The word antimacassar has always annoyed me as being too big and important-sounding for the thing it refers to (annoying piece of useless cloth on the headrest of an armchair or sofa). TIL it was protection against macassar oil, popular in Victorian age.
Conversation
The very idea is sooo Victorian capitalist. Men use some weird branded hair oil that gets in stuff. Women spin up an entire hobby activity (crocheting antimacassars) that becomes symbolic of the aesthetic of the age. Little bits of ornate annoyingness all over the damn place.
Replying to
It’s interesting that hair oil as a mass-use product seems to have largely disappeared, displaced by styling gels etc as a product for fashionable people. Everybody used it for hair “health” when I was growing up. Some bs about scalp “nourishment”.
2
4
Replying to
Used to see it on my Irish Grandparents chairs. They were born in 1910 and apparently had this hold over of the gentleman's life, including China, lace curtains and a hope in education.


