Why do guys wear black eyeliner?

Egypt 3500 BC to the present

As I revisit the photographs I took of the tailor’s family for my upcoming book, Modern Nomad: Into the Heart of the Silk Road, Afghanistan 1977, kohl captivated my imagination, since all the women of the tailor’s family wore kohl, including the baby (photo above.) The ancient “eyeliner” was used as medicine, beauty, and for protection against the “evil eye.”  I had to know more….

From the TAILOR’S FAMILY Chapter:

During a lunch at the tailor’s house, I was honored to be given permission to photograph the family. When I saw the precious baby girl sitting up with a grape in each hand, I quietly moved in closer. I was enchanted by the kohl lining her lovely big eyes, as well as other markings with kohl and tattoos on her face. The deep black outlines around her eyes made them even more beautiful. No wonder kohl was used as a cosmetic eye-liner throughout history, since black-outlined eyes become dramatic, alluring, and enchanting.

Tailor’s Family, “Waiting for Lunch” © JOANNE WARFIELD

Decades later as I am writing this book, I decided I wanted to dig deeper into the history behind the use of kohl and was curious how the women, girls, and baby of the tailor’s family began wearing it. I knew the tailor’s family were from the Kuchi tribal peoples, and recently learned that the use of kohl was part of their tradition. Kohl was used as preventive medicine. It was used to cut down on the U.V. rays from the stark, bright deserts which they would cross on their migrations. Its use almost becomes mythological, as its story is deeply integrated into the way of life and the cultures of the people who used it.

While in Afghanistan, I decided to give this mysterious and dramatic black substance a try and bought some from a local “cosmetic” shop. The applicator was a small wooden wand which was dipped into the powdered kohl and run along the inside edges of the eyelids.  Ancient Egyptians used more luxurious materials of brass or hand-blown glass for their wands.  To get the powder on the inside of my eyelids I had to close my eye on the wand and drag it across.  I loved it and wore it for years. Now, here in the US, I use a safe eyeliner pencil with the same dragging technique as I did with the kohl (which gives some people the jitters). Perhaps I’m a nomad at heart.

A BIT OF KOHL HISTORY

The use of kohl can be traced back to 3500 BC to the ancient Egyptians and the ancient (and mysterious) kingdom of Punt on the Horn of Africa. Cleopatra, the pharaohs, and noble women all wore kohl around their eyes, as did the nomadic Toureg and Bedouins. It was originally used for prevention of eye ailments but was also thought to protect from “the evil eye.” The use spread about Central and South Asia, the Mediterranean, Horn of Africa, and India, where it has a variety of names and is still seen lining eyes today.

Galena eye paint (later termed kohl in Arabic, from the Akkadian word for the cosmetic) was widely used in Ancient Egypt. It was derived from a natural mineral form of lead sulfide. Upper eyelids were painted black and lower ones were colored green (from malachite), as depicted in ancient texts that describe the use of both. Ancient graves from the pre-historic Tasian culture point to the early application of galena in Egypt, a custom stretching from the Badarian period through to the Coptic era.

KOHL’S PRECIOUS VALUE TO THE CULTURE AND MYTHOLOGY

The Louvre Museum in Paris has a 4th-century-AD dilekythos, a double blown-glass cosmetic tube for kohl in its collection (see below). Makeup was applied with an ivory, bronze, or glass stick. As a substance, kohl has always been culturally precious. Ancient Emirati women were buried with at least three things as the essentials for the afterlife: jewelry, pottery, and seashells containing kohl. A wonderful variety of unique kohl-container styles are still being found throughout the Middle East, North and West Africa, the Horn of Africa, and South Asia.

In Egypt, the 18th Dynasty saw an increase in domestic comforts and a growing taste for luxury. The wealthy embellished their homes with elegant utilitarian objects, including cosmetic pots, which had always been an important part of Egyptian life. This miniature jar from the period is shaped as a Nubian slave figure and still contains traces of the kohl.  The various shapes and types of kohl containers reflect the culture that was using it and makes a wonderful study on its own.

Kohl pot in the form of a Nubian porter
© Musée du Louvre/C. Décamps