X-Ray Hair Removal Moves Underground
Marketed as a permanent solution to the age-old problem of excess body hair, X-ray hair removal brought people – primarily women – to salons in droves. But it didn’t take long for the health hazards of this fashion movement to reveal themselves. The skin beneath the treated area thickened. The patients suffered atrophy, and ulcerations. Despite these side effects, x-ray hair removal was big business until the mid-1940s, when being stylishly hairless was no longer worth the risk. Officials banned X-ray hair removal, although this just moved it underground. Historian Rebecca Herzig of Bates College tells of San Francisco police staking out a house suspected of providing illegal abortions in 1940. But no, it was an underground X-ray salon! But the long-term impacts were even worse. From 1970 found x-ray hair removal likely caused a third of radiation-based cancer cases.