Hair removal as a form of payment for challenges or dares lost involving the removal of all body hair. Inmates have their head shaved upon entry at certain prisons. Depilation is the removal of the part of the hair above the surface of the skin. The most common form of depilation is shaving or trimming. Another option is the use of chemical depilatories, which work by breaking the disulfide bonds that link the protein chains that give hair its strength. Epilation is the removal of the entire hair, including the part below the skin. Methods include waxing, sugaring, epilation devices, lasers, threading,
History of removal of leg and underarm hair in the United States gown with her arm up and the caption "Summer Dress and Modern Dancing combine to make necessary the removal of objectionable hair." Advertisers were careful to use wording they felt would be more palatable to their audience, for example "smoothing" instead of "shaving" and "limbs" instead of "legs". The educational campaign on the benefits of and methods of hair removal persisted into the ads of the early 1920s and even continue today. Underarm hair in these ads was called "objectionable", "unwelcome", "embarrassing", "unsightly" and "unclean"; and its removal indicated a person who had "charm" and "the last touch of ‘feminine