Shaving my body hair doesn’t make me any less of a feminist

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Shaving my body hair doesn’t make me any less of a feminist

I don’t do it for you

In our recent survey, 88 per cent of women admitted to shaving, trimming or waxing their body hair. It’s something most women still do, so why is there such a stigma attached to female hair removal? While a move towards women embracing what naturally happens to your body should be commended, shaming women who chose to be fuzz-free isn’t helping anyone.

I  spend time, money and sometimes pain on hair removal. I shave my legs, get my brows threaded, I get the odd bikini wax too. To me, being a feminist means wanting women to be equal to men. Equality means choosing whether you want to shave or not. I shave for myself, not for men.

I once tried growing my hair out, thinking it was the ultimate feminist statement. I thought it’d say we shouldn’t go through those lengths just to make men happy, and if any guy didn’t like me because of my body hair then he’s not someone I’d want to be with. While both of those things remain true, the main thing I realised is that I thoroughly hated it. Not because I’ve been socially conditioned to hate body hair – mentally I was comfortable with it, but not physically. I didn’t like the feeling of having prickly legs, the feeling of  hair in between my armpits or in between my legs.

It wasn’t that I was ashamed of my body hair or what people thought of my hairy armpits, but it made me realise I genuinely preferred being hair-free. There’s nothing better than the feeling of getting into clean bed sheets with just shaven legs, or running your fingers over just waxed skin. Why would I want to do something that makes me less comfortable, just to prove a point? It made me realise that I shave for myself, not for anyone else.

One of the most important things about feminism is being able to have the choice to do what you want, and if getting the odd wax makes me happy – that’s fine.

Women shaming other women for shaving is just as bad as men shaming women for not shaving. Whether a woman choses to pick up the razor or chuck it in the bin – we should applaud either. As long as they’re doing it for themselves, there shouldn’t be a problem.