Who started the trend of women shaving their legs?

Question

My roommate and I had a discussion about this a couple of years ago, and we always wondered, who one day said, "women should shave their legs and underarms and men keep them hairy?" I mean, of course, living in America now days, I find it gross to be hairy as a girl, but when did that mindset start and how and why? Just one of those weird questions you think of when you're bored or in class or something.

Answer 1

Women were removing body hair as early as 3000 BC. Go to quikshave.com for a timeline of shaving.

Here is an excerpt:

It all began with the May, 1915 edition of Harper's Bazaar magazine that featured a model sporting the latest fashion. She wore a sleeveless evening gown that exposed, for the first time in fashion, her bare shoulders, and her armpits.

A young marketing executive with the Wilkinson Sword Company, who also made razor blades for men, designed a campaign to convince the women of North America that:

(a) Underarm hair was unhygienic (b) It was unfeminine.

Answer 2

The Mack Sennett answer is in all probability--movies had (and characteristic) a solid effect on basic custom, as while undershirt sales plummeted after Clark Gable did no longer positioned on one in It got here approximately One night. i've got study that till now 1915, prostitutes have been the gang commonly used for shaving. the administrative motives women persons shave are aesthetics, smell, and custom. bushy armpits on an in any different case groomed lady, particularly while she's wearing something like a sleeveless ballgown, look unkempt, unsophisticated, and earthy--a extra hippy look than frequently needed. in the event that they are moist with sweat, even worse. Hair additionally traps smell, so which you 're going to have extra BO once you're unshaven. And 0.33, culturally there's a EWWW element--we are basically no longer used to seeing it. Shaving the legs is executed strictly for stylish motives--hair under nylons gets all bunched up and ruins the graceful look of the leg, and long, dark leg hair seems masculine. The aesthetics have plenty to do with achieving an phantasm of maximal youthfulness, as noted by using some right here. women persons frequently pick to look sparkling and girlish, and truly do no longer pick to ask comparisons with an previous, bushy guy.

Answer 3

Womens looks are important and its part of their personality, girls who don't shave are considered gross and kinda lazy

if you are asking the origin, ok I'm gonna make a story up to explain:
there was a girl who spilled honey (or something sticky) on her legs, she tried hardly to remove it and she pulled the sticky thingy along with her leg hair, other women got jealous from her smooth "silky" leg and did what she did, then they invented razors and other stuffs

Hope you liked the story ;)

Answer 4

Plucking (tweezing), Shaving, Depilatory creams and Waxing are temporary hair removal methods.
Waxing usually lasts for 3 weeks, but it is painful.
Electrolysis and laser hair removal are "permanent" hair removal methods but are expensive and you have to find a trained professional, otherwise your skin could be damaged.
A review of the various hair removal methods is available at http://tinyurl.com/ob6tt

Answer 5

I had the same question (before discovering Yahoo Answers) about six months ago and found this site. Very interesting!

The Shaving Historical Timeline
http://www.quikshave.com/timeline.htm

Answer 6

Believe it or not but ladies shaving their legs started with french whores during the medieval times for cleanliness.

Answer 7

I know french women were waxing their legs in the 1800s.

Answer 8

I don't know who it was but it was probably a male and that same person who probably said women should wear dresses...lol

Answer 9

Hmm, I've never thought about that but that's really interesting...

I'd like to find that out too!

Answer 10

Who knows?