The History of Sugaring

With the rising popularity of sugaring, it would be totally understandable if you thought that Sugaring was a brand new service. Crazy enough, it isn’t anywhere near a new service. In fact, Sugaring dates all the way back to ancient Egyptian times!

It seems it all started with Alexandria the Great. Rumour has it he liked to charge into battle hair-free, and would remove the hair from his head down to his toes. The women of this time followed his lead, and began removing their hair as well. From what we know, their hair removal started off simple enough, and was done with pumice stones and rudimentary tweezers. 

Over time their techniques started to evolve and they upgraded to a simple Sugaring solution using a paste that was called ‘moum’. Sugaring was also known as sukkar or ḥalawa in the Middle East, and as ağda in Turkey, though not much more is known about Sugaring in these areas. 

The ‘moum’ used in Egypt was made from honey, so it wasn’t identical to what we use today, though it was very similar. The honey was used for its antibacterial properties. Hygiene wasn’t as easily accessible as it is nowadays so hair removal and the use of honey allowed women to remain clean and scent-free for longer.

It’s not well known when exactly the art of Sugaring came back into mainstream use, but some sources said it started up again in the UK in the early 80s spreading through the Western countries over time. Sometimes we may cringe when we think of past beauty trends (tapeworm diet, anyone?) that used to exist, however, Sugaring is one of the things that we got right from the beginning. With simple, natural ingredients, that WORK, like lemon, sugar, and water, why try to make things more complicated?