bear's grease

English

Alternative forms

• bear grease

Noun

bear's grease (uncountable)

1. The fat of the brown bear mixed with beef marrow and perfume, formerly a folk treatment for hair loss.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 47, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     “Stuff!” growled the other, “you fancied you were getting bald the other day, and bragged about it as you do about everything. But you began to use the bear’s-grease pot directly the hairdresser told you; and are scented like a barber ever since.”

   • 2002, Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White, Canongate Books (2010), page 336:

     Oh, for a jar of bearʼs grease such as was always in supply at Mrs Castawayʼs — but she canʼt imagine where she could buy bearʼs grease in Marylebone.