When you think of 10 bizarre fads, modern crazes like planking, twerking, or the Ice Bucket Challenge probably spring to mind. Yet history is littered with even stranger obsessions that would make today’s TikTok stars blush. Let’s dive into the oddball traditions that thankfully belong to a bygone era.

10 Polish Plaits

Plica polonica, literally “Polish plait,” was the result of hair left unwashed and untouched for months on end. The strands grew sticky, knotted beyond untangling, and became a breeding ground for lice. In 14th‑century Poland, peasants embraced the mess, believing the tangled mass acted as a health charm.

Superstition ran deep: folk thought the matted hair could draw illnesses out of the body. Consequently, many never cut their plaits, letting them grow into massive, unmanageable locks. The most celebrated bearer was King Christian IV of Denmark, whose regal pigtail was trimmed only by a bright red ribbon.

9 Dueling Scars

Scientific studies suggest women are momentarily drawn to men sporting facial scars, especially when those marks hint at a daring past. This allure helped fuel the early‑1900s German craze for the renommierschmiss, or “dueling scar.” A visible slash on the cheek signified honor, masculinity, and social standing.

Not everyone wanted to face a real duel. Some aspirants inflicted self‑injuries with razors, then rubbed horsehair into the wounds to deepen the scar. Others paid surgeons to carve portions of their cheeks. The practice spread among doctors, professors, and even Nazi officials, turning disfigurement into a badge of prestige.

8 Head‑Binding

While foot‑binding in China is infamous, another body‑mod trend—head‑binding—targeted the skull. Ancient Egyptians and Maya reshaped infants’ heads, believing elongated craniums signified intelligence or elite status. In other societies, the practice was purely aesthetic.

Because a newborn’s skull is soft, parents wrapped the head in cloth, vines, or placed it between wooden boards to flatten or elongate it. Frequent massages helped achieve the desired shape, creating permanent, unmistakable silhouettes.

7 Mokomokai

Mokomokai were preserved, tattooed heads of deceased Māori relatives in New Zealand. After boiling or steaming for preservation, these heads became treasured family relics.

During the 18th century, British sailors began buying mokomokai as exotic souvenirs. Initially reluctant, Māori tribes eventually sold the heads to fund inter‑tribal wars. European collectors, eager for curiosities, drove demand sky‑high, prompting some traders to purchase living slaves solely for their heads.

The trade amplified warfare: European weapons empowered certain tribes, while the influx of heads flooded Western museums, creating a grim cycle of violence and voyeurism.

6 Eating Arsenic

Arsenic, the classic poison, was synonymous with murder in the Dark Ages. Yet in 1851, peasants from Styria (modern‑day Austria) discovered a curious benefit: tiny doses of arsenic seemed to boost stamina and breathing during mountain labor.

They began with minuscule amounts, gradually building tolerance. Over time, many increased consumption to levels lethal for the average person. While most displayed no overt chronic illness, some suffered appetite loss, anxiety, and spasmodic pain during withdrawal.

5 Crakow Shoes

The crakow—a shoe with an absurdly long toe—swept 15th‑century Europe. Named after Poland’s capital, its extended toe, called a “poulaine,” made walking a challenge.

Wearers reinforced the elongated extremities with whalebone braces or stuffed moss to prevent the toe from dragging. Authorities even attempted to regulate poulaine length by social class: nobles could sport toes twice foot length, merchants one foot, peasants half a foot. The law proved futile; at the 1396 Battle of Nicopolis, crusaders trimmed their shoes to flee the Ottoman onslaught.

4 Neck Extension

The Padaung and Kayan Lahwi women of Burma and Thailand, dubbed “giraffe women,” practiced a striking fashion: brass coil rings that elongated the neck. Starting at age five with a kilogram of coils, they added more weight every few years, eventually wearing dozens of kilograms for life.

