Women started shaving their armpits around 1915. This trend began in the United States and was heavily influenced by advertising campaigns in women's magazines such as Harper's Bazaar. Before this time, it was unusual for women to shave underarm hair because clothing styles typically covered much of the body, and there was no social expectation to remove that hair. The practice became popular due to the introduction of sleeveless dresses in fashion, which exposed women's arms more and made underarm hair more visible. Advertisements from around 1915 promoted the idea that having smooth, hairless underarms was necessary for wearing summer dresses and modern styles. Gillette and other companies marketed safety razors specifically designed for women to encourage this new grooming habit. The messaging framed hair removal as a matter of cleanliness, femininity, and fashion, labeling underarm hair as objectionable and unacceptable for women of style and refinement. Prior to the 20th century, hair removal was done using more primitive methods like depilatory creams, waxing, and shaving with knives, but these were often painful and less common. The modern commercial campaign in the 1910s marked the beginning of widespread social acceptance and practice of armpit shaving among women in the U.S. and later in other Western countries.