Many countries do not share the hygiene habits we do in the US. Did you ever think about why we do things differently? Maybe it is not so much custom as it is the power of advertising. After selling millions of razors and blades to men, Gillette developed a new insecurity for women and he called it 'objectionable hair'.
The Journal of American Culture reveals that women shaving, in particular their underarms, was caused by magazine marketing.It says the hair-free underarm revolution was created by a marketing blitz from Gillette called The Great Underarm Campaign.
It began in May 1915, in Harper's Bazaar magazine. The first ad "featured a waist-up photograph of a young woman who appears to be dressed in a slip with a toga-like outfit covering one shoulder. Her arms are arched over her head revealing perfectly clean armpits. The first part of the ad read, 'Summer Dress and Modern Dancing combine to make necessary the removal of objectionable hair.'
Within three months, the once-shocking term "underarm" was being used. A few ads mentioned hygiene as a motive for getting rid of hair, and most appealed strictly to the yearning to be hip.
Gillette changed a nation and has sold billions of razors and blades in the process. This is the same company showed us that one blade was not enough, then two, then three, then four, and now five blades make the perfect shave. Reminds me of two and three ply toilet paper. The Gillette products became so ubiquitous that the name became as synonymous with razor as Kleenex is with tissues.