Body Hair!

Hello!

A short little post today, all about something that I've learnt to embrace, something that occurs naturally but is something so usually viewed with disgust on the female body...

As you can glean from the title this is a post all about body hair! The other day I was chatting with some friends and one of them mentioned how they'd recently shaved their legs but seemed to have missed a few stray hairs; this flowed on into confessions of needing to shave or neglecting to shave, and I threw it out there that I've not shaved in probably over six months or so.
"WHat?! Even your underarms?" "Yep!"

Now, I was feeling brave this day and jokingly offered if they wanted to see, assuming they'd obviously decline and leave my hairy underarms to their imagination; little did I think I'd be met with curiosity and a desire to see! So, I showed them. This is the first time I think I've ever showed anyone my armpit hair in this context, it was a little strange, as if being some strange specimen in an exhibit, but I'm so keen to normalise the fact that I have armpit hair. Instead of being met with disgust (which was what I've been conditioned to expect), they were surprised at how natural it looked and how it wasn't like I had long, flowing, plait-able tresses sprouting from my armpits - just slightly curly, dark short hairs.

As dancers, we see guys armpit hair all the time. They can wear vests without a second thought to the fact it will expose their underarm hair. Yet as females, we are expected to shave and keep most areas hair-free. I don't find that fair and to be honest I've grown to not care about not satisfying peoples expectations. Of course I still get self-conscious about wearing vests, I've not braved a ballet lesson in just a leotard and no cover-shirt yet, but as summer draws closer I'm going to try it out! I think I'm just scared of other peoples reactions, I'd rather they said 'wow, you've got armpit hair' to my face rather than talk about it behind my back. I want to open up discussion about body hair, about normalising it, especially in this profession. Dance is so image-conscious, I think more could be done to try get away from this idealisation of the perfect ballerina aesthetic. This is not to say that if you want to shave you can't, go ahead and shave everywhere if you want! I'm not against shaving, I just don't want there to be a pressure or automatic assumption that it's something we need to do.

If ever I have care of a child, I want them to grow up being unashamed of their natural body, want them to not feel the pressure to conform to an impossible ideal. I want them to be comfortable and happy whatever they choose to do with their body hair. I think more women should just let their hair grow; shaving and maintenance is a pain in the ass anyway!

I like my body hair!
Maybe losing a lot of the hair from my head makes me want to retain as much as my natural hair as possible?
i like seeing the little curling swirls that my underarm hair forms
i like when the fuzzy halo of fur on my legs is illuminated in the light
i like how coarse and strong my pubic hair is

Does this talk of body hair make you uncomfortable? I'm not going to apologise for that!
I'm comfortable with my body hair now, and I feel pretty liberated by that!

Anyway, thank you for reading this,
As always, love and light,

lily