Do you shave your body hair? You have the Romans to blame, archaeologists say

If you’ve ever shaved your armpits, gone for a wax, or even looked askance at someone sporting visible body hair, you may have the Romans to blame.

It turns out that our hairless body beauty standard was widely popularized by ancient Romans, who were obsessed with shorn hair and smooth skin, new archaeological discoveries reveal.

It’s long been known that the many early inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, whether rich or poor, were preoccupied with grooming themselves.

Julius Caesar reportedly had “superfluous hair” plucked from his body, according to a study published in 2014 in the Journal of the History of Sexuality. Ordinary citizens, too, would have been familiar with hair removers, in addition to other cosmetic products, according to a study published in 2019 in the journal Toxicology in Antiquity.

But a new discovery reveals just how prevalent and trendy the practice of body hair removal was even in the far reaches of the Roman Empire, according to English Heritage, a charity that manages hundreds of historic sites.

A large collection of ancient tweezers was recently unveiled at Wroxeter, a Roman town in England about 150 miles northwest of London that was once double the size of Pompeii.

“At Wroxeter alone we have discovered over 50 pairs of tweezers, one of the largest collections of this item in Britain, indicating that it was a popular accessory,” Cameron Moffett, an English Heritage curator, stated in the news release.

“The advantage of the tweezer was that it was safe, simple and cheap, but unfortunately not pain free,” Moffett added.

Both men and women in Wroxeter would have opted for the clean-shaven look in order to keep up with the fashions of Rome and to differentiate themselves from their “barbarian” countrymen, researchers said.

The painful, slow task of plucking hair would likely have been performed by enslaved people, according to researchers.

After having their hair removed, a resident of Wroxeter might have cleaned their nails, scooped the wax from inside their ears and gone for a communal bath. These grooming habits would have consumed large portions of their time, researchers said.

The newly unearthed tweezers, along with hundreds of other artifacts, such as perfume bottles and jewelry, are now on display at a new museum in Wroxeter.

This story was originally published May 31, 2023 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Do you shave your body hair? You have the Romans to blame, archaeologists say."