When did women start....

[thebadmamajama]

Shaving their legs? I've always been curious about this and wondered if anyone had any insight on a totally random "Huh" question.

 

[Leading Edge]

Good question.
Probably about the same time the hemline rose above the ankle and those drop dead gorgeous button boots became passe.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Hair removal products were being widely sold in the 1910s, including depilatory creams, waxes, and the "Curvfit" ladies' razor, which predates the rise in hemlines by a few years. But they really became popular in the twenties -- leafing thru any womens' magazine of the day will show plenty of ads for such products.

 

[Joie DeVive]

I just read a whole chapter on hair removal in Inventing Beauty; A history of the innovations that have made us beautiful by Teresa Riordan.

This author says that it is unclear how the leg shaving habit started, but that it seems to coincide with the rise in hemlines between WW1 and WW2.

Virgina Kirkus is named as being one the early propenents of leg shaving. In her 1922 beauty book, she states that just because the practice started with chorus girls is no reason to shun it, and that leg and armpit shaving is no more to be looked down upon than men shaving their faces.
Harper's Bazaar beauty editor, Elinor Guthrie Neff was also named as an early advocate. In 1939 she wrote: "Ankle socks on the campus are a fine old institution and all very well, but not on furry legs. If you must wear socks you owe it to your associates to get into the habit of using some safe dependable depilatory. And we mean regularly-not just once in a blue moon as a kind of isolated experiment." lol

 

[Laura Chase]

I know a guy who does voluntary work helping archeologists excavate viking settlements here in Denmark, and he told me about some finds they have made, among them razors ornamented in a very beautiful and feminine manner. They believe these razors were used by women to remove unwanted hair from parts of their body.

This custom goes way back.

HAIR REMOVAL THROUGH THE AGES

HAIR REMOVAL IN THE 20th CENTURY

 

[KittyT]

Please search the archives. There's already a pretty extensive thread about this!

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=17732