Tertullian takes over and develops an idea which the De Idololatria . A woman ought not to encourage lustfulness by her dress or demeanour. She must seek to please her husband alone. Plain cleanliness will suffice. It is vain to cultivate beauty, wicked to plaster oneself with cosmetics.
Fancy hairstyles are equally reprehensible.
In brief, Christian women should renounce extravagant bodily accoutrements and adornments. God created the instruments of luxury to test mankind' s self control, and a Christian woman can have no good reason for gadding about in finery. Christian modesty must not only exist but be seen. Luxury is nothing but an impediment to martyrdom. The end of the world may be at hand.