In defence of body hair

This article won’t give you the newest ways to remove it. Here’s why.

imagine the last time you saw a man’s armpit – at the gym, on the beach, in bed. Was it hairy? Did it gross you out? The answer, for most of us at least, is: Yes, it was; and no, it didn’t.

Now let’s flip things. It’s a woman; she has thick hair and has decided to forgo shaving. To many she’s disgusting. And that reaction is what we need to discuss.

While ’90s porn set a bar for fullbody baldness, women have been taught to remove hair for generations. In ancient Greece, women’s pubes were considered uncivilised. And in a blog post called ‘Did renaissance women remove their body hair?’ from renresearch.wordpress.com, art historian Dr Jill Burke includes a recipe from 1532 for an arsenic depilatory for erasing fuzz. The directions: wash quickly with hot water so the flesh doesn’t come off. Even today the decision to remove one’s hair usually comes from outside pressures. A study about what motivates women to groom their pubic hair found that it’s often determined by their partner’s preferences.

I’m happy to report that things are starting to change – at least a little bit. Take photographer Ashley Armitage, 24, who captures images that highlight women of all sizes and colours, often with unshaven pits, happy trails or prickly legs. “Growing up, I never knew that growing out my hair was an option. I thought that if I did grow it out, it was dirty. I want young people to have the imagery that it isn’t.”

It’s not all about the statement. Student Grace Sparapani, 24, stopped shaving out of pure laziness. “I don’t purposefully post photos of my body hair; I just post photos of myself, and that inevitably includes hair,” she says. Model Kate Bowman, 22, has her own reasons, “Shaving my underarms wasn’t making me feel beautiful.”

This is another instance in which all women should get to choose, free of stigma. Maybe you’re kicking off summer with a full-body wax or you spent the last six months lasering your bikini line. Maybe you’re letting it grow. Body hair is natural, human, personal and, in our opinion, beautiful.

We know one thing: you don’t have to panic the next time you forget your razor.