Removing the coils would leave the neck muscles too weak to support the head, making eating nearly impossible. The origin remains debated—some claim it deterred slave traders, others suggest protection from tigers—but most agree the tribe prized a long neck as a beauty ideal.

3 Dance Marathons

In the roaring 1920s, dance marathons emerged as endurance spectacles. In 1923, Alma Cummings shattered a British record by dancing nonstop for 27 hours, exhausting six partners along the way. Promoter Mr. McMillan, owner of a Houston dance academy, turned the craze into a cash‑grab, charging spectators and awarding hefty prizes.

Initially, contestants danced without rest, but promoters later introduced 15‑minute breaks, stretching contests to weeks, even months. Side attractions—boxing bouts, guest performances—kept audiences hooked. The longest recorded event lasted over 16 weeks, with dancers permitted five‑minute naps each hour.

By 1930, public outcry over exploitation led many states to ban the grueling marathons, ending the era of relentless dancing.

2 Intentional Train Crashes

Early 19th‑century railroads saw a shocking publicity stunt: deliberately crashing trains. Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad marketer William George Crush convinced executives that a staged collision before 40,000 onlookers would boost ridership. Despite safety warnings, two locomotives smashed, killing three and injuring many. Crush was briefly fired, then rehired when ticket sales skyrocketed.

From 1896 to 1932, over a hundred such orchestrated wrecks unfolded, often organized by “Head‑On Joe” Connolly. Fairs showcased the carnage; the 1913 California State Fair featured a headline‑grabbing crash. The Great Depression curtailed the trend, as crushing trains proved costly.

1 Bathing In Donkey Milk

Greek physician Hippocrates touted donkey milk as a cure‑all, treating poison, liver ailments, fevers, and infections. This endorsement sparked a luxury fad: bathing in donkey milk.

Legend holds that Cleopatra immersed herself daily in donkey milk, requiring an estimated 500 donkeys to supply enough fluid for her rituals. Roman Empress Poppaea Sabina and Napoleon’s sister Pauline also partook, believing the milk preserved youthful skin.

Modern research confirms donkey milk’s nutritional benefits, and it even served as a human infant substitute in the 20th century. Yet an average donkey yields only about a liter per day, rendering daily baths wildly wasteful.

10 Bizarre Fads Overview

From hair that refused to be cut to trains that were set to collide, these ten peculiar practices reveal humanity’s endless capacity for eccentricity. While each fad captivated its era, time has shown that some trends are best left in the history books.

When we talk about 10 ancient medical traditions, we’re diving into a bizarre museum of cures that once seemed cutting‑edge but now belong in the history books. Civilizations across the globe experimented with everything from scalpels on infants to powdered mouse paste, often with disastrous results. Fortunately, each of the following practices has been retired, allowing modern healthcare to thrive.

10 Ancient Medical Practices Overview

Below, we rank ten of the most eye‑opening, cringe‑worthy, and downright dangerous remedies that ancient healers swore by. Buckle up for a wild ride through time, geography, and some truly questionable hygiene.

10 Cutting TeethFrance

The phrase “cutting teeth” once described a literal surgical procedure, not just a metaphor for learning a trade. In 16th‑century France, physicians believed that a newborn’s gums were so obstinate that a tiny scalpel was needed to carve a path for the emerging teeth. The practice, pioneered by French surgeon Ambroise Paré after he examined a child’s corpse in 1575, involved slicing the gum tissue to expose the hidden teeth. Paré’s notes read, “When we diligently sought for the cause of his death, we could impute it to nothing else than the contumacious hardness of the gums… when we cut the gums with a knife we found all the teeth appearing… if it had been done when he lived, doubtless he would have been preserved.”

Despite its noble intent, the method persisted well into the early 20th century, sparking fierce debate among physicians. Sterile instruments were nonexistent, and the trauma inflicted on infants often proved fatal. While the exact death toll remains unknown, the combination of infection, blood loss, and crude tools made “cutting teeth” a perilous rite of passage for newborns.

