2000-year-old busts show that many men shaved back then. This would
seem to be a huge inconvenience, considering the technology of the
times.
Why do men shave?
Hi ronzimmerman,
Thank you for a very interesting question. :)
Among the many reasons men began shaving in Stone Age times were:
- To reduce the breeding grounds for lice, fleas and small rodents.
- To eliminate the beard as a place for an enemy to hang on during combat.
- To make it easier to eat.
- Supersition associated a heavily bearded man with old age and death,
in addition to the superstitous belief of spirits which entered the
body through hairs on the head.
Beard removal involved painfully plucking hair (The earliest shaving
tools were made of stone from the Neolithic Period or the Late Stone
Age.)
=========
Phillip Krumholz' Shaving and Barberiana
http://www.heart.net/~krumholz/history.html
A Short History of Shaving
"It isn't known just when men and women took an interest in removing
hair from their bodies, but we do know it has gone on since the cave
man days. There were several reasons for this early procedure. One
was to minimize the breeding grounds (on his or her person) for lice,
fleas and small rodents. Another was to eliminate the beard as a
hand-hold during combat. Early man found it nearly impossible to eat
without doing some trimming, and being of a superstitious nature, man
associated a heavily bearded man with old age and death - that was a
man nearing the end of his life. Somewhere along the line, vanity
entered the picture, as well.
There are crude cave drawings which show beardless men, or men with
very short beards. There are razors made of stone (with organic
handles) or horn, carbon-dated from the Neolithic Period (or Late
Stone Age), that have been excavated. These early men also used
crude tweezers to pluck hairs, which offered a painful solution to a
less frequent shave. Other cultures saw men singeing their whiskers
(with burning twigs) as close to their faces as possible. These
methods did not leave one with a close or refreshing shave;
quarter-inch long stubble was about the best one could expect."
(read rest of article)
=========
HISTORY OF BARBERING
http://www.barberpole.com/artof.htm
"The word "barber" comes from the Latin word "barba," meaning beard.
It may surprise you to know that the earliest records of barbers show
that they were the foremost men of their tribe. They were the
medicine men and the priests. But primitive man was very
superstitious and the early tribes believed that both good and bad
spirits, which entered the body through the hairs on the head,
inhabited every individual. The bad spirits could only be driven out
of the individual by cutting the hair, so various fashions of hair
cutting were practiced by the different tribes and this made the
barber the most important man in the community. In fact, the barbers
in these tribal days arranged all marriages and baptized all children.
They were the chief figures in the religious ceremonies."
[edited]
SHAVED HEADS AND BEARDS
"In Egypt, many centuries before Christ, barbers were prosperous and
highly respected. The ancient monuments and papyrus show that the
Egyptians shaved their beards and their heads. The Egyptian priests
even went so far as to shave the entire body every third day. At this
time the barbers carried their tools in open-mouthed baskets and their
razors were shaped like small hatchets and had curved handles. The
Bible tells us that when Joseph was summoned to appear before Pharaoh,
a barber was sent for to shave Joseph, so that Pharaoh's sight would
not be offended by a dirty face.
In Greece, barbers came into prominence as early as the fifth century,
BC. These wise men of Athens rivaled each other in the excellence of
their beards. Beard trimming became an art and barbers became leading
citizens. Statesmen, poets and philosophers, who came to have their
hair cut or their beards trimmed or curled and scented with costly
essences, frequented their shops. And, incidentally, they came to
discuss the news of the day, because the barber shops of ancient
Greece were the headquarters for social, political, and sporting news.
The importance of the tonsorial art in Greece may be gathered from the
fact that a certain prominent Greek was defeated for office because
his opponent had a more neatly trimmed beard.
In the third century, BC, the Macedonians under Alexander the Great
began their conquest of Asia and lost several battles to the Persians
who grabbed the Macedonians by their beards, pulled them to the ground
and speared them. This resulted in a general order by Alexander that
all soldiers be clean-shaven. The civilians followed the example of
the soldiers and beards lost their vogue. Barbers were unknown in
Rome until 296 BC, when Ticinius Mena came to Rome from Sicily and
introduced shaving. Shaving soon became the fashion and the barber
shop became the gathering place for the Roman dandies. No people were
better patrons of the barbers than the Romans. They often devoted
several hours each day to tonsorial operations, which included
shaving, hair cutting, hairdressing, massaging, manicuring and the
application of rare ointments and cosmetics of unknown formulas. The
great ladies of Rome always had a hairdresser among their slaves and
the rich nobles had private tonsors, as they were then called.
Barbers were so highly prized that a statue was erected to the memory
of the first barber of Rome.
When Hadrian became emperor, beards became the fashion again -- and
for a very good reason. Hadrian had a face covered with warts and
scars. He allowed his beard to grow to cover these blemishes. The
people of Rome imitated the emperor and grew beards whether they
needed them or not.
The fashion changed again to clean-shaven faces. We know that Caesar
was clean-shaven. As we will see repeated in history many times, the
leaders of the state were the leaders of fashion and the people were
always ready to follow the prevailing styles. There are many passages
in the Bible referring to the barber profession. Moses commanded that
all who recovered from leprosy should be shaved. This was done as a
health precaution, because throughout history the Jews have honored
the beard as a badge of manhood. To this day, the orthodox Jews have
little respect for clean-shaven men. During periods of mourning, the
ancient Jews allowed their beards to go untrimmed, but ordinarily
their beards were trimmed regularly. The prophet Ezekiel refers to an
ancient custom in these words: ""Take thou a barber's razor and cause
it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard." The razors of those
days were made of flint and oyster shells."
ASSISTANTS TO CLERGY
During the first centuries of the Christian era, the barbers of Europe
practiced their profession wherever it was the custom to shave the
face and trim the beard."
=========
Best regards,
tlspiegel Shaving Info : Mens Shaving Supplies : Shaving Accessories : Badger ::
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Why do men shave?