Geisha's
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why did they blacken their teeth?
showing your white teeth was thought the be like showing the white of your bones. The blackening liquid was also thought to preserve teeth. At the end of the Heian period, at the time when aristocratic men and women reached puberty and celebrated their genpuku or mogi, the Tairas and other samurai, and pages working at large temples dyed their teeth. In particular the imperial family, and other high-ranking aristocrats who had finished their hakamaza (ceremony where a child is fitted with a hakama) blackened their teeth and painted their eyebrows (hikimayu) this was done in the imperial household until the end of the edo era. The practice was outlawed in the Meji era in oreder not to offend foreign visitors or more generally to gain their acceptance westernized and therefore an equal nation.
a geisha's morning and night routine
Geisha's used sea salt and preferred it with whipped cream instead of oil for their scrub. Rice bran was used as a face exfoliating mask usually mixed in with milk. Green tea is loaded with Polyphenols, which fight free radicals, reduce skin inflammation. Geisha's are famous for their tea ceremonies. Often involving green tea, but it is a less widely known fact that they use that very same tea to keep their skin glowing. They also often used apple cider vinegar to melt away dead skin cells. Which is why geisha's often put it in their shampoo, to prevent dandruff and help their hair grow out.
Being a true geisha is an honor to the girls who when they become full-fledged geisha's are then called geiko. If a girl begins her training before the age of 21, she is called a maiko, meaning child dancer. A girl or woman can become a geisha even if she wasn't a maiko, but if she had been a maiko she would enjoy much more prestige. Because the geisha is much coveted, prostitutes have called themselves geisha's to bring in more customers, but there is a difference, and that is their attire. Both girls wear a kimono, and over their kimono there is an obi (sash), geisha's tie their obi in the back, and a prostitute will tie hers in the front. One simple reason for this, you can't tie it yourself if it's in the back, and a prostitute will have to tie and untie hers throughout the day herself. If you translate geisha to english you get "artist".