A few days ago, I found myself wondering when people started shaving and how. Sculptures of Roman emperors depict most of them as clean shaven. How did people shave back then?

Bust of Roman emperor Augustus / Source: Sailko / CC BY-SA 3.0

Well it turns out anything really sharp can give you a decent shave. Here's someone shaving with what is basically a sharp rock:

And here's someone shaving with a medieval-style razor, the Romans probably had something similar: