As commodities became scarce in the South, men and women made due with what they had. Soap, for example, was produced from home out of water, lye, and grease. To produce lye, water was filtered through a tray of wood ash. When meat was scarce, china berry and cottonseed oil was used as a grease-substitute.
Toothbrushes and tooth powder were highly valued and in short supply. Such things as arrowroot, chalk, charcoal, cuttlefish bone, honey, myrrh, orris root, and salt and soda were used as tooth powder. Hog bristles, twigs, or the licorice roots were used as toothbrushes.
Rice flour was a substitute for face powder and melted lard mixed with rose petals was used as hair oil.
When paper was scarce, individuals made the most of what they had. They would write a full page and then turn the paper 90 degrees and fill the paper that way. It made the letter difficult to read but not impossible. Ink was made using dogwood extract or elderberries.
(Source: Varhola, Michael J. Everyday Life During the Civil War: A Guide for Writers, Students, and Historians. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books. 1999.)
I used to do this in highschool when passing notes to Steph...and then we'd switch to new colors and do diagonals, too. hehe
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