SHAVING AND CAPITALISM

I’ll be the first to admit that I shave regularly, and that I enjoy it. Who doesn’t like the feel of smooth legs on clean sheets? But recently I’ve been asking myself the question, why do only women face the societal pressure to shave? The story behind how we got here, I’ve come to find, is a direct result of the capitalist agenda.

Before the early 20th century, both men and woman removed their body hair throughout the centuries, and this goes back to ancient Egypt and the Roman empire. The practice was associated with cleanliness and could even be an indicator of class. But the first time we really see the proposition that body hair is ‘unfeminine’ comes from Charles Darwin and his book ‘Descent of a Man’ where he associates body hair with our “primitive ancestors”.

At the turn of the 20th century, King Camp Gillette’s focus was men, as the sole buyers of their products. Victorian women at the time still wore long skirts and sleeves so shaving regularly was unnecessary. But as sleeves turned sheer or were simply forgone, woman were showing more of those places that happened to be hairy. Gillette took full advantage of this fashion revolution and began to aim his product to woman, claiming an unshaven armpit was an embarrassment. They introduced their first woman’s razor in 1915 called the Milady Décolleté razor, and the advertisements were clear: shave or be left behind and judged for not doing so. In 1922, the lady’s magazine Harper’s Bazaar was one of the first to run an ad specifically targeting underarm hair, it stated: “the fastidious woman to-day must have immaculate underarms if she is to be unembarrassed”. With the increasing popularity of woman’s advice columns, this notion spread like wildfire.

Despite Gillette’s efforts, the pressure to also forgo leg hair wasn’t taken to as rapidly, as woman simply wore stockings to cover their legs and saw the lengthy hair removal process as wholly unnecessary. But this all changed with the onset of World War 2 in the 1940s, with the notorious pin-up girls, spear headed by Betty Grable, clad in a one-piece and absolutely hairless. Woman now had an image to live up to, and their appeal to men relied on their ability to remove body hair. Additionally, for some unspoken reason, hairless legs also become a method of patriotism for women, alongside the red lips. It was said to boost morale for the fighting men if they knew they had a pretty woman to come home to.

However, a far more practical factor came into play in the war that lead to necessary shaving. As silks and nylon were needed to make uniforms and parachutes, women were forced to venture into the world with bare legs, which could only be done if one had smooth clean legs. Those reluctant to leave the house without their precious stocking had liquid stocking available to them! But the catch was that this trick only worked on those with smooth, hairless legs…

By the time nylon came back around women weren’t eager to backtrack and made legshaving a permeant part of their routine.

These women passed shaving practices onto their daughters and by 1964 a reported 98% of women aged 15-44 were shaving their legs regularly in the US. However, in the last few years women have begun to question where this ridiculous notion came from, and female body hair has become far less of a taboo. I believe that hair or no, every woman is beautiful and should treat her body the way she sees fit, not how society says is acceptable.

BY REBECCA WARD