Unwanted body hair is a problem that people have been dealing with for a very long time. It is a myth that this is a recent trend. It is simply that the causes, the areas affected and, above all, the methods have changed dramatically over the centuries. We at laser centre At Body Aesthetics, we have compiled some fascinating historical facts about hair removal throughout the various stages of human development. You’ll see that this isn’t something that’s only just started today.
Yes, strange as it may sound, people did remove their body hair in the Stone Age – though only the men. This is evidenced by rock paintings dating back more than 20,000 years BC. These show that women had long, plaited hair, whilst men appeared to have virtually no body hair at all.
In 2016, archaeologist Margarita Gliba from the University of Cambridge discovered stone tools dating back 3.3 million years near Lake Turkana in Kenya. This was even before the emergence of Homo sapiens. The males used sharp stones or mussel shells to remove their body hair, often at the cost of permanent injuries.
One theory as to the possible reasons is that body hair gives off a pungent odour which alerts game to the hunter’s approach. Another theory suggests that hairy areas provide the perfect environment for parasites to thrive. A third theory is that, given their frequent conflicts with other clans, they tried to prevent any possibility of the enemy seizing them.
The Egyptians took things to the next level. Around 3000 BC, they discovered beeswax and colamasca. Both men and women removed hair from their entire bodies, including their heads. For this area, they used a kind of tweezers made from river mussel shells. Evidence of this can be seen in numerous drawings from that period and on statues of the pharaohs.
In the time of Caesar and Cleopatra, the absence of body hair was regarded as a sign of high social status. The nobility had access to flint tools, and from the 3rd century BC onwards, well-sharpened steel blades. It is no coincidence that all the marble statues from this period that we know of depict their subjects without any body hair whatsoever. Including in the intimate areas.
The more layers of clothing and perfume women wore, and the less often their bodies were exposed to the sun and water, the more body hair removal took a back seat. At the expense of the face. It is said that Queen Elizabeth I cemented the fashion for plucking eyebrows. The idea was to create a higher and more elongated forehead. The desire to follow this fashion was so strong that mothers treated their daughters’ foreheads from an early age with a cream made from… vinegar, cat faeces and walnut oil.
This style can be clearly seen in the most popular paintings from this period and even from the slightly earlier one. In the case of the Mona Lisa, for example, the hairline has been artificially pulled back by at least one centimetre.
In 1760, Jean-Jacques Pérès invented the first straight razor (L-shaped) – at that stage, intended solely for men. The trend for hair removal was brought to the USA by European settlers. There, in 1844, Dr Felix Guro invented his powder (or depilatory cream, the predecessor of „Veet“). He claimed that it removed „the fuzz above the upper lip“. This was a far more civilised method, given the techniques used up to that point. For example, hairs were removed by inserting a coiled needle, dipped in sulphuric acid, into the follicle of each hair individually.
In 1880, an American businessman King Camp Gillette produced the first razors at a price now affordable even to the general public. A full 35 years later, it launched the „Milady Décolleté“ model for women. In the same year, *Harper’s Bazaar* magazine published photographs of a woman with her arms raised and smooth underarms.
Until the Second World War, women successfully spared themselves this tedious chore by wearing tights. However, the shortage of nylon during the war brought back the need for hair removal. In the 1940s, Remington launched the first electric shaver. In the 1960s, the razor made a comeback as the most popular method of hair removal after a 5,000-year absence.
In the 1970s, electrolysis became popular, although it had been around for some time before that. It involves applying a small electrical current to the hair follicle using a fine needle. In the 1980s, there was a sharp but brief shift away from these methods, only for them all to return one after the other in the 1990s.
For laser hair removal We have already written enough about this. Although the main innovations date from the last 10 years, it has been available with medical certification since the mid-1990s. Before this could happen, 20 years of medical trials were carried out, and the technology has been in development since the 1960s.
Almost all of the methods listed are still practised in one form or another. Hair removal is becoming increasingly popular and is being promoted by the media as a social aesthetic norm for both women and men. The good news is that today we have access to information, research, medical tests, certificates, videos of various procedures and customer reviews. Overall We have a competitive environment for offering a range of services and methods across different price ranges. Everyone has the opportunity to decide what is best for their skin type, aesthetic preferences, lifestyle and budget. There are opportunities for planning and consultations to help you make informed decisions about matters concerning your beauty and health.
We do not need to give our opinion on each of these methods. Our preferences are clear from the types of treatments we offer. However, our team of medical experts is on hand to provide a free consultation to any interested prospective client. Whether hair removal is a fashion choice or a necessity, we at laser centre At Body Aesthetics, we aim to offer solutions that are high-quality, safe and cost-effective in the long term.
The material Hair Removal Through the Centuries was first published on Body Aesthetics.
