Dr Hauschka and the Rhythm of Skin

This year marks the 50th year of Dr Hauschka Skincare, so it seems appropriate to write a little about the two Rudolfs who made it possible, as well as Elisabeth Sigmund who did so much to develop the treatment side, as well as the skincare products.

In 1924, Dr Rudolf Hauschka, creator (with Elisabeth Sigmund) of the eponymous skin care range had a meeting, in a corridor, which would literally change his life: he met Dr Rudolf Steiner at a conference, the year before Steiner died.

Rudolf Steiner 

Born in 1891, in Austria, the younger Rudolf was a keen biochemist and was looking for a way to preserve plant extracts without the use of alcohol or synthetic preservatives, in a way that would retain the essence of the original plant. He asked Dr Steiner a seemingly simple question: "What is the meaning of life?" (I think we'd all like the answer to that one.) 

Anyway, he got his answer. Rudolf Steiner told him to study Rhythm, because "Rhythm carries life." 

Most women are pretty aware of rhythms; we have the obvious monthly one, then day and night, heat and cold, dry and moist: all these different modalities of life and rhythm surround us, and we take then for granted, without really thinking about them, but Dr Hauschka was inspired by this concept, so proceeded to experiment with various methods of extracting and preparing his plant extracts. 

By potentising them according to homeopathic principles and using his unique 'rhythmical processing', which involved exposing the plant extracts to the elements and rhythms of nature, he succeeded in creating an water-based extract of rose petals which remained stable without the use of alcohol or preservatives. 

If you or your children have ever tried to make Rose Water, you'll know that initially the mix smells beautiful, but in a day or so, it's pretty rank and only fit for the compost heap. Dr Hauschka's, however, lasted for over 30 years, and formed the basis of the mother-tincture that was used for medicines, by Hauschka's company WALA. 

(Wala is an acronym for Warmth and Ash, Light and Ash or, more probably, in German:Wärme-Asche und Licht-Asche, which stands for the rhythmical process developed by Rudolf Hauschka)

In 1935, still working with the impulses of anthroposophy, Dr. Hauschka opened the first WALA laboratory in Germany. There was a bit of a blip in the period between 1939 -1945, and Rudolf Hauschka, like all the best people, spent some time incarcerated; a pretty common occurrence at that point. He was lucky enough to survive the war, and WALA continued its medical work, expanding and creating a range of medicines that today numbers over 900 different products, plus the Dr Hauschka skin care range.

This was a co-creation with the renegade Esthetician and anthroposophist Elisabeth Sigmund. She was ordering WALA medicines to use in her own skincare creations and they began to correspond.  Dr. Hauschka asked for her thoughts and ideas about creating an holistic skin care range based on Anthroposophical principles, and was so intrigued and delighted with her input, that she was invited to visit WALA HQ in 1964. 

From then on they collaborated and the first WALA skin care products appeared in 1967. Initially the products were labelled with both their names: 

Dr R Hauschka and 
„Heilende Kosmetik nach Elisabeth Sigmund“ (roughly translated as 'healing cosmetics from Elisabeth Sigmund') but her name was dropped at some point; I don't know why. It often happens to women in science, though. It might have been considered better to use the prefix Dr. and Elisabeth had given up her medical training in order to work as a nurse during the war, and never gone back. 

Rudolf Hauschka's grave at Wala

The resulting partnership was remarkably fruitful and creative. When Dr Hauschka died in 1969, Elisabeth Sigmund carried on with their joint work. She developed the Dr Hauschka Classic Facial treatment, the Facial Gymnastics and started the development of colour cosmetics - makeup with the same curative ingredients as the skincare range. 

Elisabeth Sigmund's grave at WAL

Elisabeth Sigmund died in 2013 at the age of 99, wearing her favourite Dr Hauschka lipstick to the end, and still a keen student of Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy.

They both stayed at WALA though; their grave are in the lovely little cemetery in the grounds where they worked so hard.

Empow(d)ering women

At the Edinburgh book Festival, Zadie Smith asked if women were paying the hair and makeup tax, and she has a fair point: should modern women be spending up to four hours on their hair and makeup? If they do spend that long, then she is surely justified in limiting her seven-year-old daughter's mirror time. Mind you, she looks pretty glamorous in her makeup!

I also think that four hours is way too long. I'm not sure what these women can be doing, unless they are straightening their hair daily. Which, as any hairdresser will tell you will eventually leave you with no locks to straighten at all, as straightening is very bad for your hair. 

So can it be the makeup? 

Can you spend two hours on your makeup? I can't. At a push (i.e. most mornings) I spend about five minutes putting on my makeup. In fact, being fairly sad like that, I just timed myself to check, and I can slap on the slap in just under five.That includes foundation, eyeshadow, eye liner, mascara, lip liner, lipstick, blusher and bronzer, by the way. As I am a trained MUA, maybe that doesn't count, but my clients are also taught how to makeup quickly, as really, who wants to spend that precious time painting their face on a daily basis?

If you want to do all that contouring, though, it might take longer

I'm not a huge fan of contouring on the High Street; it usually looks as if the wearer has war paint on. Contouring was really designed for photography and bright lighting, but, if it makes you happy, and you have damn all else to do with your time, by all means watch some YouTube videos and learn how to do it properly, with the caveat that what looks splendid in the bright light of your room might look a little 'Frankenstein's bride' in the great outdoors. Fine if you like the Goth look but otherwise, maybe save it for the Insta filter?

Wasted time?

Back to that wasted time, though: it's only wasted, if you feel that you have to wear makeup. You don't. You look great without it too, so only wear it if you really want to, not because you feel imposedupon. Feminism is about free choice, and if you choose to spend your precious time painting yourself, fair play. In fact, recent studies suggest that women do better in exams if they are wearing makeup! So maybe that time is not wasted!

So makeup can be empowering! 

If you feel more confident with a little paint and powder, that's fine; just learn to do it faster, and enjoy it! Makeup should be for fun and enhancement, not for hiding behind.