When I decided to write this post I didn’t really think about the image I’d display with it. I thought that there would be at least one creative comms picture of a woman with body hair. While trying to find that picture I realised how much posts on this topic were needed. I want you to think about the last time you saw a picture of a woman who grew her body hair.

I want you to think about the last time you saw a picture of a woman who grew her body hair. Now think about where you saw that image. I can almost guarantee it wasn’t in a magazine promoting a product, on a billboard or in the latest film you saw. There might be the odd ad campaign such as H&M’s ‘she’s a lady;, but that’s not the norm. Girls are told as soon as possible to ditch the body hair. Do you remember when you first asked your Mum to wax or shave? Or perhaps you remember the first time it was done to you. I was 12 when I first had my eyebrows waxed and in my first year of secondary school when I started shaving my legs.

I don’t understand the fascination with what other people do with their bodies. Do I personally want to grow out my body hair and dye it crazy colours, no, not at all. I do wonder though whether my aversion to my own body hair is because of this social expectation placed on women, I’ve grown up with it and it’s all I’ve experienced. There is this oddity of a woman who doesn’t shave, who just lets it grow like a man and it’s so strange. Similarly to an extent men who want to get rid of all of their body hair are also judged.

All of this stress, money and shame that comes along with body hair, a natural growing thing, just seems bizarre to me. We’re not all the same, were not matching dolls smooth and hairless. There are so many other things in the world so why are we worried about whether people shave or grow some hair on their bodies?

It makes no sense to me so screw everyone else, do what you want to do with the way your body looks! There’s more to all of us than just some hair follicles and what we choose to do with them.