Being hairy isn't scary

This is kind of strange but I’m going on holiday soon and I was wondering… if a girl didn’t shave her bikini line, and didn’t want to shave it for going to the beach either, would it be okay to wear a bikini that still showed the pubic hair on the sides, or should she wear a different kind of bikini? Is it inappropriate to show it at the beach?

Last May was full of revelations in my life. And somewhere in all the revelation having, shaving my legs fell by the wayside. And stayed there. Followed by anything else that required shaving, nair-ing or waxing. A year later, this is what I’ve discovered.

What’s it like to be a hairy woman in today’s world obsessed with infantilizing and objectifying women? 

It’s actually pretty fantastic. 

After a lifetime of body image issues, poor self-image, and spending ridiculous sums of money to remove the dark, unseemly hair from my legs, arms, armpits, upper lip, stomach, etc - going razor-free was strange. At first I was ultra self-conscious. After a paranoid 45 minute train ride to the beach with a friend (I was wearing shorts and what would people think?!) I realized that no one was going to say anything. People certainly saw my legs; among the business commuters and the somberly dressed Europeans, the brightly attired Americans in beach clothes certainly stood out. I got zero dirty looks, no snide remarks, and quite frankly, no one seemed to be concerned about anything regarding me. Let alone were they concerned about what I did or did not do to the hair on my legs.  

I hated shaving. And strangers didn’t care if my legs were hairy. It seemed like a win-win situation so far. Next up was what those close to me would think. My friends didn’t discuss it unless I brought the subject up. And then they were mostly of the “do what makes you happy” opinion. The few naysayers were not the types of friends I needed in my life. My hairy armpits elicited more mixed reviews from friends, but again, no strangers approached me about it. It taught me who really accepted me as I was, and who was only a fair-weather friend. 

My family was a different story. My mother was horrified, and my sister (who loathes body hair on any and everyone) actually cried when she saw my armpits. There were threats to shave my legs in my sleep and of getting me so drunk that I’d let them wax my upper lip. “What will people think?!” and “You’re gonna get judged so hard!” were thrown at me daily FOR MONTHS. But the act of standing up for myself built my self-confidence and taught me how to have a backbone.

And a year later? My body image issues are mostly gone. Sure, I’ve got some insecurities, and I still have times where exposing my very hairy underarms makes me anxious, but it’s nothing compared to what I felt a year ago. I approach all of my beauty and hygiene rituals now with a simple attitude - “Is this for me, or is this for someone else?”. If the answer is anything but a solid resounding “ME”, I reconsider. I really didn’t think self-acceptance was possible in a world where I will never meet the ideals, but strangely, going exactly counter to the ideals is what brought me acceptance.