When Did Women Start Shaving Their Legs as a Beauty Standard?

Thousands years ago… Hard to tell exact time… The human body contains 5,000,000 hair follicles and while body hair seems pretty useless it actually serves a purpose. Hair helps regulate body temperature, keeping humans warmer in colder climates. It also helps protect the body from outside elements like ‘’dirt’’. Body hair is natural and helpful, why then do women spend so much time removing hair from their own bodies? All in the name of beauty, of course.

By defining beauty ‘’standards’’, we got to have some accepted public norms and a kind of institutionalization.

I believe Egyptians had some religious concerns for hair removal. Temple priestesses, (probably), had the priority to be clean and hairless in front of Gods…. After a while probably it became a beauty habit. ( My theory, not proven)

Anyway what we know is:

• 4000-3000BC Women are removing body hair with depilatory creams made from such combinations as arsenic, quicklime, and starch. 3000BC marked the first permanent development of razors due to metalworking being invented. In both India and Egypt razors made from copper are found available.
• 1500-1200BC Some of the most elaborate razors in ancient times in Scandinavia were produced. Razors were found in leather carrying cases with scenes embossed in the bronze blades in excavations carried out in the Danish Mound Graves with the handles carved into horse head shapes.
• 500BC It became popular for men to crop their hair very short and shave the face in Greece. Alexander the Great is responsible for this as he is obsessed with shaving.’’ Source of the quoed paragraphs: The History of Shaving From Prehistoric Days to Gillette's Invention

History of Female Hair Removal

‘’ The practice of removing female body hair is not new, it can be traced back to ancient Rome and Egypt.

Some of the first razors, made of copper, were used in Egypt and India around 3000 BCE. Egyptian women removed their head hair and considered pubic hair uncivilized. Upper-class Roman women of the sixth century BCE used tweezers, pumice stones and depilatories to achieve the desired degree of hairlessness, while Egyptians of Cleopatra’s time used a sugar mixture in a method similar to waxing. Elizabethan women removed their eyebrows and hair from their foreheads to give themselves a longer brow.

The modern era of hair removal may have been encouraged by Charles Darwin’s 1871 book, Descent of Man, through the popularization of his theories of natural selection. That is, homo sapiens have less body hair than his/her antecedents because less hairy mates were more sexually attractive. Body hair became a question of competitive selection. By the early 1900s, upper- and middle class white American women associated smooth skin with a desirable femininity.’’ Source of the quoted paragraphs: The History of Female Hair Removal

Europe was a late comer

‘’ Egyptians shaved their beards and heads which was a custom adopted by the Greeks and Romans about 330BC during the reign of Alexander the Great.

This was encouraged for soldiers as a defensive measure to stop enemies from grabbing their hair in hand-to-hand combat.

As shaving spread through the world, men of unshaven societies became known as “barbarians” meaning the “unbarbered”. The practice of women shaving legs and underarms developed much later.’’ Source of the quoted paragraphs: The History of Shaving From Prehistoric Days to Gillette's Invention

1800s

‘’ By 1844, Dr. Gouraud had created one of the first depilatory creams called Poudre Subtile. Soon after, in 1880, King Camp Gillette created the first modern day razor for men and thus a revolution was born. However, it would be another three decades before a razor specifically marketed for women would appear.’’ Source of the quoted paragraphs: History of Hair Removal