Roman men ‘plucked their body hair’ as over 50 tweezers unearthed at UK dig of major city
ROMAN men were real smoothies who loved to pluck their body hair, say historians.
A UK dig at a major city from 2,000 years ago has unearthed over 50 tweezers for depilating armpits.
Society demanded that gladiatorial wrestlers, who required minimal clothing, should prepare for bouts by removing body hair.
They would call on slaves to carry out the excruciating exercise.
English Heritage’s Cameron Moffett said of the dig at Wroxeter, Shrops: “It’s one of the largest collections in Britain.
“The advantage of the tweezer was that it was safe, simple and cheap — but not pain free. It may surprise some but removing body hair was as common with men as it was with women.”
Grooming sets featured an ear scoop and nail cleaner.
Also found were glass perfume bottles, bath oil, skin scrapers, make-up kits — plus phallus-shaped amulets to ward off evil.
Wroxeter, originally called Viriconium Cornoviorum, was a thriving city that boasted a swish bathhouse.
Author Seneca once complained about the noise from public baths to a pal, writing: “The skinny armpit hair-plucker whose cries are shrill, so as to draw people’s attention, and never stop, except when he is doing his job and making someone else shriek for him.”
Most read in The Sun
A new museum at the site is displayigm around 400 relics from the dig.