The Arts of Beauty/Chapter 25

It sometimes happens that feminine beauty is a little marred by an unfeminine growth of hair on the upper lip, or on the neck and arms, and sometimes on the chin. I have known several unfortunate ladies to produce ulcers and dangerous sores by compounds which they used for the purpose of removing these blemishes. Caustic preparations of lime, arsenic, and potash have been used for this purpose with the above results.

But the following safe method has been used with perfect success:

Spread on a piece of leather equal parts of galbanum and pitch plaster, and lay it on the culprit hairs as smoothly as possible, and then, after letting it remain about three minutes, pull it off suddenly, and it will be quite sure to bring out the hairs by the roots, and they will not grow again. The pain of this operation is much less than the cauterizing remedy, and is, besides, more successful. I have seen poor victims sit all day pulling these aggressive hairs with tweezers, which is a fruitless task, for they almost invariably break off the hair at the neck, instead of pulling it out by the roots. But the ​most ridiculous mistake which women make in this business is removing the superfluous hair with a razor, for that promotes the unnatural growth, and, even though the shaving were done every day, the blue or black roots of the hair show further than the hair itself.