The history of shaving dates as far back as the late Stone Ages, when men would use razors made of stone or horn and crude tweezers to remove hair. But the methods that developed throughout the early centuries of mankind—during the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Babylon—were rudimentary at best. The ancient civilization of Sumeria, in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Kuwait and Saudi Arabia), saw some of the earliest versions of shaving cream. Like the Babylonians in the northern region of Mesopotamia, men in the Sumerian civilization of around 3000 B.C. used a mixture of animal fat and wood alkali to prepare beard hair for shaving. In the early 1700s, Russian emperor Peter the Great so loathed beards that anyone who was not clean-shaven was taxed. He wanted his men beardless, to show the rest of Europe how civilized and westernized Russians were. Well-to-do citizens in the 18th century were big wig-wearers. They dyed, curled, starched and shaped them, and protected the wigs when sleeping by enclosing them in special boxes. As the 18th century came to an end, so did wig-wearing. But as wigs became obsolete, that's when men in the U.S. and Europe ignited a beard and moustache trend to take the place of the wig. The years between 1800 and 1900 have been coined the "Era of the straight razor". Men went to barbers to have their moustaches and beards professionally trimmed. Thanks to breakthrough shaving technology, men around the world can now get professional shaving results in their private homes.