History Of Unwanted Hair Removal
Hair removal isn’t anything new and although it’s been a topic of conversation for thousands of years, whether ladies should or shouldn’t remove unwanted hair growth, have you ever wondered where it all stemmed from?
It was the Egyptians that started to make this craze fashionable, but let’s skip back even further and look at the days of the cavemen and women.
Neolithic times
It was back here thousands of years ago that women started to remove all of their hair and it wasn’t out of vanity either!
They were renowned for being covered in hair all over their body, which did help to keep them warm but having hair in those times often lead to frostbite too.
Not only did they remove their hair to help towards protecting their health, but they would remove every ounce of hair, including on their head to reduce the likelihood of an opponent in battle grabbing onto them.
As you’d expect, hair removal was by no means an easy task to perform. Without razors or wax being invented yet, the cavemen and women would use a stone that they’d whittle to a sharp point and slide it down their face and over their body. To remove smaller hairs they’d turn to shells and use them as tweezers!
Egyptians
During neolithic times, it was a necessity/safety measures to rid the body of hair, it was the Egyptians that made it something of a “cleanliness issue” and a standard practice of beauty! Hair removal took off on more of a ‘vain’ front!
Thankfully, they also took the excruciating pain that hair removal caused by a better and less painful method - waxing!
The Egyptians would experiment with many different ways to best remove unwanted hair growth (that’s all hair except eyebrows!) which included pumice stones, but in the end, they found that using either beeswax or sugar-based waxes were the best options. They’d apply the wax to the skin and rip it off with fabric, much like we do today.
It was much safer and far more effective than using a sharpened stone, although they still used seashells as tweezers to remove any stubborn short hair.
Romans
Being hair free during these times not only meant you were clean (as the Egyptians portrayed) but it also reflected your class (for a woman anyway).
It was the rich women that not only wanted to remove their hair but socially had to, as it was a necessity to do so to show your eliteness amongst others.
Men, however, could choose whether they wanted to grow hair or not, it didn’t matter to them.
Roman women didn’t remove their hair with wax, instead, they invented their own ways. Yes, they used pumice stones like the Egyptians, but they also made the first razors using flint and produced depilatory creams.
They also invented volsellas, tweezers that looked menacing, to extract pubic hair the moment they first started to appear on a young girls body, because the pubic hair was seen as uncivilised!
If you think depilatory creams smell bad today, then just imagine the ones designed back in Roman times? Made with resin, bat’s blood, viper and other gruesome ingredients, Roman’s truly wanted to rid their body of hair and would use any ingredient no matter how unorthodox now, to do just that!
Elizabethan times
Fast forward to Middle Aged England where Queen Elizabeth I was ruling and was the trendsetter of the era. She felt that pubic hair and leg hair wasn’t a problem yet the face had to be hair free and eyebrows immaculately shaped.
More of the obscure side, she would also remove hair from the top of her forehead to help her face appear longer. Many women followed suit, using walnut oil and in extreme cases cat waste to rid hair growth.
1700’s - 1800’s
A time where women could, at last, do whatever they wanted with their hair growth without being judged.
If a woman wanted to let all her hair grow then she could, likewise if she wanted to go get rid of it too. There was no stigma or hierarchy attached to being au naturel!
The 1700s did, however, see the first razor invented for men that could be used by women also.
1900’s
The early 1900’s saw the first razor made specifically for women and removal of underarm hair was encouraged with shorter/no sleeve dresses becoming fashionable.
The war meant a rationing on nylon so women were having to go bare legged which encouraged hair removal of leg hair once more.
When the bikini started to become fashionable, this too encouraged the removal of all unwanted hair to show off a soft, smooth and a hair free body.
2000’s
Fast forward to the new Millenium and we have gone full circle. Although it is seen more socially acceptable and even an everyday necessity to be hair free, more and more women are embracing their hair and leaving it untouched. This look still has a long way to go, because fashion, bloggers, models and idols who all influence us in what we wear etc, are very much showing off smooth, hair-free skin.
But isn’t it nice to know that you now have a choice what you do with your hair, that it won’t impact upon your life and affect your opportunities, unlike days went by?
If you wish to be hair free permanently, then our FRÉNÉSIES creams are what you need. Made with natural ingredients that are a lot kinder to your skin, when used in conjunction with waxing or an epilator, will reduce hair growth, moisturise beautifully, and work towards completely stopping your unwanted hair from growing back.