Barenaked society

The desire to remove body hair has been around since the beginning of mankind. Archaeologists believe cavemen used sharp stones to scrape hair off their faces. Cleopatra shaved her legs with bronze shavers and removed facial hairs with string. Julius Caesar plucked his facial hairs. Even Native Americans tweezed their facial hair between clamshells, according to Hair Removal Forum, Laser Hair Removal Community.

Today, Americans rid themselves of unwanted body hair in more advanced ways. The body-hair removal industry is thriving. In a poll conducted by Business Week magazine, Gillette was ranked the sixteenth out of 100 largest global brands in the world. Gillette triumphed over other well-known companies such as Budweiser, which was twenty-second, and Pepsi, which was twenty-third. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery states nearly 1 million laser hair-removal procedures were conducted in 2003 — a 25 percent increase from the previous year. In the same poll, laser hair removal also was ranked the second-most popular non-surgical cosmetic procedure.

Icelee Nelson, an instructor at Front Royal Beauty School, in Front Royal, said the "smooth look" has been popular for quite some time.

"We do tons of chin and upper-lip hair removal," Nelson said. "Everyone sees your face, and no woman wants to look like a man. It’s just more feminine to be smooth all over."

Sophomore Kelly Barrett believes that the media has a large role in the hair-removing craze.
"The media and peers have built up the idea of having a clean, hair-free body so much that body hair is looked upon as being unclean," Barrett said.

Many college students agree that body hair is a turn-off.

"My ideal woman has no body hair, except on their head," Begg said.

Even men are feeling the pressure to adopt more rigorous grooming procedures because male body hair is not as acceptable as it once was either.

Apparently, hair on men is about as appealing as hair on women these days.

"I don’t like my men with a lot of body hair because it makes them appear unkempt," junior Sarah Shin said.

Some people, like senior Doug Kim, believe that having hair is more reminiscent of animals that it is of humans. "I don’t want to look like a monkey," Kim said. "And I don’t want a girl who does, either."

Regardless of technological advances and society’s demand for hairlessness, hair removal procedures are still beyond what many college students can afford. Advanced Laser Clinics, one of the leading laser hair-removal businesses in the United States, isn’t cheap — hair removal on the upper lip costs $99.95 per treatment. Removing hair from a woman’s legs is the most expensive procedure at $399.95 per treatment. Also, laser treatment can take up to five treatments to permanently remove hair, according to Advanced Laser Clinics.

For more information on hair removal, go online at www.americanlaser.com.