Macassar oil was used by some men in the 19th century for a glossy hairdressing. It was so called because it was said to be obtained from the Macassar district, now called Ujung Pandang. of the island of Celebes. Cheaper imitations were made with perfumed castor oil mixed with olive oil and the like. At the same time, decorum had relaxed so much that men now lounged in the deeply upholstered furniture, lolling their heads back. Thus the washable antimacassar was invented.
Herman Melville, in Moby-Dick, (1851) digressed upon the oil used at coronations:
- "Much might be ruminated here, concerning the essential dignity of this regal process, because in common life we esteem but meanly and contemptibly a fellow who anoints his hair, and palpably smells of that anointing....--what kind of oil is used at coronations? Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar oil, nor castor oil, nor bear's oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil."
