The Veet Bush post got me thinking about body hair. I’m currently rocking some very hairy legs. Before Christmas I decided I was going to stop shaving my legs because it’s a pain in the bum. No wait. That sounds like a grand feminist statement, which would be misleading. I stopped shaving my legs in order to grow the hair, so I could then wax it off, which would mean no more shaving every odd day.
The thing is, it’s been months now and I’ve kind of forgotten about waxing my legs. It hasn’t really affected my life in any negative way, so I’m kind of putting it off for a while whilst walking around on fuzzy pins.
Last week, I was round at a friend’s house for dinner and the subject of body hair came up. She’s French and told me she only started shaving her pits when she came to Ireland. French women don’t shave their armpits. I’m thinking, ‘wow, AND you guys have more sex too.’ So if French men and women don’t mind, why should Irish men and women? Ninnies.
For some people, hairiness is a deal-breaker though. Remember all the nonsense that went on when Julia Roberts and Drew Barrymore flaunted their hairy pits on the red carpet? How dare they soil the sanctity of the red carpet!
I personally think if you’re in the sack with someone and you pull off your keks to reveal hairy legs they’d shrug and carry on. It’s not a deal-breaker for me. Although recently another friend was turned off when she discovered (all too late) that a guy had shaved his nethers (isn’t that tricky and dangerous?) and his armpits. Why do people get so upset about body hair? Is it all just crazy social conditioning?
I always remember when I was a child my mother always had hairy pits. She never shaved and never looked gross. In fact, she always looked kind of cool.
I’m thinking I might experiment and stop shaving the pits too. Who knows, next time you see me, I might even have a ‘tache.
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Molly
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I wish I was ok with being hairy, but I just don’t like my legs when they get all Yeti-ish. Years ago, I passed up the chance to sleep with a great-in-bed guy I used to hook up (he was my ‘I fancy a shag’ backburner) because my legs were seriously hairy.
These days I’m an epilator gal. Cheaper and less painful than waxing – I’ve tried waxing myself but I get too scared to pull the damn strips off.
I decided to stop shaving five years ago as an experiment – it was a bit of a big feminist statement, alas! But I suddenly got freaked out by the idea that I had absolutely no idea what my body hair looked like. I’d been shaving and Immacing since I was thirteen, since before I even really had any hair to speak of, and realised that it hadn’t really ever been a choice – more a teenage habit that had carried on into adulthood. Maybe I wasn’t hairy at all? How would I know?
So I stopped shaving my legs, and it turns out, my legs really aren’t hairy at all. No-one noticed. I only plucked up courage to stop shaving under my arms last summer. Turns out, I do have hair there, and I do get self-conscious and shave it off every so often for glamorous occasions. But weirdly, last time I did so, I felt a strange sense of loss – as though I was getting rid of a secondary sexual characteristic. Then again, I might feel very very different when summer comes along and with it strappy tops.
Disclaimer also: my girlfriend really, really couldn’t care less whether I shave or not, either way. So the whole to shave-or-not-to-shave thing has no bearing on my sex life, thank goodness.
Molly – epilators are the worst! I bought one once and felt like I was getting little electric shocks and it made me legs bumpy as well. Shudder.
Glitz, that’s true about the ‘am I even hairy or not?’ question. It reminds me of a few other questions I sometimes ask myself, like, ‘I wonder what my natural hair colour is?’ or ‘I wonder can I even conceive?’. It’s strange how we do all these things to our bodies when we don’t even know if we need to or not. Know what I mean?
As far as I’ve ever experienced, it’s a cold fish that is turned off sex by hairy legs.
Honoria, you get used to epilators – I swear! I don’t feel it anymore and it takes ages for the hair to grow back. I went through a very brave phase of using it on my underarms but it was just pure agony.
And my backburner guy didn’t have a problem with my Yeti legs, it was my own damn hang-up!
I get my upper lip waxed every few months, but my underarm and leg shaving is kind of dependent on weather. I have the traditional Irish colouring – very fair skin, dark hair, which is a recipe for visible hairiness. The hair on my arms is fair and not particularly visible, but if left their own devices, my legs would resemble those of a baby yeti. And if my upper lip was left as nature intended, I wouldn’t be, like, Tom Selleck, but there’d be more a hint of the old ‘tache there all right.
My husband couldn’t give a shite how hairy I am, so that doesn’t come into it. During the winter months, I sometimes go for weeks without doing under my arms (they’re currently pretty hairy), and I only shave my legs if I’m baring them to the world. Although actually, sometimes they get so itchy when the hair is growing back that I end up shaving them every couple of days anyway, just to avoid the horrible itch.
When my pits and legs are likely to be revealed to the world at large, however, I must admit I always shave them. I’m well aware that this is social conditioning – women are naturally hairy and always have been, and in Europe, at least, didn’t really start shaving until the turn of the last century (both men and women have traditionally removed body hair in countries further east from us for centuries), but I’m afraid that, as someone who knows just how hairy she naturally is, I don’t have the guts to put my money (or legs) where my feminist mouth and heart is and be my true hairy self.
The ‘tache is the big deal breaker – it takes a lot of guts to go out there with a full Frida or J.D. Samson. As soon as mine starts to grow back I feel terribly self conscious and reach for the ould Jolen until the ‘tache is luxuriant enough to get it all waxed off again. And I know this repugnance comes from social conditioning, and I feel bad about that, but although I don’t feel any less attractive with my monkey legs and hairy underarms, I do actually feel totally hideous when the moustache returns. Until more and more women let their ‘taches grow free (and Lord knows, i know enough women who get theirs done to prove that a LOT of Irish women are naturally hairy) I’m not brave enough to be the one bold ‘tache rebel. Sad, but true.
Moustaches on women is just not a good look. Mind you, they look pretty shite on men too (except Tom Selleck…)
I’m like most of ye – shave the pits and legs if there’s a chance they’ll be on show. Otherwise I’m a Hairy Mary. I’ve never had a wax and never will.
My body hair was once described (in a good way) as “old-growth forest” – I’ve never shaved, waxed, whatever (although I have plucked an eyebrow hair or two, so it’s not completely left alone). This was not so much a feminist statement during my youth as plain laziness, although the budding feminism was there and none of my friends shaved either. And now it’s mostly habit. My hair is awfully pale, though, and I can’t say for sure that I’d be as nonchalant if it were dark.
I didn’t use to shave when I was single and foolishly thought it would stop me from having rash one night stands- that I’d be too self conscious to hop into bed with a new man when I was all fuzzy (what logic!) Didn’t stop me though, also didn’t seem to put my man off either.
Too funny. I just posted on this shit the other day (for the first time in a bout six months) and got the Julia Roberts reference in and all. Great minds, anti-roomers.
Eevoid, I actually meant to do a post linking to your post! It was great.
From my dim, vaguely masculine perspective, I’ve never found girls with hairy pits to be even remotely off-putting. Unless, of course, they have a face like a lopturned crab and/or a personality that curdles milk. Legs, however… I’m quite particular about them. The very last thing I want wrapped around me are legs that remind me, even remotely, of my own.
Johnnie- good on you for your honesty, and it’s good to hear a (presumably, forgive me if I’m mistaken) straight bloke say he’s not turned off by something as normal and natural as pit-scrub on a lass.
However, to avoid the gut-wrenching prospect of ending up in the sac with a woman who’s legs even remotely remind you of your own (is stubble allowed? or the regrowth necessary for waxing?), perhaps you should get off with an octopus or a donkey… I saw on a nature programme that their legs are v.different from dudes’.
Penny- thanks! And I hear you with the facial hair thing… it’s definitely a step further/braver.