Society’s attitudes towards female body hair may seem to be set in stone. When we see models in magazines or billboards, it is extremely unusual to see them as anything other than completely waxed, plucked and preened. This prevalence of the completely hairless woman makes it easy to believe that it must have always been this way, but if we look back a little through history, we can see that fashions and attitudes are in no way static.
In the beginning…
The idea of removing body hair was not something that was widely considered until the Ancient Egyptians. Prior to this, there is evidence that it may have been removed for ritualistic or personal reasons, but it couldn’t be considered a trend. It wasn’t until the Egyptians, that a society embraced hair removal as a fashion. They would remove all of the hair from their bodies, men and women both, using razors, sugaring, or primitive depilatory creams. This was a practice later adopted by the Romans, although with both cultures, it would have been far more common amongst the rich.
The (5 O’Clock) Shadows of Time
The so-called ‘Dark Ages’ have very little evidence for or against whether it was common to remove body hair. Viking burial sites often contain razors, mirrors, and combs which shows that they took great care with their appearance, and hair in particular, so it would not be unreasonable to assume that this would extend to body hair. It was also during this time that Islam was founded in the Middle East, which teaches that the armpits should be plucked, and the pubic hair shaved. So we can safely assume that the trend and custom of removing body hair, was alive and well during the first millennia.
A Body Hair Renaissance
In Renaissance art there was not a body hair to be seen, so it follows that society would take instruction from this, and that it became the norm to take a lot more care over one’s body hair. This is evidenced in the often quoted anecdote about the art critic John Ruskin, in that he was unable to consummate his marriage due to his shock and distaste at seeing his wife’s apparently un-Renaissance naked body!
The 20th Century
Although we can see that there have been fashions and trends for hair removal all throughout time, it wasn’t until the twentieth century that these trends began to be followed by everyone from all walks of life. The main reason for this is the widespread availability of hair removal products, and aggressive marketing campaigns; in 1915, Gillette released the first razor marketed specifically at females with the line: “Summer Dress and Modern Dancing combine to make necessary the removal of objectionable hair”!
Hair Today (Gone Tomorrow?)
Today, women are free to make their own decisions about what, how much, and how often they remove their body hair. Whether you choose to get rid of hair from any part of your body is completely your choice, and shouldn’t be based on anything other than what you want to do with your body. If you do decide that removing some or all of your body hair is the right thing for you, then Veet® provides plenty of solutions to meet your personal preferences. So whatever you decide, the process will be an easy one.
