For women and men

For women and men

28 March 2023
Article
From the exhibition

We are born with around five million hair follicles spread across our bodies. When we hit puberty, soft, downy hairs become thicker and darker. How do we deal with this new facial, armpit, leg, chest, nose and pubic hair? The way we think about facial and body hair depends heavily on the era in which we live. It says something about hygiene, status, sex, emancipation, fashion and religious rules. Modern advertising presents us with ideas about gender and shaving that are mostly western and binary. Women in commercials, for instance, are invariably shown shaving legs and armpits that are already hair-free, while men groom beards that are already neatly trimmed. Philips launched its first electric shaver on the European market in 1939. Designed by Alexandre Horowitz, it featured a round, rotating shaving head and was gender-neutral – targeted at men and women alike. It was the first in a long line of Philishaves and, from the 1950s, Ladyshaves. It quickly became clear that Philips could sell a lot more razors if men and women thought they needed models of their own. Thanks to a well-run design and advertising department, what were technically the same devices were developed and sold with immense success.