Body Hair on Women/Feminine Bodies

Body hair removal should be a personal choice among women and feminine bodies.

As most children are, I was excited to grow up and even more thrilled to hit puberty. I couldn’t wait to grow certain secondary sexual characteristics on my chest and begin growing body hair to shave it. The reality of what it meant to have body hair as a girl set in once I realized shaving was a constant task to be upheld.

I’ve had several occasions when I wanted to wear shorts or dresses but did not because I hadn’t shaved. There were other times when I shaved only because I wanted to wear sleeveless tops or skirts. Shaving felt like a chore, but I continued to out of fear of other people’s reactions to a feminine body with hair.

One time, a woman with armpit hair held the door open for my father and me, and afterward, he expressed his disgust towards her body hair. I hadn’t even noticed, but his reaction scared me because I didn’t want anyone to feel the same about me.

My father’s negative reaction and many other instances made it clear to me that body hair was not meant to be seen on women or feminine bodies.

I thought to myself, why isn’t it socially acceptable for women to have visible body hair? It’s a natural characteristic of the human body.

Here’s a short history lesson on feminine body hair removal from Ligia Azevedo’s research paper “Male Stigmatization of Female Body Hair”. Hair removal has always been a part of human history as ancient Egyptians used beeswax and alkali creams to remove leg hair. Only in the last 100 years has hair removal become a main trait of femininity, mainly in Western society.

In 1915, Gillette released their first razor for women and marketed shaving as something that made women attractive. As marketing is all about creating a demand for something, razor companies made women feel as if they lack femininity and beauty without shaving.

Since then, women shaving has boomed, and feminine bodies have rarely been pictured with body hair. Hairless feminine bodies are so normalized, that I didn’t even realize razor commercials for women don’t depict women with hair. Razor commercials usually just show an already hairless body part getting rubbed over with a pink razor.

How stupid is that?

Hair removal should be a personal choice, not something someone feels pressured to do. I’ve made the decision to shave when I feel like it, not when society or anyone else tells me I should.

As much as I do advocate for hairy women and feminine bodies, I still fear judgment and social exclusion. To combat my fears, I do dye my armpit hair fun colors to become more comfortable wearing my hair out in public. Unfortunately for Southern society, I have already gotten comfortable wearing my leg hair publicly (as pictured above).

I’ve also spoken to many friends and people around my age, and they do not care about visible body hair on feminine bodies. My friends encourage and support my personal grooming choice.

There are always going to be people who don’t agree with my choice but I’m making my peace with that. Their opinions and feelings towards my decision are not reflections of me but of themselves.

I’d also like to think Gen Z is more open-minded to the idea of hairy women than other generations.

To anyone who’s annoyed with shaving or tired of doing it all the time, just stop and take a break.  Do some self-reflection and consider if you actually feel like shaving or if you’re scared of people’s judgment.