An Ancient Hair Removal Techniques in The Middle East 

Among the ancient Egyptians, a clean-shaven face was a symbol of status. According to Herodotus, ‘Egyptians are shaven at other times, but after a death they let their hair and beard grow.’ They used depilatory creams, razors and pumice stones for this purpose. Both sexes shaved themselves bald and wore elaborate wigs. The practice of removing hair was not limited to the face and head. Egyptian women beeswaxed their legs. They also used depilatories made of starch, arsenic and quicklime.

This obsession with hairlessness probably had as much to do with hygiene as with ideals of beauty and fashion. The hot Middle Eastern climate encouraged germs and diseases to breed, and the removal of all body hair was a preventive measure against infection.

No doubt Middle Easterners used a hair removal process called body sugaring, involving the application of a natural, sugar-based paste (usually sugar, lemon and other natural ingredients cooked to the consistency of soft taffy) that was either rubbed or pulled off in the opposite direction of hair growth. The high sugar content inhibited bacterial growth in the region’s hot environs. The method reputedly was born out of a Middle Eastern bridal ritual. The night before a wedding, Lebanese, Palestinian, Turkish and Egyptian brides had all body hair, except eyebrows and the hair on their heads, removed by the bridal party. According to lore, the bride maintained her hairless body throughout her marriage as a symbol of cleanliness and respect for her husband.

Not all eyebrows were left intact. Art and artifacts indicate that the Mesopotamians trimmed superfluous hair from their brows with tweezers. During the excavation of Ur, capital city of the Chaldeans, tweezers were found in a tomb dating back to about 3500 BC.

The hair removal process we call threading, comes from Arabia, where women laced cotton string through their fingers and ran it briskly over their legs to encircle and pull out the hair.