9 Mouse PasteEgypt

Ancient Egyptians, plagued by relentless toothaches caused by gritty sand in their diet, turned to an unsettling remedy: dead mice. The theory was simple—grind the carrion into a paste and slather it onto the aching tooth, or even press an entire mouse against the pain point. The practice likely arose because sand eroded enamel, exposing nerves and blood vessels, and the Egyptians believed the mouse’s decay somehow soothed the irritation.

Modern science, however, tells a different story. Applying rotting tissue to exposed nerves is a perfect recipe for infection, turning a manageable ache into a full‑blown abscess. While the ancient healers were earnest, the mouse paste method was more harmful than helpful, and it eventually vanished from medical textbooks.

8 Clay ConsumptionGreece

On the Greek island of Lemnos, a special type of clay called terra sigillata was marketed as a cure‑all for stomach ailments and diarrhoea. Merchants shipped disks of this earth‑derived substance across the Mediterranean, encouraging patients to swallow it for relief. The clay’s composition—rich in kaolin and bentonite—mirrors ingredients found in contemporary anti‑diarrhoeal medicines.

Even Hippocrates praised the benefits of ingesting this mineral, noting its ability to bind toxins and calm the gut. Modern medicine still harnesses the adsorptive power of kaolin‑bentonite blends, proving that while the ancient practice of eating raw clay sounds odd, the underlying chemistry was sound. Today, we reserve clay consumption for specific medical formulations rather than casual munching.

7 Retribution Or CompensationMesopotamia

In circa 1700 BC Mesopotamia, King Hammurabi codified a set of laws that, among other things, regulated surgical practice. A successful operation earned the physician a payment in shekels proportional to the patient’s social standing. Conversely, a botched surgery could cost the doctor his hand—especially if the patient was of high rank and did not survive.

Mesopotamian medicine featured two main practitioners: the ashipu, a sorcerer who identified and expelled malevolent spirits, and the asu, a more conventional physician who applied herbal poultices and plaster casts. Hammurabi’s code only imposed penalties on surgeons who wielded a knife; non‑invasive healers faced no legal retribution, which discouraged risky incisions and nudged practitioners toward less invasive, homeopathic treatments.

6 Have Some PooEgypt

When ancient Egyptians treated eye infections or wounds, they often reached for an unlikely pharmacy: animal dung. Pig, donkey, lizard, and even child excrement were ground into salves or taken orally, based on the belief that the resulting pus was therapeutic. Egyptian physicians thought that encouraging pus formation helped draw out disease, a notion we now know to be backward—pus signals infection, not cure.

Modern medicine has reclaimed a sanitized version of this practice. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) uses screened donor stool to restore healthy gut flora in patients suffering from severe Clostridioides difficile infections. Advances have even produced freeze‑dried “poop pills,” allowing clinicians to deliver the treatment without fresh donor material. While the ancient approach was unsanitary, today’s controlled use of feces saves lives.

5 Partial Tongue RemovalEurope

Hemiglossectomy, the surgical removal of half a tongue, is a legitimate modern treatment for oral cancers. In the 18th and 19th centuries, however, European physicians misapplied the procedure, believing that excising part of the tongue could cure a stutter. The logic was that removing tissue would somehow eliminate the involuntary speech interruptions.

The reality proved far more brutal: patients suffered from severe infection, massive blood loss, and permanent speech impairment. The misguided operation persisted until rigorous scientific studies demonstrated its ineffectiveness for speech disorders, prompting a shift toward speech therapy and safer surgical indications.

4 TobaccoNorth America

Native American cultures revered tobacco as a versatile remedy, employing it for chronic pain, tuberculosis, and a host of other ailments. The plant’s leaves were smoked, chewed, or ground into poultices, and the tobacco used was pure, free from the chemical additives found in modern cigarettes.

