How did the ancient romans shave? Why was being clean shaven considered manly to them?

How did the ancient romans shave? Why was being clean shaven considered manly to them?

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being clean shaven was civilized

Beards were barbaric, only Germans and Greek philisophers (ancient NEETS) wore such things

>How did the ancient romans shave
They had razors i imagine

What the fuck? Being a neckbeard was a sign of high fashion.

nice try nero

It wasn't about manliness, it was cleanliness and to be civilized. Doesn't barbarian mean the bearded or something? I think it was mostly a fashion trend started by Alexander and cemented by Augustus though.

>Doesn't barbarian mean the bearded or something?
Bearded = barbatus
Barbarian = Greek onomatopoeia for unintelligible babbling

Beards didn't come back in until the Imperial era.

Augustus was clean shaven, Nero had a beard but Hadrian brought it into fashion

This. Alexander had his troops shaved so that their enemies could not grab their beards in close combat. Sounds weird, but the practice became a fashion and most Romans were sufficiently fangirlish about the Greeks that they emulated the look.

Fuck off nero

If I remember my old Latin teacher correctly, the Romans would use a sort of pumice stone along with water to shave.

That sounds really painful, arduous and time consuming

>OP doesn't know who the emperor Hadrian is

Hadrian represented a step away from the clean shaven tradition of the past, and beardlessness returned after the crisis of the third century

obsidian?

Yeah I think Hadrian, Septime Severus and Marcus Aurelius brought it back because of the Greek influence as a "Beard of the philosopher" or something

My ancestor :)

no, no, no no. literally a sign of terrible degeneration

this is right, I'm pretty sure the Greeks used the word for anyone who couldn't speak Greek

This article I can't even paste here from the blogspot of Calvus Guy implies that they used steel and iron razors, and you can find some on google


It also says that Hadrian wore his beard because of bad acne scars

Not sure if the article is reliable though

At least in the city of Rome the streets were filled with barber's shops. You wouldn't shave yourself. The tools were very blunt and you wouldn't avoid scarring in the crowder streets.

penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Barba.html

It refers also to ointments, there's a traditional way to make a wax with honey and lemon.

Early Christians often saw it as shameful and vain, similar to how they saw makeup on women. Clement of Alexandria finds it particularly disgusting, and went so far as extolling barbarians for not engaging in such degeneracy. To this day Orthodox monks and bishops are forbidden from shaving. Many bishops also demand the same from their priests.

Not so much painful, and time consuming is the point, only civilized men can afford to do so.

>My ancestor
>says the snownigger