From Cleopatra and Catherine the Great to the Present Day: Recipes and Ways of Women's Struggle for Smooth Skin

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Smooth hairless skin from the early years of human civilization was considered a sign of aristocracy for women and men. What did the Egyptian queen cleopatra, english Queen Elizabeth or Russian Empress Catherine the Greatto achieve the ideal of beauty and smoothness of the skin.

Together with the laser hair removal center Epilas we went on a journey back centuries to find out how our ancestors achieved the beauty of their skin and removed unwanted vegetation on the body.

Secrets of Cleopatra

A protruding chin, a crocheted nose, narrow lips and deep-set eyes - this is how historians represent the first beauty of antiquity, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Appearance is rather repulsive, but stories about the victories of this woman on love fronts speak of hidden abilities to attract and command men. Cleopatra's main weapon was her voice, the sounds of which, according to Plutarch, "caressed and delighted the ear." And the queen conquered men with her skin - smooth and delicate as silk.

They say that it was Cleopatra who became the pioneer of depilation. Whether it is true or not, but it is with her name that the first reliable information about this procedure is associated, which dates back to the 1st century BC. NS.

One can only imagine how long it took her to achieve such an amazing result and how much effort it took. The most primitive means were at her disposal. For example, warm wax or resin. They were mixed with honey and sap of poisonous plants and applied to the skin. From above, this mixture was covered with a cloth and removed along with the hairs. Or the tweezers with which the maids neatly plucked hair by hair. The procedure took more than one hour.

It is clear that after such an execution, the irritated skin required immediate recovery. And the queen immersed herself in baths of donkey milk with the addition of almond oil and male secretion.

In Egypt, smooth skin was considered one of the hygienic requirements and a sign of good taste, therefore, not only noble women, but also men were engaged in depilation, mainly for ritual purposes. Sharply sharpened objects were used, such as shells or stones, flint and bronze plates, pumice - all these devices were used to scrape off the hated hairs from the skin. It was in Egypt that the prototype of the razor appeared.

Fire and poison

Ancient Greek and Roman women of fashion took over the baton of purity. Hair removal products have become more and more impressive. In Ancient Hellas, oil lamps were used for this purpose - they simply burned unnecessary vegetation.

Roman beauties mastered the removal of hair with a thread - it was wrapped around the hair and then pulled out by the roots. To make the procedure less painful, the skin was pre-steamed. In the Roman baths - thermae, special rooms were even equipped for this purpose, where clients were received by specially trained slaves - cosmetes.

As for men, then, apparently, they, too, were not alien to worries about the beauty of their skin. However, the poet Ovid in every possible way warned men against excessive enthusiasm for depilation, considering only the usual hygienic procedures to be appropriate for them:

Meanwhile, progress did not stand still, and tinctures appeared in the arsenal of hair removal products that destroy hair and suppress its growth. Poisonous and caustic substances often became the main components of such tinctures. For example, the ancient Greek preparation included an extract from the roots of bryony, a very poisonous plant. The flourishing of miraculous drugs fell on the Middle Ages. In Turkish harems, the recipe for an ointment was passed from mouth to mouth, which was prepared by boiling lime, arsenic and vinegar. At this time, shugaring appeared in Arab countries - sugar paste was used to remove hair. But this method came to the West many centuries later - at that time sugar was too expensive.

Only women were worried about hair removal in the Middle, and even then not all: first of all, the ladies of the court and courtesans. And men from all walks of life preferred to remain hairy at all.

The Russian Empress Catherine the Great was haunted by the secrets of Cleopatra, and she ordered to get the recipes used by the Egyptian queen. The order was not fulfilled, but on the other hand, she received a gift from Frederick the Great - a golden jar of cream containing the thermal waters of Baden-Baden and extracts of Black Forest herbs (probably poisonous). Apparently, the remedy exceeded all expectations of the empress, as she lost interest in Cleopatra's tricks.

