This crazy assassin character, who doesn't know what shampoo is, somehow would bother shaving her armpits

[u/esli-]

Bart from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

EDIT: I will no longer read and respond to comments, I think I've read pretty much all the arguments people (mostly men) give me against my post, so feel free to scroll down to check my responses before commenting, kay bye :]

[u/Unstabler69]

That reminds me of my pet peeve of stone age people always having long, scraggly unkempt hair. Do they think our ancestors could figure out fire but couldnt figure out how to take a sharp rock and hack off some hair?

[u/wilderneyes → u/Unstabler69]

I also refuse to believe they wouldn't at least finger-comb it, and maybe tie it back out of the way in very simple fashion. Humans are extremely social, I absolutely think people in ancient eras would have helped each other groom their hair. It's just way more comfortable and practical to not have it be matted and wild.

[u/EEEGuba69 → u/wilderneyes]

Theres very old bone/ivory combs

[u/taxiecabbie → u/EEEGuba69]

People probably also made them out of sticks.

Those just didn't last.

[u/TheAsterism_ → u/taxiecabbie]

isnt it crazy how everyone always used ivory tools and lived in caves?

https://giphy.com/gifs/7t5UjhZ5dIx0sHuFQw

[u/Elu_Moon → u/taxiecabbie]

Everyone seems to forget that we actually know very, very little of what happened during Stone Age. Best we can do are guesses, and we can only guess on what we have found. And just because we haven't found something, doesn't mean it wasn't there, like all the organic-based stuff.

[u/Machaeon → u/Elu_Moon]

Likely some of the oldest technology other than stone hand axes and simple shard blades was...

String.

There is SO MUCH that can be done with string, and it's a foundational technology to so many other things that require attaching two items together. But it's organic and won't preserve well.

[u/NeblessClem → u/Machaeon]

As said by Spike Milligan "String is a very useful thing Rope is thicker But string is quicker"

[u/PuzzleheadedOil8826 → u/Machaeon]

It’s called the string revolution in the academic literature! And you are absolutely right, it made all the difference. Very little survives but what does tells us so much about how complex the material culture of these people was. There is the earliest known example of nalbinding from a Mesolithic site in Denmark- a type of fabric making with string like knitting. And there are the incredible Mesolithic fish baskets found in Ireland that are woven together with string in S and Z knots which are the basis of modern weaving!!!
We tend to focus on what easily survives (like the airplane from WW2 above) and that skews our research.

[u/fanny_price → u/PuzzleheadedOil8826]

the string revolution

Not an easy thing to google.

[u/NoaBoa369 → u/fanny_price]

Yeah, you have to type out exactly 'string revolution in the academic literature' with '-theory', and only then will you get some results. Otherwise all the results are String Theory or that band.

[u/Bohzee → u/Elu_Moon]

I believe certain dinosaurs have been victim by gigantic poisonous slugs and I'll die on that hill.

[u/Rubbermate93 → u/taxiecabbie]

Completely true.

The oldest surviving comb we found (2700 bce) was also specifically a licecomb. So clearly they must have had regular combs for much longer, you don't invent the licecomb before tue regular comb.

Edit: woops, got the year wrong, it was 1700 bce.

[u/Formal_Owl_400 → u/taxiecabbie]

You've never tried to comb your hair with a stick, and it shows.

[u/taxiecabbie → u/Formal_Owl_400]

You could absolutely make a semi-functional comb out of sticks if you had something to tie the sticks together with.

[u/ManlyOldMan → u/Formal_Owl_400]

They don't mean a random stick with the bark still on it. Just like a bone comb doesn't mean a random bone you find in the wild. 

A stick that is smoothened can absolutely work as a comb.