The genesis of the manicure cannot be attributed to one culture. Archaeologists discovered Egyptian mummies, dating back to 5,000 BC, with gilded nails and henna-tinted fingertips. Around the same time, Indian women were staining their nails with henna, while ancient Babylonian men used kohl to colour their nails. It is stated that the history of the modern manicure is very primordial as archaeologists have unearthed a solid gold manicure set in southern Babylonia, dating to 3,200 BC, that was apparently part of combat equipment. The Chinese are often credited with creating the first “nail polish”, in 3,000 BC. Women soaked their nails in a combination of egg whites, gelatine, beeswax and dyes from flower petals; roses and orchids were the most popular. The result was shiny nails tinted reddish pink. Long, coloured talons that were usually worn with highly decorative nail guards created with hammered brass sheets and inlaid with semi-precious stones were an indication of wealth and social status. The assumption was that you could not possibly have such nails if you were of a lower class. Members of the Ming dynasty sported crimson nails with lengthy extensions, while the Egyptian queens Nefertiti and Cleopatra were famed for wearing red nails.
Believe it or not, pedicures have been used as a treatment to rejuvenate and beautify the feet for several thousand years. The practice of foot care is thought to have originated in Ancient Egypt in the royal palaces of the Pharaohs, who were known to take special care of their legs and feet. Bas-relief carvings dating back to 2400 BC at the entrance to Egyptian Physician Ankhmahor’s tomb depicted noble men and women receiving beauty treatments resembling modern day pedicures and manicures. The nature and type of foot care they received reflected a person’s social standing in the ancient civilisation. Rejuvenating and beautifying pedicures accompanied by the use of scented oils, herbal tinctures, and adornments were reserved for nobility, while medical attention to corns and calluses using rudimentary skin scrapers was reserved for the lower classes in the ancient ages. It’s also believed that nobles in Ancient Babylon later created luxurious solid gold tools specifically for manicures and pedicures.
By 425 BC in Ancient Greece, skin scrapers were refined, and pedicures involving the removal of corns and calluses followed by rehydration of the skin actually date back to this period and have remained essentially the same through the centuries. Eventually, the use of more sophisticated and refined scalpels and scrapers in combination with the pumice stone was customary in pedicures performed during the medieval era in Europe. In the 1400s, medieval healers obsessed with magic created salves and pastes formulated to rehydrate the skin on the feet using an eclectic array of ingredients from swine dung, to the ash of the willow bark, to the intestinal fluid from a calf’s stomach. By the early 1800s throughout much of Western Europe pedicures were regarded as the surgical care of the feet. It was only towards the end of the century that pedicures were considered a beauty treatment for the first time because of their growing popularity among ladies of wealth and refinement.
