More than 50 pairs of tweezers have been found during a major excavation of a 2,000-year-old Roman settlement, as historians society demanded gladiators to have hairless bodies.
The discovery of beauty tool during the huge dig at Wroxeter City, Shropshire – one of the largest settlements in Roman Britain – suggests that Roman men were obsessed with plucking their armpit hair.
Wrestling gladiators, who often wore minimal clothing, were expected to have smooth bodies and remove any visible body hair – with agonizing task being carried out by slaves.
Cameron Moffett, English Heritage Curator at Wroxeter, said: ‘It is one of the largest collections of this item in Britain, indicating that it was a popular accessory.
‘The advantage of the tweezer was that it was safe, simple and cheap, but unfortunately not pain free.
Historians have said gladiators in Roman Britain were expected to have hairless bodies, with slaves tasked with plucking away the warrior’s armpit hair
More than 50 pairs of tweezers were discovered during the huge dig at Wroexter City, Shropshire – one of the largest settlements in Roman Britain
‘It may come as a surprise to some that in Roman Britain the removal of body hair was as common with men as it was with women.’
Other grooming products used at the time were found during the dig personal cleaning set equipped with an ear scoops and nail cleaners. Glass bottles of perfume, bath oils and even make-up applicators were also discovered.
‘Particularly for sports like wrestling, there was a social expectation that men engaging in exercise that required minimal clothing would have prepared themselves by removing all their visible body hair.
‘It’s interesting to see this vogue for the removal of body hair around again after millennia, for everyone, although luckily modern methods are slightly less excruciating,’ Mr Moffett added.
Roman author and politician Seneca famously wrote a letter to his friend complaining about the noise arising from the public baths as a result of hair removal practices.
Other grooming products used at the time were found during the dig personal cleaning set equipped with an ear scoops and nail cleaners
He noted: ‘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.’
Wroxeter – or Viriconium Cornoviorum as it was originally known – is one of the most well-preserved Roman cities in Britain and was as large as Pompeii in its heyday.
Once a thriving city of the Roman Empire, excavations have uncovered several monumental buildings which would have been at its heart.
These include a forum, a market, townhouses, the remains of a bath-house basilica – which acted as a community centre, a place of education, an office, and a shopping centre – and the bathhouse itself.
