Female Body Hair

There’s nothing I hate more than having to remove hair from my legs, armpits and god knows where else and I’m sure I’m not the only woman to say this. So why do we do it? Why do we spend billions of pounds on hair removal for it usually to grow back within a day?

The pressure for women to remove their body hair isn’t exactly a fad-it’s been around for thousands of years.

But the 90’s and noughties brought the term hair removal to a whole other level.

I’m talking total pube-annihilation.

Not only did women already shave their armpits and legs, bleach their moustache and wax their bikini line, but now they were being told to remove every hair off their womanhood.

And who’s to blame for this monstrosity?

Porn?

The emergence of the smooth, hair free “areas” became the norm in a huge number of porn images and videos. People began to conform to the idea in everyday life, that no hair was the best hair.

Fashion and pop culture also helped shape western society in believing that no hair was the ‘way forward’ and the first Brazilian wax was offered in 1987 to cope with the demand of the itsy-bitsy bikini trend.

Not only is the practice of hair removal a painstakingly rubbish waste of my time, but the aftermath is even worse. Your body is left with razor rashes, skin burns, bleeding, ingrown hairs…and by the time your body has healed from the trauma, the hair’s back again.

Although now, in today’s age, it is much more socially acceptable to talk openly about body hair, women are still judged and frowned upon for letting their natural hair grow free. Not only are women judging other women with the state of their hair maintenance, but now often men expect women to be ‘totally bare’.

What kind of world do we live in where men prefer to date a girl with a pre-pubescent lack of body hair to a “real woman”?

After thousands of years of women being told what to do with their body hair, it comes as no surprise that it is a struggle for women to be able to be totally comfortable with their natural bodies.

Being a woman and conforming to the pressures of hair removal isn’t smart, it’s sexist.

#bringbackthebush