Perron Rigot

from the Middle Ages to the 19th century…

In the Western world, after the fall of the Roman Empire and during the early centuries of the Christian era, epilation and depilation – along with hygiene in general – were more or less forgotten. Care of the body was neglected... perhaps in favor of care of the soul! Hair on a woman was seen as an attribute of femininity and fecundity.

Things began to change with the Crusades, in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Frankish knights saw women who were free of body hair in the East, and brought back with them practices learned from the conquered peoples – steam baths and epilation, essentially of the forehead, underarms, and sometimes the pubic area. In addition to Eastern-style epilation, the use of hot wax began to spread. Natural waxes based on vegetable gums or beeswax were used.

As the fashion of a high, hair-free forehead took hold in Europe, women began removing or shaving the hair from the eyebrows as well as from the forehead.

Through the 19th century in Europe, epilation remained essentially facial. The eyebrows, in particular, were plucked to draw attention to the eyes and their color. Aside from the use of natural wax for removal of the hair, over the centuries preparations were used that seemed to be intended to prevent regrowth of the hair. One of these, imported from the East under the name rusma turcorum, long remained in use despite its toxicity. It contained arsenic trisulphide!

• from Antiquity
• the Middle Ages
• today