Hair Powder, c.1772-1784

Basic hair powder, from  The American Duchess Guide to Beauty. I appreciate that they worked out quantities for each ingredient, the original receipts being a little...intense. And sometimes vague:

230. Common Powder. The best Starch dried is generally the basis of all Hair Powders; sometimes worm eaten or rotten Wood, dried Bones, or Bones calcined to whiteness, which are sifted through a fine hair sieve after they have been beaten to powder. This kind of Powder readily takes any scent particularly that of Florentine Orrice, a root which naturally possesses a violet smell. Of these Roots the whitest and soundest are made choice of; they are to be powdered as fine as possible, and this can only be done during the summer season.

231 White Powder. Take four pounds of Starch, half a pound of Florentine Orrice Roots, six Scuttle-fish Bones, Ox Bones and Sheeps Bones calcined to whiteness, of each half an handful; beat the whole together and lift the powder through a very fine sieve. 

--The Toilet of Flora (1772)

In addition to these white powders, the Flora also gives two recipes for gray hair powder (tinted with wood-ash), and one "flaxen-coloured" (with yellow ochre), the latter with an observation that the powder can be tinted any color. I may someday feel brave enough to try one of those...

Hair Powder

Aside from the optional cuttlefish, sheep, and ox bones, this receipt is very like the violet powder used in the 19th and early 20th century (which itself has persisted into the 21st as baby powder). Scented starch is apparently quite versatile.

Powdered hair and natural.

I've never used hair powder before, and was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. I had to apply a lot more than I expected, but the hair powder didn't get everywhere like the various powder rouges I've made. And while white powder lightened my hair by a few degrees, it didn't turn the hair pure white. When I washed it out, the powder came away instantly, without any fuss.

I haven't tried sleeping in pomaded-and-powdered hair, but that experiment is indefinitely postponed. Unless I start attending multi-day 18th century events...