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Perfumed products designed specially to soothe replaced concoctions made from donkey s genitals at the start of a booming new market for male cosmetics in Georgian Britain, research shows.
Before the 18th century the only options for men with sore skin after shaving were either unappealing-sounding recipes made from animal parts or foodstuff or occasional oils or lotions slapped on by the barber.
Changing fashions and a growing focus on men s appearance and personal grooming meant a whole new market of razors and grooming products became available to buy.
In the early modern period shaving wounds and rashes were treated by a barber or barber-surgeon. The turn of the eighteenth century, however, saw the beginnings of a commercial market which allowed men, as well as barbers, to be potential consumers, a new book by historian Dr Alun Withey from the University shows.