In a few minutes, I will carefully shave, pluck, and tidy all my body hair— eyebrows, legs, armpits, crotch, belly, toes, and even (gasp!) breasts. Normal stuff; millions of American women perform these rituals religiously.
Next, I will take a deep breath and hide all my razors and tweezers. I won’t touch them again until March 1. That’s a little less normal.
For the month of February, I will not be shaving, plucking, sugaring, threading, or waxing my body hair. In case you’re wondering, a face is a body part; facial hair stays. That’s right, I will not be removing any body hair for a month.
HERE’S WHY:
1) Body hair is natural. We’re mammals, remember? I strongly resent this culture’s idea that women are either hairless or repulsive. Do these charts ring any mental bells o’ self-loathing?
2) I truly believe that we should frequently re-examine our habits, values, and beliefs. (Note to self: re-examine that belief.) I have been shaving and plucking myself regularly since 5th grade, and it’s high time to re-evaluate that habit.
3) Let’s face it; I’m a complete sucker for novelty. You too?
You’ll notice that I saved this project for the shortest month of the year, and sweater/snowpant season. This is to a) keep things easy and b) encourage maximum audience participation.
During this month of hairiness, I look forward to a lower water bill (from much shorter showers), more free time in the morning, and the rush of giddy pleasure that so often accompanies experimentation. This is a tiny, free, low-stakes adventure— come along!
Who’s up for 28 days razor-free? Does it sound easy as pie, or more like sheer torture?
Ladies and gentlemen, start your follicles.
I have routinely left body hair alone, shaving armpits and lower legs only in summer, when “culture dictates” I must. Never get around to my eyebrows. I am also blessed in having hairless-Asian genes. But anyway, I like body hair (in moderation) and think going fuzzy is a good idea!
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I admire you for doing this but unfortunately I will not be joining. I do not have that kind of courage!
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Body hair, good topic! I was thinking of laser to get rid of it forever but it’s too expensive (still).
I do what you say every now and then, well….as you say it’s natural right? and it’s an absolute slavery to continiously try to be perfect in that way -well, what we have been thaught that is perfection-…it hurts, takes time, and before than you notice, every hair grows back: start all over again!! endless nightmare!! maybe I’ll start saving money to have a laser or cheaper photo epliation done. Will save money in future, and well….be ready for a skirt or beach at any time without having to deal with my silk epil or wax :) wouldn’t that be great? -YES.
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Go for it. You’re lovely with or without (especially since I first met you while you were buzzed).
As for beliefs, I do think there are just practical reasons for an individual to trim. There are plenty of body areas that just feel better with less or no hair. More fundamentally there must be some health advantage to being more easily washed from a lack of hair or having less hair for a dangerous creature to hold onto.
However, I have no real opinion about the social aspects of trimming or not. Our feelings about that come from a lot of sources whether those be practical or prejudicial, and I’m not sure that I can parse them all out.
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Phoebe – Here’s to slightly fuzzy ladies! Have you ever let your body hair grow just to see how long it would get? I don’t think I’ve ever gone longer than a week without shaving mine, so this should be educational…
Kelly – Believe me, I understand. It’s only been two days without tweezers, and I’m already concerned about my eyebrows.
But isn’t it funny that we both think of growing body hair as something that would require courage?
Patricia – I’ve often heard that Europe is much more forgiving about body hair, and that even chic women are sometimes hairy. Is this true in Spain?
I have a friend who’s had some electrolysis, and she’s agreed to an interview later this month. Thought you might be interested!
Mr. Jaunty – I just find it interesting that we have such strong cultural preferences regarding hair; long head-hair is preferable, and eyelash-extensions are gaining in popularity. But from the eyelashes down, American women are encouraged (sometimes even required) to be totally hairless.
Unless we count the “landing strip” left by some bikini wax styles, which makes noooo sense to me.
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Will you interview her and post it here? sounds great! let’s see what she has to say :)
About europe-hair thing, well, this is a urban legend I guess….at least in Spain… once I saw a young woman sitting in a café in summer time with hair in her legs and axillas (not a bit of hair starting to grow back, that is more usual), my friends and I setting in a near table were quite shoked, thought she may have no complexes, she looked free and self confident, but still It was shoking for everybody else, because it’s not common to see that. It Venezuela I was suprised because woman wax legs from knees down, but not up, thigh’s hair remains and it’s usually bleached so it looks like fine golden lines, almost like if sun was reflecting in water sea drops. For some reason it doesn’t look bad! And venezuelans are VERY concerned about their look. Here women are more “natural-casual”: less make up, less high heeled shoes, less ….feminine? but on the other hand you see that here we wax legs completely….the legend of being forgiving about body hair here in Spain it’s said to happen in France and Italy….but I don’t know if it’s true.
so, are you still decided to become a Rebekah plush? LOL! just joking!! look, today it’s more or less a month since I last waxed, and honestly: it’s not that bad, it doesn’t grow much: I’ll wait until the next waning moon to wax: it weakens hair and makes it grow slowlier this way ^_-
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Rebekah Reply:
February 5th, 2011 at 6:57 PM
Yes, I’ll post the interview here. She’s a lot of fun.
Bleached body hair? That’d never occurred to me. My red-headed siblings all have very shiny, reflective body hair. =)
So I can’t give up razors forever, then move to Spain and be considered automatically chic? DAMN. I’ll try France, then.
A Rebekah plush! HA!
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Looking forward for the interview! :)
Bleach body hair, google that. There are many brands that produce the “bleaching cream”. Or you can make your own cream at home!
Look, chic woman unshaved (not the only one): http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/fashion/2010/11/02/2010-11-02_natalia_vodianova_flashes_hairy_legs_at_harpers_bazaar_women_of_the_year_awards_.html
If you ever come to Spain or France, just let me know! :D
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Rebekah Reply:
February 9th, 2011 at 11:26 AM
I knew about bleaching upper lip hair, but I’d never heard of bleaching leg hair.
Wow, that picture really surprised me. I’m not used to seeing ANY women with visible body hair, let alone models or actresses. My brain can’t handle it! So confused! =)
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