A Brief History of Body Hair Removal and Women Proudly Going Au Naturel
Body hair removal has a long and storied history. Even though some women, like iconic artist and birthday girl Frida Kahlo, have broken the mold, females have sought to remove more and more hair from the human body over time.
Legendary artist and body hair icon Frida Kahlo. (Photo: Getty Images)
Long before Kahlo, women have been streamlining and shaving hair from the human body. Ancient Egyptian women might have been at the forefront of the body hair removal movement, using beeswax and sugar-based waxes to take off unwanted hair. Ancient Greek women also partook in the practice, as you might guess from the hairless art produced at the time.
Rome was also on board, with upper-class woman using everything from razors to depilatory creams. During the Renaissance, it was common to have a household recipe book, often referred to as a “book of secrets,” which contained methods of hair removal across every part of the body.
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In 1915, Gillette released the first razor targeted at women, who began shaving their underarm hair en masse. In the 1940s, a WWII silk shortage prompted women to opt for bare-leg looks. Several years later, the bikini came into style, and women were shaving and plucking even more body parts.
In the late 1980s, seven Brazilian sisters opened shop in the United States, providing waxing services to New York City women. Ladies began embracing “the Brazilian” after the style featured heavily in an episode of Sex and the City.
In these modern times, the cultural norm is “complete depilation of most body hair,” according to researcher Emma Trisolini. A paper in the Psychology of Women Quarterly, women near universally sought to eliminate hair from their bodies, deeming it a slight inconvenience but a personal choice nonetheless.
Psychologists have a couple of theories as to why we go hairless and have been since the Stone Age or earlier; perhaps it was way too hot when our ancestors were foraging, and perhaps it was a way to eliminate disease by ensuring a person was free of havens that might hide bugs that make people sick. However, there are notable exceptions of women rocking statement body hair — perhaps with increasing frequency today.
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Sophia Loren smolders with fuzzy underarm hair. (Photo: Getty Images)
In the late 1800s, artists were starting to depict hair-adorned bodies. Before Kahlo sported her amazing brows in the 1920s, renowned artists Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse celebrated female body hair, depicting women with pubic and underarm scruff in their paintings. The gorgeous Sophia Loren frequently maintained underarm hair during the 1950s, while singer Patti Smith posed for the cover of her Easter album in 1978 with pits on full display.
Patti Smith proudly sported hairy underarms on the cover of her Easter album. (Photo: Arista Records)
Over the past 20 years or so, we’ve seen even more modern examples of women embracing their body hair. Ever since the world gave a collective gasp in 1999, when America’s sweetheart Julia Roberts walked the red carpet and waved with oodles of underarm hair, we’ve been slowly seen the tide turn toward body-hair love.
Winning red-carpet look! Julia Roberts shows off her underarm hair. (Photo: Getty Images)
By the early 2010s, celebs started riffing on these body-hair role models of years past. There was a “full brow” revolution like we hadn’t seen since Kahlo’s day, thanks in no small part to rebel-spirit Cara Delevingne, who exploded onto the modeling scene.
The modern-day queen of bold brows Cara Delevingne. (Photo: Getty Images)
An Instagram photo of Madonna rocking Julia Roberts’s style went viral in 2014, and Girls actress Jemima Kirke and Miley Cyrus proudly showed off their unshaved underarms for cameras in 2015. Actress Cameron Diaz even praised pubes in her recent bestselling The Body Book.
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More than just celebrities are getting in on the unshaven action. In 2015, there was a viral campaign among Chinese women to show off their underarm hair — prompting writer Yuan Ren to explain that Chinese culture is overwhelmingly accepting of body hair in general, and there is “respect for individual choice,” unlike Western society. English-born Harnaam Kaur recently revealed her beard in the media as well, deciding to embrace her natural hair (the result of polycystic ovary syndrome) because her religion prevents shaving.
Harnaam Kaur is bearded and beautiful. (Photo: Getty Images)
Just this year in 2016, Adele discussed feminine beards onstage. She claimed a major hormonal shift during pregnancy resulted in excess facial hair growth. Of the repercussion, she told concertgoers, “I actually have a beard, but I’m proud of it. I call it Larry.”
We’re still a culture of Brazilians and smooth underarms, plucking and shaving our way to mostly hairless bods. But it seems that hair is finally here to stay in some circles, at least among some women who are proclaiming that they’re proud to be natural and low(er)-maintenance.
We think the very progressive Ms. Kahlo, born 109 years old today, would have undoubtedly approved.
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