Female Body Hair

A hair-raising situation

Women’s growth of body hair sparks unfair societal disgust

Sydney Territo terrisyd000@hsestudents.org

On Christmas morning, I picked up a box wrapped in colorful paper and react with revulsion. Some have even described it as “the most disgusting photo ever.” ripped it open excitedly, only to find that the gift inside was an electric razor. My heart sank as I realized that my parents had gotten me a gift solely intended to show that I should shave my body hair, instead of a gift I truly wanted - something that would lift me up instead of tearing me down. This exact scenario stuck with me years later, and it represents the plight of many young women in America: growing into their bodies in a society that stigmatizes it. According to Elle magazine, body hair removal has been around for ages, with it being a common practice in ancient Egypt and a hairless body representing wealth during the Roman Empire and Middle Ages. It was originally done to stave off parasites and prevent odors. Only recently, though, has it become a mark of gender, when fashions changed in the United States and women started wearing more revealing clothing during the 1920s. According to Smithsonian, the razor company Gillete wanted to expand their consumer base to more than just men, and as such, marketed body hair as unhygienic and masculine. Now, the idea of a woman having hair on her body has become so taboo that many recoil in disgust at pictures of women that have grown it out. Women and gender studies professor Leslie Smith has shown images of women with armpit hair to her students for years, reporting that they almost always The amount of disgust that women with body hair face from peers and strangers is staggering. Psychology professor Marika Tiggeman studied disgust sensitivity among 91 men and 107 women pertaining to how they viewed women’s body hair. She found that, as a whole, the entire sample had a predisposition to disgust surrounding women’s body hair and viewed the shaving of body hair on other women as entirely socially normative, despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of women in the sample viewed the reasons for the shaving of their own hair as attractiveness and femininity. Moreover, many women have been shamed when they grow out their hair, and have been described as “hairy, manly, angry and lesbian,” and, as a result, remove hair out of the fear of otherness. Women who grew out their body hair for an experiment organized by women and gender studies professor Breanne Fahs experienced heterosexism, where they were told they “would never get a man,” or experienced homophobia, where they were told that they appeared nonheterosexual due to their hair. Further, many of the women experienced anger from their significant others or family members over their decision to participate, and one woman’s mother became enraged by the idea that her daughter may grow out her body hair, saying that she “did not raise a sloppy daughter.” The pervasiveness of this concept runs so deeply among women that a large majority of those who participated felt “gross” or “dirty” the entire duration of the experiment, despite washing their bodies as often as they normally would. Although it first appears that there is no harm in the removal of body hair, upon further examination, it is clear that almost all methods are harmful to the body. According to the Mayo Clinic, shaving, especially in areas with sensitive skin, causes painful razor bumps, increased risk of infection due to cuts from the shave and dermatitis. Waxing, if not done by professionals, can cause burns, as can laser hair removal. Depilatories dissolve body hair using chemicals, but they can be so strong that they cause chemical burns to the skin that last for months afterwards, as stated by New York Daily News. Because there is no real benefit to body hair removal, there should be no social pressure or norms indicating that women need to do such an unnecessary and damaging task. Unfortunately, despite the clear acknowledgment by many studies that the social norm of shaving is damaging, there have been no clear solutions to this social problem. Having an open dialogue with my peers and parents has personally helped me to show how unnecessary the norm is for women to uphold. Not only has it helped me to prove my point, but it will also allow the stigma around body hair on women to become less abundant as more women realize the pointlessness surrounding it. A woman showing off her armpit hair. Photo used with permission of Creative Commons.