Despite its historical medicinal reputation, tobacco is a potent toxin. By the 19th century, physicians were prescribing it for ringworm, constipation, hernias, and infections—often orally or rectally. Today, we recognize nicotine’s addictive properties and the severe health risks of smoking, and medical professionals no longer endorse tobacco as a therapeutic agent. If you’re looking to quit, countless cessation resources are available.

3 Grub SalvesAboriginal Australia

Aboriginal Australians once harvested the larvae of the witchetty moth (Endoxyla leucomochla) to create a healing salve. The grub‑worms were ground into a paste and packed into cuts or abrasions, where they acted as a natural barrier, keeping out air and bacteria while promoting tissue regeneration. The method proved surprisingly effective for wound care.

While the practice has faded, the grub remains a nutritional staple in many Indigenous diets. Today, the insects are roasted, boiled, or ground into cakes, and they’re celebrated as a protein‑rich delicacy. Visitors to Aboriginal communities are often offered these treats, and refusing is considered impolite.

2 IrritationWorldwide

Counter‑irritation, the principle of creating a mild new discomfort to distract from a greater one, is something we all do when we scratch an itch. Ancient physicians turned this instinct into a brutal therapy: they would repeatedly reopen wounds, cut into injuries, and pour irritating concoctions over the fresh lesions, hoping the new pain would mask the original ache.

Historical variants included inserting inflamed limbs into anthills, scorching skin with hot irons or acid to produce blisters, and cutting saw‑shaped wounds to lodge dried peas or beans, which were then replaced weekly to prevent healing. Leeches were also employed for bloodletting in various body cavities, even purportedly to calm “sexual excitement” in women. Modern medicine retains a gentler echo of this concept through acupuncture, which may stimulate natural pain‑killing chemicals without the gruesome side effects of antiquity.

1 Babylonia

In ancient Assyria and Babylon, castration was a medically sanctioned procedure, though its primary purpose was social rather than therapeutic. Physicians performed orchiectomy to create eunuchs for service in royal harems. The operation typically involved removing only the testicles, leaving the penis intact—a practice distinct from later Turkish customs that excised both organs.

Violating a man’s genitalia was a grave crime: a woman who crushed a man’s testicle faced finger amputation, and damaging both testicles could result in the loss of both her nipples. Though the practice faded, modern equivalents such as chemical castration are employed as punitive measures for sexual offenders, underscoring how the medical profession’s role in altering reproductive capacity has evolved dramatically.

Crime is inevitable, even in a world run by Pilgrims and Puritans. Where there is crime, there is punishment. Starting back in 1608 with our first documented execution, America established a penal system based on Old English ideals. This made way for some pretty not-so-great methods of punishment when it came to the New World.

During our country’s birth, incarceration was an alien concept. We may have over two million people in prison currently, but our founders did not see imprisonment as beneficial. Swift punishments meant you paid a fine, were physically brutalized, publicly shamed, or executed.

Here are 10 punishments that thankfully ended in order from bad to “oh dear God, why?”

10 Stocks

The stocks are probably the most recognizable colonial time punishment. Also known as the pillory, the stocks held your hands and head in a wooden vice so that you could not move, and you were placed in town for all to see. People were encouraged to throw trash, stones, and other things that shouldn’t be held, let alone thrown. The wooden pillory was actually an altered version of the English bilboes, which were iron rods with shackles meant to keep the victim’s arms up while being chained to their feet. However, metal was expensive, so they moved to wooden stocks instead.

In comparison to many of the other possibilities, being put in the stocks wasn’t so bad. However, what seemed to be common was that during the colonial period, punishments were thrown together like a painful, forced repentant salad. The stocks were often paired with branding, ear cropping, or whipping. In some rare instances, the stocks could be fatal due to items being missiled at the prisoner. ^[1]

9 Flogging

Flogging, or whipping, was the prom queen of penance. There was a post in town for the sole purpose of whipping criminals publicly. Besides colonists just not having much else to do in their free time, public penance was popular due to the idea that people were unmalleable. With most laws being religiously centered, whipping was also a popular choice because it was believed to awaken the spirit and remind the soul that they were to serve God. This was also justification for whipping disobedient children.

