Why do women shave their legs?

I’m not sure of the answer myself, but it’s something that has been rattling around in my brain for a few years.

My first experience with shaving was almost eight years ago.

I was running around the playground in shorts when another girl pointed out the hair on my legs. Her legs were smooth and hair-free, while mine were stubbly and rough. Before she pointed them out that day, I hadn’t really noticed the pale stubble growing on my calves. It wasn’t hurting me, so I didn’t really care at all.

Yet in that moment, I became embarrassed -- suddenly too exposed, too different and too childish. As I looked at the rest of her friends, I realized that they, too, all had smooth, hairless legs. I immediately went home and asked my mom to let me shave. She brushed off my pestering, claiming that I wasn’t old enough to shave my legs.

I was persistent, though, asking her each and every day after school to let me shave my legs. Finally, one day she caved and brought me her shaving cream and a brand new razor. She sat with me in the bathroom as I lathered my leg in shaving cream and swiped the razor over my skin. I was mesmerized by how shiny it looked with all of the hair gone.

I thought it would stay off forever. Once I shaved it off, it would never grow back.

Well, we all know how this one ends, then.

Soon, I was forced to shave my legs at least twice a week. After a few months of constant shaving, I regretted my decision and stopped, only to pick the habit back up again in middle school, because everyone else was doing it (and also because my so-called friend was grossed out by the thought of not shaving). I’ve been shaving ‒ and loathing every second of it ‒ ever since.

Shaving has become a standard sort of 'coming of age' ritual. All girls are expected to start shaving their legs by an age way too young and keep up with it into adulthood. Smooth skin is the norm, while hairy legs are deemed unattractive and inappropriate for a woman to flaunt.

Why, though?

Some don’t bother postulating for a logical reason; they simply claim that females have shaved their legs and underarms for centuries, possibly even millennia. I've also heard that before the invention of the modern-day razor, women took drastic measures like pouring “arsenic and quicklime” on their legs to “get the job done.”

Contrary to that popular belief, women have only been removing their body hair since around the 1920s. In fact, the idea was foreign to the general public until May of 1915 when the magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, ran one of the first advertisements with a woman in a dress that exposed shaved underarms. At this point in time, exposing skin was unheard of, let alone shaving such skin!

As more and more advertisements were published featuring women with smooth, shaved legs and underarms, other women began to copy that image. They suddenly wanted smooth legs too, even if they hadn’t even thought about it before.

Just like me, these women were pressured into shaving because it became “the norm.” They didn’t even know that they needed to shave their legs until a magazine published a model with bare skin.

The question is still unanswered. Is this the only reason to shave our skin?

Others might try to argue that women are benefiting from removing body hair, however, according to LIVESTRONG, removing hair from our bodies provides no medical benefit. We do not live longer or smell better just because we get rid of our leg hair.

The only benefit that the article does mention is smooth skin, but is smooth skin really enough of a reason to shave our bodies? Considering women spend a great deal of time and money on body hair removal in their lifetime, it’s odd that they receive no real benefit from shaving.

The average woman will spend 72 days of their life shaving. That’s over two months! Those months could be much better spent, either with friends or family or other productive measures!

Guess what? Not only does shaving remove hair, but it also removes months off of a woman’s life. What a lovely part of our daily lives!

In addition to an overwhelming amount of time they spend shaving, women will also empty their wallets out to remove their body hair. A woman who shaves will spend an average of 10,000 dollars on shaving products, including razors and shaving cream, during her lifetime. If a woman would rather wax than shave, the amount doubles to over 23,000 dollars.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like tuition money to me. With that kind of money, women could easily put a down-payment on a house or car or pay off some of their college debt, and still donate a large sum to a charity of their choice. Can you imagine? If only we didn’t have to spend so much money on removing their leg hair, we could use that money to help change our lives and the lives of others.

Furthermore, forcing women to shave is clearly misogynistic. Men are actually told that they shouldn’t shave their legs because it would make them more feminine. How unfair is that? We were both given body hair, but only one of us has to spend tons of money and time to shave it off?

The worst part isn’t even the money or the time spent on shaving for no advantage; it’s the fact that because shaving has become such a standard within the last century ‒ note: not centuries ‒ there is a stigma against women who choose not to shave their legs or underarms.

It’s not just women who don’t shave who feel the stigma, but it’s any woman who doesn’t follow society’s standards for beauty. If someone doesn’t get their eyebrows plucked and trimmed, they’re suddenly disgusting. If someone doesn’t wear makeup, they’re suddenly ugly. Women shouldn’t have to spend tons of money to keep up with the standards just to be called beautiful or pretty. They should naturally be beautiful, leg hair or no leg hair.

Shaving is just the one part of body care that faces such a stigma, but it’s one that is highly unjust. Why look down upon women who are actually benefiting by not shaving? In fact, they’re saving time and money, as well as fighting against the misogynistic norm.

I understand that there is a sense of personal preference, but there is no denying that the facts show that there is not enough of a benefit to make up for the losses that go along with shaving.

What do you think? To shave or not to shave?