A stunning display of at least 50 old tweezers in addition to other bathing, beauty and medicinal artifacts by a new museum in Wroxeter, a city in Roman Britain, focuses on some of the painful but long-lasting methods of hair removal and other meticulous hygiene practices adopted by ancient Roman society.
Located about an hour from Birmingham, the Wroxter Museumwhich opened to the public on May 25, has an impressive collection of more than 400 artifacts that illustrate some of the daily routines of Roman life, including the old empire’s strange obsession with hairlessness.
Despite their painful pinches, tweezers were a popular hair removal tool at the time, given their practical simplicity and low cost, the researchers found. Many Roman Britons preferred a ‘clean shaven’ appearance, according to English heritagethe charity behind the new museum.
“It’s interesting to see this vogue for body hair removal after millennia for everyone,” English Heritage curator Cameron Moffett said in a statement about the new exhibit. The tweezers in the collection date from the 2nd century to the early 5th century CE, Moffett explained to Hyperallergic.
“We know from ancient writers that in general women had to remove hair to make themselves attractive to men, whereas in men it had much more to do with the aesthetics expected of those who made sports,” Moffett continued. He further explained how participants in popular sports requiring little clothing, such as wrestling, “would have prepared themselves by removing all their visible hair”.
Thankfully, modern hair removal methods are far less uncomfortable, Moffett noted (although that statement makes me personally wonder if he’s ever had his mustache tweezed).
The majority of the tweezers were found in the area of the Wroxeter Bathhouse complex, a popular community space that many Romans frequented daily with personalized cleaning kits, the curator explained. They frequently enlisted slaves to remove hair to avoid body hair, a trait widely seen as “barbaric”, according to English Heritage.
The Roman politician and writer Seneca once complained in a letter to a friend about how the waxing had caused a flurry of loud cries echoing in the communal baths. In his letter, Seneca described the “shrill” cries that the “skinny armpit hair remover” used to get the attention of members of the community, “except when he was doing his job and causing someone else to scream. for him” – a description that sounds suspiciously like today’s threading parlors and waxing centers.
English Heritage operates and maintains over 400 other historic buildings, monuments and sites related to English history. The new museum stands next to the excavated ruins of the Roman town of Wroxeter, which English Heritage describes as ‘one of the best preserved examples of a Roman town in Britain’. Known at the time as Viriconium Cornoviorum, the city was once the fourth largest in Roman Britain, roughly the size of Pompeii. In addition to the bathhouses, archaeological digs have unearthed the town forum, market and townhouses that made up this bustling community founded in the early 1990s and in existence until the mid-500s. century.
In addition to the collection of tweezers, the museum also displays other historical items, most of which have never been shown to the public before. These artifacts include strigil – so lovingly called “skin scrapers” – ear scoops, nail cleaners, glass perfume and oil bottles, necklaces with 1000 jet beads, copper eye makeup applicators, as well as protective amulets used to ward off evil spirits and promote fertility.
