From the time I was a little girl, I have dealt with embarrassment from having a lot of thick, dark, body hair. In elementary school, I started getting long, thick hairs above my lip, and when I got into middle school, I grew a LOT of leg and armpit hair. As I got even older, more hair grew on my face, including my chin and the back of my cheeks. Who knows how many hours I’ve spent shaving, plucking, and waxing away this unwanted hair. But, I felt like I had no choice. If I didn’t maintain my look, I would feel disgusting and unwomanly. Girls weren’t supposed to look like this. Girls were supposed to be smooth and dainty looking, and this was not exactly me.
I spent a lot of time when I was younger worrying about what other people thought of how I looked. After years of removing the hair, I finally stopped to think, really think, “Why do I do this?” Of course, there were several reasons, but the main one being that I was concerned with other people judging my appearance. And then I thought about the reasons why people would judge me. Practically every woman I saw on TV, in magazines, etc. had perfectly smooth skin, and this was reflected in the women I saw around me as well. Obviously, it’s much more socially acceptable for men to have hairy legs, facial hair, etc. But why is this? I began to do some research, and it turned out that our culture did not always have this expectation. Before the mid 20th century, shaving legs and underarms was practically unheard of. But, as the media became more prevalent, hairless, smooth bodies became the most beautiful and fashionable. The trend caught on, and now seeing a woman with leg hair is very unusual.
Now I want to make it clear that I’m not advocating that shaving and waxing is a bad thing. I’m not going to tell you to throw away your razors and you’re a bad person if you don’t. However, I wish that women could feel confident and beautiful with whatever choice they make about it. I’ve felt embarrassed by realizing I had hair growing out of places like my toes and my hands. But why does society see hair as gross, except when it’s on your head? There’s such a double standard where men don’t get judged for their body hair, but women are somehow “unwomanly”, “gross”, or “unhygienic”. It also enforces the idea that white, light haired women are the most beautiful. I am white and have thick, dark hair, but most women of color have more hair than I do. Our society pushes these women to conform to the white standard of beauty, resulting in a systematic sort of racism toward them.
Again, I do not believe that removing body hair is inherently a bad thing. For instance, I choose to shave my underarms, because I don’t like the feeling of hair in my armpits. However, if it weren’t for societal standards, I would probably never shave my legs. No, shaving and waxing aren't the biggest problems in my life by any means. Sure, it can be a pain sometimes, but overall it doesn’t take up a huge portion of my time/money. The greater issue I have with this societal standard is that I will be looked down upon and feel ashamed if I don’t do it.
I don’t think that our culture is going to drastically change anytime soon in regards to female body hair, but what we can do now is to think differently about it and refrain from judging those who choose not to shave. The biggest thing I have learned is to realize that my body hair does not make me unwomanly or ugly, it is natural and nothing to be ashamed of.
