Hair removal has an extended and wealthy cultural history. There’s evidence to suggest that ladies removed their hair back in ancient Egyptian times (via tweezer-like devices constructed from sea shells). By the sixteenth century, it was less in regards to the removal of body hair, more in regards to the removal of hair from the face. Apart from perfectly plucked eyebrows, somewhat surprisingly, women removed hairs from their hairline – to make their foreheads appear larger – as demonstrated by Queen Elizabeth I. It was in 1760 that the primary men’s razor was created by a French barber named Jean Jacques Perret, while the 1800s ushered in depilatory creams, the primary of which was called Poudre Subtile, created in 1844 by Dr. Gouraud. It was in the identical decade that French depilatory brand X-Bazin released an advert that told women it was “now not immodest or embarrassing to wear evening gowns without sleeves or product of sheer fabrics” because of their cream that removed “superfluous hair”.  

The boys’s razor as we comprehend it today got here into fruition in 1880, because of King Camp Gillette, however it wasn’t until 1915 that he created a version specifically for girls, the Milady Decolletée which soared to popularity. In the course of the 50s, 60s, and 70s hair removal was the norm, and within the 4 a long time which have followed, latest technologies – from depilatory devices and electrolysis centres, to waxing salons and brow threading bars – have heralded hair removal one of the vital popular beauty services. But what does the long run of shaving appear to be?

The shaving industry as we once knew it has reached a juncture, and we’re experiencing a gradual change against gender-based societal norms. Recent figures from a research study by Mintel reported that the proportion of young women aged between 18-24 shaving their underarm hair fell from 95% in 2013 to 77% in 2016. Leg-shaving is experiencing a decline too, having fallen from 92% in 2012, to 85% in 2016. Which could indicate why there’s been an overall decline within the sales of shaving and hair removal products: 4% in 2018 meaning the industry is value £558 million, from £579 million in 2017. That said, the identical report found that hair removal is becoming increasingly popular amongst men aged 16-24, with 42% of males in that demographic now removing the hair from their underarms (up from just 16% in 2016) and 46% removing the hair from their bodies (up from 36% in 2016). While sportsmen like Cristiano Ronaldo and Tom Daley have been sporting smooth bodies for a while, the celebs of ITV’s Love Island reality television show – for instance, Wes Nelson and Jack Fincham – have been attributed to such acceleration. In actual fact, based on Euromonitor, the entire of the male grooming market is booming. Currently valued at $47 billion, it’s projected to exceed $60 billion by 2020 – a major growth from its current level.

Because the figures suggest, the ways by which consumers are engaging with shaving and hair removal have shifted and, in consequence of this, a cohort of future-facing grooming brands are taking a more nuanced and inclusive approach to body hair. Take male grooming brand Dollar Shave Club, for instance, who explored the actual and honest ways by which men go about shaving in its Get Ready advert in July 2018. In response to Dollar Shave Club’s global executive creative director Alec Brownstein, the advert was inspired by research undertaken by the brand to find what their customers really do in the toilet. The ad itself celebrates men and girls as they go about their individual, ‘embarrassing’ grooming habits, whether that’s shaving their pubic hair, waxing their chest with duct-tape, freshening up their genitalia, or taking a candlelit bath, all to the sound of Sammy Davis Jr.’s “I’ve Gotta Be Me”. The three-minute video is a departure from the humour-driven macho ads related to the brand prior to now, as a substitute providing an honest portrayal of each personal vulnerability and real human behaviour inside this space.

There’s been a shift in the feminine landscape, too. Billie – a female-first mail order shaving subscription service – has accepted that the wonder standard of hair removal that’s been placed upon women has change into a lower priority than ever before. They, subsequently, offer customers three packages to select from, depending on in the event that they shave daily, a couple of times every week, or once every week. In other words, Billie put women first, letting the product take a back seat until they may need it. While the brand believes that “women should not be an afterthought within the shaving category”, Billie has no intention of fantasising the concept that women are hairless from the neck down. Project Body Hair is a testament to this, the groundbreaking hair-positive campaign shot by Ashley Armitage which got down to combat the shortage of representation of female body hair throughout the industry and the actual ways by which women resolve to groom it. It marked the primary time that a female razor company showed actual body hair in an advert for over 100 years (an actual head-scratcher when you concentrate on that these adverts are selling products to remove body hair, right?). Billie prolonged its quest for representation further with a dedicated site that invited the community to submit images of lovely body hair using the #projectbodyhair hashtag on Instagram, something that celebrities like Hasley, Scout Willis and Lourdes Leon have personally advocated on social media.

Younger brands aside, Gillette launched an unexpected campaign in 2018 that showcased the evolution of recent manhood – a stark contrast to the narrow view of masculinity the brand’s previously been related to. Gillette’s “We Imagine: the Best Men Can Be” campaign (riffing on the their 30-year tagline “The most effective a person can get”) tackled issues corresponding to bullying, sexual harassment and the #MeToo movement in a video that got down to challenge its viewers, while exploring what Gillette known as a ‘latest era of masculinity’. Having racked up 4m views on YouTube in 48 hours the short film has received each huge amounts of praise and indignant criticism, with people claiming that the advert was refreshing and progressive or emasculating, and every part in between. Gillette has also committed to donate £776,500 a yr to non-profits with programs in place to encourage, educate and promote positive change amongst men of all ages.

So what do Billie and Dollar Shave Club have in common, why did they each resolve to go against the grain, and what learnings can we take from them after we look to the long run of hair removal? Firstly, each are striving to normalise the range of relationships people have with their body hair. While Billie realised that showing only smooth hairless female bodies plays into the archaic way by which women have long been presented within the media (in turn prohibiting the normalisation of body hair), Dollar Shave Club embraced the insight that many men feel embarrassed about hair removal, by getting down to have fun the extraordinary intricacies of exactly that. Secondly, whether we resolve to embrace our hairy selves, or to shave ourselves smooth – each brands imagine that shaving is a alternative. It’s something that’s entirely optional based on personal preference, subsequently the choice to accomplish that, or to not accomplish that, is at the freedom of the person in query, and that is something that other brands need to grasp in an effort to adopt a more inclusive genderless language that celebrates the range of attitudes that individuals have towards body hair.