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Plucked : a history of hair removal / Rebecca M. Herzig.

by Herzig, Rebecca M., 1971-

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New York University Press, [2015]

Hair -- Removal -- History.

Hair -- Social aspects -- History.

Body hair -- Social aspects -- History.

Human body -- Social aspects -- History.

Biopolitics (New York, N.Y.)

9781479840823 (hc.)

1479840823 (hc.)

Alternate title:

History of hair removal

vii, 287 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-274) and index.

Necessary suffering -- the hairless Indian : savagery and civility before the Civil War -- "Chemicals of the toilette" : from homemade remedies to a new industrial order -- Bearded women and dog-faced men : Darwin's great denudation -- "Smooth, white, velvety skin" : x-ray salons and social mobility -- Glandular trouble : sex hormones and deviant hair growth -- Unshaven : "arm-pit feminists" and women's liberation -- "Cleaning the basement" : labor, pornography, and Brazilian waxing -- Magic bullets : Laser regulation and elective medicine -- "The next frontier" : genetic enhancement and the end of hair -- We are all plucked.

"From the clamshell razors and homemade lye depilatories used in colonial America to the diode lasers and prescription pharmaceuticals available today, we have used a staggering array of tools to remove hair deemed unsightly, unnatural, or excessive. This is true especially for women and girls; conservative estimates indicate that 99% of American women have tried hair removal, and at least 85% regularly remove hair from their faces, armpits, legs, and bikini lines. How and when does hair become a problem--what makes some growth "excessive"? Historian Rebecca Herzig shows how, over time, dominant beliefs about visible hair have changed: where once elective hair removal was considered a "mutilation" practiced primarily by "savage" men, by the turn of the twentieth century, hair-free faces and limbs were expected for women. Visible hair growth--particularly on young, white women--came to be perceived as a sign of political extremism, sexual deviance, or mental illness. By the turn of the twenty-first century, more and more Americans were waxing, threading, shaving, or lasering themselves smooth. Some of the collateral damages of the intensifying pursuit of hair-free skin. An unsettling and original tale of the lengths to which we will go to remove hair"--Provided by publisher.

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