The Instructor 2.8.69

There is a great difference between being drenched in perfume and being anointed with perfume; the one is effeminate, while anointing with perfume is sometimes even beneficial. Aristippus the philosopher, when anointed with perfume, used to say that the effeminate deserved to perish miserably for having brought the usefulness of perfume into disrepute. “Honor the physician for his use,” says Scripture, “for the Most High created him, and healing comes from the Lord.” Then it adds, “And the perfumer will make a mixture,” clearly because perfumes were given for benefit, not for luxury. We must not in any way be eager for the stimulating effect of perfumes, but choose what is beneficial, since God caused oil to grow for human beings as a help in their labors. Foolish women who dye their gray hair and perfume their locks become grayer sooner, because aromatics are drying. That is why those who perfume themselves look more parched; and dryness makes people grayer (whether grayness is a withering of the hair or a lack of heat), the dryness drinking up the hair's proper moist nourishment and making it gray. How then could those who flee gray hair still reasonably love perfumes, which cause gray hair? And as dogs, following the scent, track down game by smell, so the self-controlled detect the licentious by the elaborate fragrance of their perfumes.