Shaving, or more specifically, the art of hair removal is not a new development nor is it something that developed with modern society in the last two or three hundred years. Hair removal has been something that man and woman have done since the very beginnings of civilization and something which has been useful for more than beauty and appearance purposes.
Whereas now you might spend a fortune on your shaving kit, your exquisite lotions and potions leading you to continually be on the search for the best credit card balance transfer, the first reasons for hair removal and shaving were purely instinctive and based upon a need for survival.
Survival and Endurance
Basic forms of shaving can be seen as far back as the first cavemen and the main areas from which hair is removed have not really changed. Removing hair from heads and faces of men was, as mentioned, initially for solely survival purposes. Historical sources believe that as well as caveman doing this, it was also a practice carried out by the Ancient Egyptian people. Although there is no actual evidence to suggest it, historians believe that the removal of head and facial hair was mainly so potential adversaries were at a disadvantage as they would have less to grab onto. There is also the belief that less hair was a practical solution to mites’ infestation and so caveman would remove the hair by scraping it away. When using the word scrape, it literally meant the men would use sharp rocks, shells and flint and scrape the hairs from their faces, so, you’d imagine more than just hair came away after all was said and done. The ancient Egyptian people were able to construct a slightly more sophisticated tool for their hair removal, using a basic form of razor carved from flint or bronze. The Egyptians even developed an early form of modern depilatories which is known as sugaring. Similar to waxing, the Egyptians would apply a sticky paste, mainly made up of beeswax, to their skin and then apply a thin cloth. As the cloth is pulled away, so are the hairs.
The Female Problem and a Question of Civilization
Some historians would have you believe that women have only been shaving their bodily hair for the past hundred years or so and this is true for Modern European and American women. The American question can be answered simply by the fact that the majority of American settlers were of European stock and so carried over their traditions from home. However, hair removal was important for females in Ancient Greece, Egypt and the Middle East. In fact, in Egypt, women even removed all the hair from their head and having any pubic or hair in the nether regions was considered very uncivilized and unwomanly.
Men were also considered uncivilized if their body hair was unkempt or unshaven, especially in the facial and pubic regions. Not shaving or removing your body hair denoted you were of a lower class, possibly even a servant or slave.
The tools of the trade for the women of the Ancient civilizations were pumice stones, primitive razors and tweezers, as well as home remedy depilatories as mentioned previously. Threading was a process that was also common for women in these times, using strings of yarn or lace and tugging away all unwanted hair.
European Body Hair Removal and the First Razors
The earliest recorded signs of hair removal in early-Modern Europe are seen in Elizabethan England where women began to remove all their eyebrow and forehead hair to accentuate their brows, yet still left other hair on their bodies untouched.
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| The Perret Razor: not so good looking, not so easy to use either. |
The first razor (a precursor of the more widely known straight razor) is said to have been invented by Jean Jacques Perret in the 1760s and as the picture shows, forms a wooden L-shape designed to ensure a little more safety in the shaving process and provide a wet shave unparalleled by all previous models. The late 19th century saw the birth of the Gillette brand and their patented style has gone on to be very famous, although not quite as satisfying as the clean cut feel you get from a classic Perret Razor shave.
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| The original Gillette Razor: patent application drawings. |
Shaving has, of course, gone on to develop a mass brand appeal with hundreds of different models and styles out there but when it comes down to it, the classic feel of a wet shave and the close cut from the smooth blade is incomparable and there’s no doubt our ancient ancestors would agree.
For more information about Shaving Razors visit the Shaving Advice razor info section at Fendrihan.
