X-Ray Hair Removal
Shortly after the world realized the benefits of X-ray for medical purposes, they asked what other purposes X-ray might have. Shoe stores used X-ray machines to view people’s feet in the shoes they tried on. By the 1930s, X-rays adapted to industrial use. And the fashion world discovered that X-ray was effective in removing unwanted hair. Medical researcher Leopold Freund was looking for a way to treat hypertrichosis, a condition marked by excessive hair growth.
Freund found that when he aimed an X-ray at the spot, the hair came out. And none too soon – when skirts and sleeves became shorter in the late 1910s and 1920s, hair removal became popular among women, particularly in the United States. But shaving is, in short, annoying, so women sought more permanent hair removal.