Queen Elizabeth I of England used a cream with ash, frog and bat blood. With this tool, she lubricated the skin on the forehead, having previously shaved off the hair on it - in this way she tried to correct the oval of the face and make the forehead visually higher. Her example was traditionally followed by the ladies of the court. Any hairs on the face were mercilessly plucked, including the eyebrows.

It is important to mention that in the Middle Ages it was also life-threatening for women to have facial hair. The presence of such vegetation was considered a sign of a witch. Everyone knows what they did with witches: the hair was burned along with the body - there could be no more radical epilation.

At the end of the 18th century, the first depilatory creams appeared - burning hair, and with it the skin. Rhumsa pasta traditionally contained slaked lime and arsenic, while Poudre Subtile contained hydrogen sulphide.

Attempts have been made to ban epilation. So, the French Queen Catherine de Medici decided not to touch the hair in intimate places, and Queen Victoria issued a decree at all, according to which all types of hair removal were banned.

To the next level

Already at the beginning of the 20th century, depilation was revived and became simpler and more affordable. In 1915, Gillette introduced the first safety razor for women, Milady Decollete, to the general public.

In the 1920s, women's outfits became bolder and more revealing than in the previous era. And life itself has become more dynamic, there was a place in it for sports, and dancing, and swimming in open reservoirs. This style dictated certain requirements for beauty.

Any excess vegetation on the body was declared a merciless war. Manufacturers one after another began to release on the market various miraculous remedies designed to help the fair sex get rid of hair in the armpits and legs.

Even during the war, women wanted to remain attractive. Mini-skirts and nylon stockings came into vogue. When the production of nylon declined and stockings became in short supply, women of fashion found a way out here too. They learned to imitate stockings by applying paint directly to their feet. Needless to say, your legs should be perfectly smooth - where have you seen hairy stockings?

In the 1960s, getting rid of excess hair became an epidemic. According to studies, by mid-1964, 98% of American women aged 15 to 44 were shaving their legs regularly. An old new service has appeared in beauty salons - wax depilation. The wax was applied to strips, and their principle of action allowed every woman to feel like Cleopatra.

At the same time, the tendency to remove hair from the intimate area was revived. This is because bikini swimwear left the screens and marched triumphantly across the planet, revealing women's bodies to the sun and the eyes of others. The hairs sticking out in the most inappropriate places were certainly useless.

In the era of "hairy hippies" and the second wave of feminism that swept the West in the late 1960s and 1970s, the passion for hair removal passed, but not for long. And, as often happens, one radical approach has been replaced by the exact opposite.

Closer to ideal

In the 1980-1990s, full hair removal, called Brazilian, came into fashion - not a single extra hair should remain on the body, including the intimate area. All available methods were used - from cream and razor to wax and sugaring. At the same time, new, revolutionary methods of dealing with body hair spread: electrolysis, photoepilation and laser hair removal.

By the way, electrolysis was discovered by Dr. Charles Mitchell back in 1875 and was used to treat ingrown eyelashes. His follower, dermatologist William Hardway, at the beginning of the 20th century used the method of electrolysis to treat excess hair, and quite successfully.

However, the method did not receive mass distribution: it was too expensive, complicated and time-consuming. That is how it remains today. Despite its sufficient effectiveness, electrolysis is used mainly on small areas of the skin.

But she has faster alternatives, in which the hair is destroyed by the influence of light. For example, photoepilation. Its advantage lies in the possibility of home use.

The crown of technological advancement in the field of combating unwanted vegetation lasting 2,000 years has been the laser. With the invention of laser hair removal - fast, hygienic, comfortable and completely harmless - women no longer need to subject themselves to lengthy, painful and dangerous procedures.

The laser epilator uses a highly targeted light that effectively destroys the hair follicle without affecting the surrounding tissue. Hair at this point stops growing. At one time, you can treat a large area of the body, and after repeated sessions, you can forget about your problem for several years.

In the 21st century, modern epilation procedure became fast, pleasant and accessible to everyone. Perhaps in the future, humanity will find a way to get rid of body hair once and for all? Well, wait and see.