Bear's grease

[1] Nicholas Culpeper, the English botanist and herbalist wrote in 1653, in his The Physician's Library, "Bears Grease staies [stops] the falling off of the hair.

"[1] Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), Benedictine mystic, composer and woman of letters, also recommended the use of the substance in her Physica (repeated in her Causae et Curae).

In the early 1880s in Arkansas, an ell of bear grease, formed from the hide from the head and neck of a deer, was a standard medium of exchange.

[1] In the 1823 cartoon by George Cruikshank on the right, reference is made to "heels well rub'd with bears grease" (by which Russian support is meant).

In the Northeast tribes of the Sauk, Huron, and Delaware, the daily use of bear grease on their hair was popular among both men and women.