Skip to content

Exhibition on Roman beauty opens in museum

English Heritage A reconstruction of a Roman cleaning setEnglish Heritage
The Romans had their own personal cleaning set, including an ear scoop, nail cleaner and tweezers
  • An exhibition on ancient beauty treatments has opened in Shropshire
  • The display at Wroxeter Roman City features more than 400 artefacts
  • It includes one of the largest collections of Roman tweezers in Britain.
  • Perfume bottles, nail cleaners and amulets for "warding off evil" all feature

An exhibition looking at ancient beauty treatments has opened at a museum.

The display at Wroxeter Roman City in Shropshire features more than 400 artefacts found at the site, including perfume bottles, nail cleaners and amulets for "warding off evil".

English Heritage (EH) said most items are on display for the first time.

It includes one of the largest collections of Roman tweezers in Britain, with more than 50 pairs discovered at Wroxeter, EH added.

The Romans were obsessed with cleanliness and public image, devoting time to daily communal bathing.

Roman men and women used tweezers to remove all "unwanted body hair", said EH.

Cameron Moffett, from EH, said: "It may come as a surprise to some that in Roman Britain the removal of body hair was as common with men as it was with women.

"Particularly for sports like wrestling, there was a social expectation that men engaging in exercise that required minimal clothing would have prepared themselves by removing all their visible body hair."

A Roman water pipe that served the bathhouse and more than 1000 jewellery beads are also featured in the display.

English Heritage Ancient tweezersEnglish Heritage
More than 50 pairs of tweezers were found at the site, making the collection one of the largest in Britain