Another very luxurious practice, often available only to the rich, was coating one’s hair in butter or lard. It kept down vermin, helped preserve order in an elaborate hair-do, and added a gleam for which even we occasionally yearn, with our "structuring" hair-gel, brilliantine, and other hair oils.

Margaret Visser, Much Depends on Dinner – the extraordinary history and mythology, allure and obsessions, perils and taboos of an ordinary meal, 92.