Girls With Body Hair

I'm going to put this here because I think it's more of a body choice than a fashion choice.

Long story short, I'm a girl and I don't remove my body hair. None of it. I'm American, so it's not the norm. It started because I started waxing my legs in 2009. To wax you have to let it grow out between waxes. It got to the point where letting it grow out didn't bother me and I wondered why I was bothering to remove it. I waxed less and less frequently, continuing to shave my pits and pubes.

At the beginning of this year, though, I decided to quit. My body hair is a part of me and it's my choice to keep or remove it. Just like it's a guy's choice to keep or remove facial hair. I haven't removed my leg hair since February and haven't shaved my pits or pubes since March.

I have a boyfriend, and he has no problem whatsoever with my body hair. In fact, he was the one who encouraged me to let my pit hair grow. Now, I have trimmed my pubes once since March because they were getting out of control.

tldr: Girls with body hair. Go.

You can hate on me all you want. I'm not changing what I do with my body. Like I said, my boyfriend loves it so I don't need your approval. I just wonder what other people think.

Picture for reference. My hair is black, I'm not a blonde with invisible hair. I wear shorts and short dresses proudly.

 

Yeah, I was asking him if he really seriously didn't mind my leg hair and he was like hell yeah, let it all grow. Why be ashamed of what's naturally yours? He thinks it's sexy that I'm 100% myself.

 

You couldn't decide to give more of a shit about something that's a part of you other than your body hair? Good for you if it empowers you, but it really seems like a trivial thing to kind of invest that kind of significance in. Your fecal matter is a part of you that you just escrete daily. Are you going to save all of your shit in jars and just never flush?

And yes, men do have say in their body hair, but most if not all compromise on the issue of facial hair and manscaping for their significant others all the time, unless they genuinely don't mind playing through a little rough. Your boyfriend is either a very tolerant individual or is just like-minded. I'd say that if you live in America, you should hold on to that man for life because most are not this tolerant. It is a bit unorthodox, but not really because you're a woman. I think anyone who is from the civilized world, but doesn't adhere to some grooming is a little bit weird. But that's just me.

 

I adhere to grooming. I shower and wash my face and shit. I brush my teeth twice a day. I love flossing. Body hair isn't unhygienic. If that's the case, guys should definitely be shaving their legs and pits, too.

As a little history lesson, women in America have only been removing body hair for around 100 years, and mostly as a result of one of the best advertising campaigns ever launched. Gillette wanted to sell more razors - solution? Market them to women as the Milady. Then Harper's Bazaar printed an ad with a woman in a sleeveless dress, but to wear it women would first need to see to "the removal of objectionable hair." Shortly after, Wilkinson Sword launched a campaign telling women that underarm hair was "unhygienic and undermining."

I realize other cultures from the Egyptians on have removed body hair in various ways/places, but in America, the norm was to leave it be until about 1915, and that was only underarm hair. In the 20s hemlines rose but no one seemed to care about leg hair. Then they dropped again in the 30s - moot point. In the 40s skirts got even shorter and "objectionable hair" then applied to a lot more surface area as ladies tried to emulate leggy pinups like Betty Grable. Again, advertising doing it's thing. Bikini area? Not till bikinis were a thing. The trend rose in the 60s and evolved to the complete hairlessness we know today. Check out a playboy from the 70s, you'll get full bush.

Or you could go with the tales that date a little further back in America - to the gold rush days when western prostitutes shaved to prove they didn't have lice. If that's not sexy...I don't know what is.

I'm not trying to get anyone fired up, I just think cultural norms are interesting discussion points.

 

Unfeminine not undermining

 

I dont mind hair down there at all.

Who cares what anybody else thinks about them? I wish no one did, the world would be better if everyone minded their own business.

Do your thing!

 

Damn, im speechless. This was beautifully written. I wish all women were empowered with this information.

 

Right? I just feel like women should be empowered to make their own choices about their bodies in general.

 

I do on the daily.

 

But I don't wear makeup, either, so I'm probably a terrible person. < /sarcasm >

 

 
How long women have been trimming body hair is insignificant to me. I have only been alive for about two decades. I tolerate some body hair, but I'm not attracted to women who don't shave altogether. Even with my own body, I require a certain amount of trimming of my own facial hair and I manscape. Not necessarily just for the women, but because it's how I feel the cleanest and most comfortable in my own skin. If growing your hair out empowers you, good for you, but it's pointless to essentially make a post that can be summed up as "GO WOMEN WHO DON'T LIKE TO SHAVE, TO HELL WITH SOCIETAL NORMS!" It doesn't really mean anything, or argue that there's any depth to the topic. How deep you perceive the issue of body hair to be is up to you, but I think of it as more of a triviality. You like what you like; you don't like what doesn't appeal to you. Some people are attracted to what is alien to other people, but I wouldn't necessarily write those people off as like super tolerant or progressive people all of the time. Sometimes people just like aspects of people or life that are different. It's always about bending it so that there's sympathy for a cause that doesn't even really need to exist. "I'm being oppressed by the social standards- by these subjective norms that are putting me in a box." Yes, to some extent you are, but those standards and norms exist through the majority, not necessarily by some malevolent entity that's personally screwing you over. If the majority of people like natural yet conservative, then the standard becomes natural yet conservative. It's not like it matters if anyone disagrees with it anyway. If you can find someone who still wants to fuck you and be with you, despite whatever distinguishing traits you have, what the world thinks is irrelevant. But just to play devil's advocate, if what I just said was entirely true, we also wouldn't have people making threads like these of their own volition essentially antagonizing a counterpoint to something they are supposedly an unwavering practitioner of.

 

It's definitely not about saying, "To hell with societal norms!"  It's about social construct and curiosity.  I'm genuinely curious as to what people think of my choices, and more importantly why - I'm not trying to persuade people to join me, not trying to convince people I'm right and society is wrong, not trying to cry about oppression.  I'm just always curious about what people are thinking when they see my body hair.  Some people try to look like they're not looking, some people stare openly, but no one ever says anything to me.  I'm asking people to SAY SOMETHING to me, instead of just oggle the spectacle.  This is deeper than shaving/not shaving. It's about gender expectations that are rooted so deeply, people freak out when lines are crossed. 
 
Why is me being comfortable in my body offensive to others?  Why is it shocking?
 
The most obvious answer, to me, is because it's what we're used to - so if that's the case, the history matters.  The dates aren't important, but the reasons are.  If those ad campaigns hadn't been printed, it might still be the social norm for girls to be au naturale, and guys might think that's sexy.  Who knows?  But I'm interested in finding out if there are deeper answers to my questions.  
 
I think back to when I started shaving.  My mom shaved, so I had never seen a woman with body hair.  I was taught that it was normal to need to remove it, but I was also told I had to wait until I was older (6th grade, I believe is when I was allowed to start shaving - just my underarms at first), and I was told when I started shaving I'd be glad I waited.  But OH how I couldn't wait to be able to shave.  All the other girls were.  I was ashamed of my hair, and it was awful.   
 
Now lets pretend that I have a daughter.  She grows up seeing a woman who never shaves and embraces her body hair.  When her friends at school start shaving, my hope is that she would question why they are doing this.  Then I would hope she would make an informed decision about her own body hair habits that suits who she feels she is at the time.  I would hope she knows it's okay to be comfortable with what she looks like, regardless of what others are doing to/with their bodies.  I would hope she knows it's okay to shave if that makes her feel good, but that she doesn't have to if she feels good as is. Body positive is what I'm all about, because it's something I seriously lacked as a kid, teen, and young adult.