anti-macassar (n.)

also antimacassar, 1848, from anti- + macassar oil, supposedly imported from the district of Macassar on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, which was commercially advertised from 1809 as a men's hair tonic "infallible in promoting an abundant growth and in maintaining the early hue and lustre of the HAIR to the extent of human life" [1830]. The cloth was laid to protect chair and sofa fabric from men leaning their oily heads back against it.