It was the sixth hour of a daylong summer outdoor music festival. The morning's breezes had fizzled and the afternoon heat hung low, hugging the hills and valleys of the acres-wide park in a sweltering embrace. Sleeveless spectators waving their arms in appreciation -- few shocks of armpit hair among them. Shaving, Sweating and Smell To get a smoother shave, pull your hand behind your head. Unfortunately, shaving your armpits won't make you sweat less because the practice doesn't affect the glands that produce perspiration. The apocrine glands that produce sweat are under the skin and not in the hair itself. These glands will continue to produce perspiration even when the hair is shaved down to skin level. The perspiration will continue to leak out of the hair's openings, even if there are fewer openings because the hair is shorter or shaved down to the skin. Our Storied History of Hair Removal Historians point to ancient Egypt as the genesis of hair removal, where a hairless body was the mark of a civilized existence. Men and women used beeswax, pumice stones and tweezers made of seashells in their follicle wars. Similar practices evolved in ancient Greece and Rome, where hairlessness was a sign of wealth. By the Middle Ages, women were following the lead of Queen Elizabeth I and using bandages soaked in vinegar and ammonia to remove facial hair. The ammonia was harvested from the urine of their pet cats. It wasn't until the early 20th century, decades after the invention of the straight razor, that the forerunner of today's armpit shavers began to take shape. In 1915, Gillette debuted the Milady Decolleté, the first razor marketed specifically for women's removal of unwanted hair. The armpit hair-removal practice, fueled by increasingly sheer materials and rising hemlines, was propagated by Gillette's widespread advertising campaigns and by the era's popular publications, including Ladies' Home Journal and Harper's Bazaar. Source