How Women Cleaned Their Hair In The Regency Era

Ladies, take you ever forgotten to shave your legs, underarms or bikini area, then donned an outfit that showed your hairy figure perfectly to the earth?

Men take you forgotten to shave your confront, rolled out bed when the alarm clock didn't go off and and then showed up to work looking scruffy and stubbly? Or oh know! Yous didn't wax your dorsum before going to the beach…

We're talking about hair removal today, and when information technology came about and why it'south and then of import. I'thousand giving yous a very brusk version of history, but y'all should be able to get the basic ideas.

Hair removal didn't start but yesterday, or even a hundred years ago. It has been around since caveman times. Although some things have changed, generally which role of the body we're removing hair from, the techniques have only been honed a little with technology.

Removing hair from the caput and face of men was originally not for vanity purposes merely for survival. It is known that not only cavemen did this but aboriginal Egyptians equally well. There have been speculations that for safety, scraping off the beard and pilus on the head would have away the advantage of an antagonist having anything to grab onto. For cavemen it was peradventure known that those with less hair had less mites, hence scraping the hair from the confront.

At present I keep saying scrape…why scrape? Well they didn't have Gillette or Bic dorsum in the day…They would take sharp rocks, sea shells or flintstone blades and literally scrape the hair from their faces. I'm sure not only hair came away...um…OW!!!

The aboriginal Egyptians were known to have meliorate forms of razors fabricated of flint or bronze. They also used a method of depilatory called sugaring. A sticky paste (bees wax was sometimes used) would be applied to the skin, kind of like waxing. Then a strip of cloth was pressed onto the paste and yanked off, removing the hair.

There is a rumor going around that women accept only been removing hair from their legs for the terminal hundred years or so. Well that is true for American and European women. The fact that removal of body hair for Europeans wasn't popular gives sense to the fact that American women didn't shave, because nearly of the immigrants were European. Still in ancient Egypt, Hellenic republic, and Middle Eastern countries, removing body hair was important. In fact these women removed most of their trunk hair, except for t the eyebrows. Egyptian women removed their head pilus. Having hair downward under was considered uncivilized. At present any men reading this should know the women were non the just ones to remove their pubic hair…

It was also considered uncivilized for men to have hair on their face. Having a scruffy face meant you were a slave or servant, definitely of lower class. Is that why corporate guys and politicians always have clean shaven faces? Do we acquaintance a clean shaven face with someone powerful?

In the ancient Roman Empire, pilus removal was often seen as an identifier of course. The wealthy women would remove their body pilus with pumice stones, razors, tweezers and depilatory creams.

(Check out this painting that was painting in the 1800'due south past French painter, William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Venus is devoid of trunk hair, and you volition notice in near paintings throughout history the women are void of torso pilus...)

There was also another technique used called threading. The women would take some cord or yarn and lace information technology through the fingers of both hands, then vigorously rub it on the area therefore tugging, ripping, pulling the unwanted hair away…

We do know European women did non engage in body hair removal during the middle ages. In fact information technology wasn't until Elizabethan times that Euro women began the practice of hair removal…except they didn't remove leg, armpit or pubic hair…they removed their eyebrows and the hair from their foreheads to give themselves a longer brow.

This look was so fashionable that it is said, mothers would frequently rub walnut oil on their children's foreheads to prevent pilus growth. They were also said to use bandages covered with vinegar and true cat's poo. Gross!

The Perret razor was invented in the 1760's past French barber, Jean Jacques Perret. It is an L-shaped wooden guard that holds the razor and is supposed to reduce the damage done to peel (ex: cuts!) when shaving.
(left moving-picture show)

However it wasn't until the 1880's that a much safer razor came along. Meet King Military camp Gillette. He wasn't a male monarch, that was merely his proper noun. He was an American man of affairs, and in case you didn't recognize his last name, he was the inventor of the Gillette razor. (correct picture)

In 1915, the beginning women'south razor came out. It was in this aforementioned year that an edition of Harpers Bazaar magazine came out with an result featuring a model wearing a sleeveless apparel and *gasp* no hair in the armpits!

Thus started the ritual nosotros have today of shaving abroad the unwanted hair.

So what do you think? Do y'all like shaving? Wish it wasn't a large deal? Check out the polls on the main page...

Have a great week!

Source: https://www.historyundressed.com/2008/03/ladies-have-you-ever-forgotten-to-shave.html

Posted by: mccarterhable1977.blogspot.com

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