabbit hole into Wonderland; in the sequel, she steps through a mirror into an alternative world.
Alice Pleasance Hargreaves was an English woman who, in her childhood, was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip became the classic 1865 children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She shared her name with "Alice", the story's protagonist, but scholars disagree about the extent to which the character was based upon her.
An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the oil of the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove. An essential oil is essential in the sense that it contains the essence of the plant's fragrance—the characteristic fragrance of the plant from which it is derived. The term "essential" used here does not mean indispensable or usable by the human body, as with the terms essential amino acid or essential fatty acid, which are so called because they are nutritionally required by a living organism.
Macassar, Makassar or Makasar may refer to:
Tweedledum and Tweedledee are characters in an English nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Their names may have originally come from an epigram written by poet John Byrom. The nursery rhyme has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19800. The names have since become synonymous in western popular culture slang for any two people whose appearances and actions are identical.
Cananga odorata, known as ylang-ylang or cananga tree, is a tropical tree that is native to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Queensland, Australia. It is also native to parts of Thailand and Vietnam. It is valued for the essential oils extracted from its flowers, which has a strong floral fragrance. Ylang-ylang is one of the most extensively used natural materials in the perfume industry, earning it the name "Queen of Perfumes".
Hair conditioner is a hair care cosmetic product used to improve the feel, texture, appearance and manageability of hair. Its main purpose is to reduce friction between strands of hair to allow smoother brushing or combing, which might otherwise cause damage to the scalp. Various other benefits are often advertised, such as hair repair, strengthening, or a reduction in split ends.
An antimacassar is a small cloth placed over the backs or arms of chairs, or the head or cushions of a sofa, to prevent soiling of the permanent fabric underneath. The name also refers to the cloth flap 'collar' on a sailor's shirt or top, used to keep macassar oil off the uniform.
Pomade is a greasy, waxy, or water-based substance that is used to style hair. It generally gives the user's hair a shiny, slick appearance. It lasts longer than most hair-care products, and often requires multiple washes for complete removal. The pomades of the 18th and 19th centuries consisted mainly of bear fat or lard. Lanolin, beeswax and petroleum jelly have been used extensively in modern pomades. The hold of pomades makes sculptured hairstyles such as the pompadour waves (hairstyle) possible.
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic and lipophilic. Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated lipids that are liquid at room temperature.
Shower gel is a specialized liquid product used for cleaning the body during showers. Not to be confused with liquid soaps, shower gels, in fact, do not contain saponified oil. Instead, it uses synthetic detergents derived from either petroleum or plant sources.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a 1972 British musical film directed by Australian filmmaker William Sterling, based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel of the same name and its 1871 sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. It had a distinguished ensemble cast and a musical score composed by John Barry with lyrics written by Don Black. In addition, make-up artist Stuart Freeborn created film visuals based on the original drawings by John Tenniel from the first edition of the novel.
Shampoo is a hair care product, typically in the form of a viscous liquid, that is used for cleaning hair. Less commonly, shampoo is available in solid bar format. Shampoo is used by applying it to wet hair, massaging the product into the scalp, and then rinsing it out. Some users may follow a shampooing with the use of hair conditioner.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician and photographer. His most notable works are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871). He was noted for his facility with word play, logic, and fantasy. His poems Jabberwocky (1871) and The Hunting of the Snark (1876) are classified in the genre of literary nonsense.
Beard oil is a cosmetic product that is used to nourish both the skin under the beard and the beard itself in order to keep it "soft, shiny, and smooth". Beard oil mimics the natural oils produced by skin, such as sebum, and is composed mainly of carrier oils and essential oils.