In ancient times, men also wore makeup, so makeup was not just a women's patent. Moreover, men in the past paid great attention to their makeup, especially those who were famous. According to relevant historical documents, men would put powder on their faces when they went out on the street.
This powder is equivalent to the current foundation. In this case, everyone guesses that men in the past would have white faces when they went out. It fits the term "little pretty face". In addition to applying powder, men also apply scented powder or wear sachets to make themselves smell good.
Scholar-officials are all noble people, and they especially care about their appearance. In addition to tidying up your clothes before going out, you also need to put on appropriate makeup. Therefore, every year, in order to curry favor with these scholar-bureaucrats, everyone would donate a lot of cosmetics and skin care products.
During the Three Kingdoms period, there was a man who particularly loved beauty, and that was Cao Zhi, the son of Cao Cao. It is said that the ministers came to discuss something with Cao Zhi. As a result, Cao Zhi was putting on makeup and washing up in the house, and Leng made the ministers wait outside for more than an hour.
Cao Cao saw the time and energy spent, as well as the money and material resources invested in makeup, and believed that this matter had seriously affected the national agenda, so he directly issued regulations , all men are prohibited from wearing makeup.
From these cases, we can know that men in the past were also very concerned about their makeup. Because unmarried women have to stay in the boudoir and cannot go out, and only men can go out.
Men do not spend as much time on makeup as women do today. Nowadays, many girls don’t even dare to go downstairs and throw away the trash without makeup. This was probably the case for men in the past, and they spent countless amounts of money on cosmetics.