The “crisis” began with underarms, not legs
In 1915, razor maker Gillette introduced a women’s razor and marketed it against what it called an embarrassing problem: visible underarm hair. Sleeveless fashions made that hair easier to see, and advertisements recast a normal feature of the body as something women ought to remove. The manufactured crisis was the supposed social shame—not a sudden change in women’s bodies.
That campaign helped make women’s hair removal commercially familiar, but it did not start widespread leg shaving in the 1910s. The distinction matters: underarm hair was the focus of early ads, while bare legs became a much bigger concern later.
Why leg shaving caught on during wartime
Leg shaving spread in the United States during World War II, when nylon stockings became scarce because nylon was needed for military supplies. Without stockings to cover their legs, some women used leg makeup to imitate the look of stockings; removing visible hair helped create a smoother finish. Shorter hemlines and changing fashion also made legs more noticeable.
The wartime shortage did not invent women’s razors or the idea of hair removal. It changed the practical calculation: when stockings no longer hid leg hair, shaving could seem like the easiest way to meet a polished appearance standard. The 1910s marketing push helped sell women on hair removal generally; wartime scarcity helped make leg shaving ordinary.