Flogging could be done with a variety of items, including whips, sticks, and a multiple rope tool called a cat-o-nine-tails. Whipping was for lower-class citizens and slaves, and because they made up the bulk of the population, it could be seen frequently. As with the stocks, death was extremely rare and not the end goal of a flogging. In most cases, the scars from a whipping could be hidden, so moving on wasn’t impossible. With the next punishment, that was not the case.^[2]

8 Branding

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne was lucky that her branding was just wearing the letter “A,” not having an A burnt into her forehead. The word “brand” has several origins, one being the Old English word for “destruction by fire,” and it worked just like it does with cattle. The metal letter is heated and pressed to the skin to make a scar. Different letters were used for different crimes. You could read it like a children’s book: “A” for adulterer, “B” for blasphemer, “D” for Drunk, “F” for forgery, and “T” for thief.

Another letter commonly branded was an “R,” which stood for runaway. Slaves were very often sentenced to physical punishments over very small indiscretions. If they tried to escape, then an “R” was branded on their foreheads. Foreheads and cheeks were popular burn sites depending on the crime. Some perpetrators could sometimes plead for mercy and get branded on the arm or hand instead. Being marked for life was not something one would relish, but a scar left behind doesn’t seem as bad as losing a whole body part. For example, an ear.^[3]

7 Ear Cropping

A man in England who lived during King Henry VIII’s reign made the mistake of saying he thought the king was dead. Well, the king was alive, and saying otherwise was treason. To the pillory he went, and his ears were nailed to the stocks. After a day passed, his ears were cut off, and he was free to go. The thing about this was the ears were going to be taken no matter what, but the goal was to make the sufferer rip their own ears off trying to escape.

There was no overarching system of rules when it came to sentencing a punishment. There was no consistency in what was considered cruel versus just. Even within a sentence of ear cropping, there were variations. Sometimes the ears were hammered to the stocks, sometimes they were straight-up removed, and sometimes only pieces were removed. As with branding, losing one’s ears was not only painful but also humiliating. Hiding your earless new look was not easily done.^[4]

6 Branks

Although arguably not as painful as losing an ear, the brank is something straight out of a horror movie. The mix of pain with the avert humiliation of the brank makes it one of the more egregious punishments. It was used for those who spoke out against the church, gossiped, or nagged. It was known as the “gossip bridle” or “scold’s helm.”

An iron cage was placed over the accused person’s head with a plate stuck into their mouth that held their tongue down. Sometimes the plate was adorned with spikes. Almost always, the plate was large enough to cause hours of gagging while wearing it. To make the brank even more degrading, it could be topped with a bell so everyone would know you were approaching or a leash to be walked through town.

There is not much documented on the brank being used in colonial America, not as much as there is on them being used in Europe, at least. However, there are records of its use, especially with slaves. One of the reasons the brank could be so horrible was there wasn’t a set time limit. Maybe you were in the brank for a few hours, maybe days. Branks were mostly for women, as was the next punishment.^[5]

5 Ducking

The terms cucking stools and ducking stools are used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Cucking stools were seats that the victim was strapped to and paraded through town. Ducking stools were the same construction, only they were placed at the end of a lever that moved up and down, dunking the person strapped in underwater. The ducking stools became so popular that Maryland eventually passed a law that all counties must have a ducking stool.

Like the brank, ducking was used mostly as a recourse for women criminals. The result of the ducking stool was supposed to be a confession from the accused or an agreement to repent for their crimes. There was no set time limit for the stool nor time to be held underwater. Casualties resulted because of this. Ducking was not supposed to be fatal, but sometimes the victim would die of shock or drowning.

