Dreaming of smooth, hairless skin? Here are 7 ways to remove unwanted hair

“Dear body hair, if I’ve been waxing, plucking, and shaving every time you show up, I think you should get the hint.”

Shaving cream, razors, tweezers, hair removal cream, wax strips, scissors — the list goes on and on and on. But no matter what I use to get my body hair off, it seems to grow back almost immediately. It’s exhausting! I almost gave up on achieving hairless nirvana.

Removal of body hair has a long and complex history, dating all the way back to The Stone Age, 100,000 years ago. Cavemen used flint blades, seashells, and other sharp objects to shave off all body hair. Hair removal then was done for practical reasons: to prevent frostbite (especially during the Ice Age, when the unending winter would make the water freeze on their body hair), to remove a potential breeding ground for parasites like mites and lice, and to take away any advantage an adversary might have in a brawl by grabbing.

The practice of removing female body hair can be traced back to ancient Rome and Egypt. Some of the first razors, made of copper, were used in Egypt and India around 3000 BCE. Egyptian women removed their head hair and considered pubic hair uncivilized. Upper-class Roman women of the sixth century BCE used tweezers, pumice stones, and depilatories to achieve the desired…