Naevous Nervosa -

Do you suffer from naevous nervosa?

If so, you may want to stop right here.  If you are brave, continue on. But you have been warned.

Naevous - or freckles for the longest time were considered undesirable, gauche, common.  For hundreds of years there were all types of concoctions for fading or eliminating the cursed little dots from face and body - especially from the face.

Horseradish and sour milk applied 4 times a day would alleviate the problem surely.  No one would get close enough to see the freckles.  They would be too busy trying to stay upwind from the smell.
Lemon juice remains popular to this day. Most frightening of all the concoctions though were the freckle creams that contained mercury, sometimes 3 or 4 times the normal strength (I guess the old adage 'more is better' would apply here).  So, in effect, we had women slathering mercury on their faces, bodies to get rid of those 'damned spots'. (hmmmm....maybe Shakespeare got one of his best lines listening to his wife putting on face cream?).   Mercury poisoning was a common medical condition in olden times.  The expression 'mad as a hatter' came about from the preponderance of men who were hatmakers going insane. (They were exposed to mercury during the process of making hats).  And, believe it or not, some ladies would take a tiny pinch of arsenic every day to 'enhance the delicate pearl like quality of their fair skin'.  They made beautiful corpses, eventually.

So, when their nerves got the better of women who saw freckles when they looked upon themselves in the mirror maybe this was not so frightening - this was a freckle remover device used in the 50's.

What some people will do in the pursuit of what is considered beauty or in style.

Now, some women, well, they just said 'Oh the heck with it. I guess I will just learn to live with my freckles..  Take me as I am.'

 Julianna Moore embraces her freckles and they don't seem to have impaired her chosen career in an industry that is hyper-critical of physical flaws!

As a freckler I would definitely opt for the last choice. I like my freckles.  I don't care if they are spots on my face, arms, neck, back, wherever.  They are there and they are mine. I say proudly

'I do not suffer from naevous nervosa!