The History of Cosmetic Hair Removal
Think the practice of body hair removal is new? Nope! The history of cosmetic hair removal is long and quite interesting. Here are some of the more poignant eras of note when it comes to removing body hair:
Egypt
The Egyptians are known to have been on their beauty game first, but their focus was primarily cosmetic hair removal! The women of ancient Egypt removed all of their body hair (including the hair on their heads!) with tools such as primitive tweezers (made from shells), pumice stones (ouch!), beeswax and sugar-based pastes.
Rome
During the Roman Empire, those who lacked body hair were considered to be of higher class. Many men and women used similar tools to that of the Egyptians to remove body hair, including pubic hair, which is why many of the ancient Roman statues depict immaculately clean-shaven men.
Middle Ages
For such a dark and seemingly horrific period in history, the Middle Ages was the era of Queen Elizabeth II, who set the precedence for hair removal among women of the upper class. However, the focus of hair removal for women during this time was their faces, not their bodies.
Women removed their eyebrows and hair from their foreheads to make their foreheads appear larger, and they did so with walnut oil, bandages soaked in cat pee (yep), and vinegar.
1700s
The late 18th century brought with it a much more civilized approach to hair removal—with the invention of razors for men.
1900s
This time in our history brought about the development of the first women’s razor, which ultimately propelled women to begin shaving their underarms. (Probably helping them to avoid noticeable body odour for longer periods of time.)
1940s
During wartime, nylons became scare, which forced women to go bare-legged more often. This was made easier and more cosmetically appealing by the invention of the first electric razor.
1950s
Hair removal became more and more acceptable during the 50’s, prompting women to not only have their legs and underarms regularly, but also begin to tweeze and shape their eyebrows.
1960s
This decade was home to both wax kits and laser hair removal—although the latter quickly (and obviously temporarily) became abandoned due to it’s skin-damaging tendencies.
1970s
Electrolysis became safe and reliable during the 70’s, and the resurgence of removing hair around the bikini line was prompted—probably due to the swimsuit trend that had carried on from the decade earlier.
1980s – Present Day
Today, most women and men make use of some form of hair removal regularly. Whether it be shaving, waxing, sugaring, electrolysis, laser hair removal, threading, or simply tweezing, cosmetic hair removal is only becoming more and more acceptable and mainstream.
If you’ve never tried sugaring to remove your unwanted body hair, we suggest you book an appointment and try it—it was, after all, used all the way back to the ancient Egyptians for a reason.
To schedule an appointment, visit our website and find the Sugar’d location closest to you.