All these mentioned were punishments meant to scare, harm, and humiliate. Now we move to the darker side of corporal punishment. Spoiler alert: everyone dies at the end.^[6]

4 Hanging

Hanging was the most common method for a sentence of death in Colonial America. It was used if someone committed a heinous crime such as murder, infanticide, rape, or other sex crimes. A seventeen-year-old boy from Plymouth was found guilty of several counts of buggery (bestiality, in this case), including a horse, a cow, two goats, five sheep, and a turkey. I’m not sure how these animals were calculated so succinctly, but he was hung to death, and the animals were buried alive as the good Lord intended.

Hanging could be sentenced for men and women alike, and sometimes even children. During the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730), hanging was the main form of execution for those convicted. It is estimated that 10% of the pirate population in the Caribbean during this time met the gallows in America.

Generally, the hangman was not a professional but just a law figure within the colony or a judge. This less-than-ideal experience almost certainly led to more botched hangings than successful ones. If the rope was too short, the criminal’s neck wouldn’t break, so they would strangle to death. If it was too long, they might get beheaded. Which leads us to beheadings.^[7]

3 Beheading

“Off with their heads!” is one of the most known lines in literature or from a Disney film, depending on your taste. During Colonial America, it was shameful when your severed head was posted publicly. In contrast, for most of history, beheading was reserved for the upper class and seen as honorable in Europe. If it was done correctly, it was a swift and quick death.

However, the neck is not as fragile as one may think. Just like hangings, there wasn’t anyone trained in the art of beheading. This increased the likelihood of needing more than one attempt at decapitation, creating a need for multiple swings or repeated use of the guillotine. In some instances, the blade hit the head, not the neck.

Despite the possibility of a botched beheading, it was still preferred in England and the colonies to the alternatives. Anne Boleyn, for instance, was charged with treason and adultery. King Henry VIII could have chosen her to be burned at the stake or decapitated. For the victim, it seems like an easy choice.^[8]

2 Burning at the Stake

Fire is argued as the thing that separates man from animals. The control of fire has been used for good and for horrifically bad. There is a misconception that Colonial America came to its roots of burning at the stake during the Salem Witch Trials. The problem is Salem hung their witches. This does not negate the fact that burning at the stake was a not-so-rare method of capital punishment and a brutal one at that. From the ancient world, it moved into Europe and became the symbol of anti-religious punishment. Heretics, blasphemers, and rebels were burned.

Like so many other laws and punishments in our country, being burned at the stake has a racist history. Most women who were burned at the stake were black. White women convicted of the same crimes were generally hanged. Homosexuals also had to fear the fire. Due to the religious foothold of the colonies, homosexuality was punished by burning. If you were lucky, you were granted some sort of mediation to your death. For instance, sometimes, the victim would be strapped with gunpowder so that it would explode once the heat got to a certain level and kill them instantly.

1 Drawn and Quartered

“Hanged, drawn, and quartered” sounds like an album put out by a B-rated punk band. But no, it was a form of torturous death. The sentenced criminal would be hanged, taken down from the gallows alive, have their limbs tied to four horses, and then ripped into four parts. Another variation included being drugged to the gallows by a horse, hung til almost dead, then disemboweled publically. Afterward, the corpse would be quartered.

This form of capital punishment was not a popular one and seemed to be mandated more by English occupants than actual settlers. Because of this, treason was the number one crime that was eligible for being drawn and quartered. In England, hanged, drawn, and quartered punishment was reserved only for men who were found guilty of treason. With little documentation on how exactly this was adopted in colonial America, it’s fair to say it was the same procedure.

There were dozens of punishments that would be considered cruel and unusual by today’s standards. There are references to colonists using the breaking wheel and boiling victims in oil. Both are adopted from Old England’s torturous methods of the 1500s, and both seem almost too much for us to consider as part of our heritage. Without detailed records on them, they didn’t make the list. I think we have been through enough heartbreak anyway.

Before we harshly judge the settlers and their methods of punishment, we must remember they were living in very hard times or had just survived being starved, frozen, and constantly surrounded by death for months at a time. Racism and fear also lent to the horrific practices of our penal system.^[10]