Written by The Strategy

If you’re as obsessed with Ryan Murphy’s latest series, Feud: Bette and Joan, as we are, then you’ve definitely noticed Joan Crawford’s obsession with beauty. Joan was known for her neurotic beauty habits and even wrote about many in her book, My Way of Life. She believed in chewing gum for a tighter jaw, not wearing too much makeup and hiding a ‘disagreeable expression’ behind a smile. When I started watching Feud, while I was enthralled by the story, I was fascinated by Joan’s beauty regime. So, naturally, I picked a few to try out for myself.

The Cold Treatment

One of my favourite tips picked up from Joan Crawford, was the notion of freezing your pores. Joan’s routine consisted of cleansing her face, then splashing it with ice cold water 25 times. This was done twice a day. I tried the ice cold water, but to be honest my fingers were frozen before I got to 5. I then remembered that Kate Moss likes to put a few ice cubes in a bowl and submerge her face. I tried that too, but was not a fan. Instead, I altered the routine by placing an ice cube in a clean cloth and running it along my face for about 2 minutes. In the mornings I felt it woke me up, and helped to hide the designer bags under my eyes. It also allowed my skin to easily absorb my serums and moisturizer. I felt them stay on throughout the day. A true feat when we are still experiencing colder winter weather.

The ‘Blessed’ Invention

Speaking of moisturizer, it was what Joan Crawford considered ” The most blessed invention of the past two decades”. Dermatologist disagree with Joan on there being no so thing as too much moisturizer, but she did make me realize moisturizer is one step in my beauty regime I don’t pay attention to. I simply cleanse, serum, then quickly lather on whatever moisturizer is on the counter. Fellow TS team member looked appalled when I told her that moisturizer was often just a body lotion. Horrible. I know. So following Joan’s steps, I invested in a proper face moisturizer and spent a few minutes twice a day to really massage it into my skin. The simple and quick step actually made me feel incredibly refreshed.

For the Love of Lemons

One of the first times we meet Joan Crawford in Feud: Betty and Joan, she is rubbing lemons on her elbows. She did this to brighten the skin and improve skin colour. Like most, I barely give my elbows a second thought. But, à la Joan, I cut a lemon in half and rubbed it onto my elbows before rinsing with warm water and moisturizing with a coconut oil. While I didn’t notice much benefit from the lemon itself, I did notice a difference in simply making the time to moisturize this forgotten joint with coconut oil.

Shampoo with a Side of Mayo

Joan notoriously swore by mayo as a hair mask, and she wasn’t wrong about the benefits. Mayo is oil based, and therefore, makes your hair shine. I have extremely curly hair that frizzes with the slightest change in temperature, so believe me when I say I noticed a difference. For my hair mask I applied  cup of mayo to my unwashed hair. I then clipped up my hair and covered it with a shower cap for 2o minutes before stepping into the shower to rinse. Crawford finished her showers with a blast of cold to shrink her pores, but I just could not get myself there.