Limbs

 

Leg-Hair ISN'T Gross

 

Hi,

Today I will talk about hair. No, not the hair on your head but on limbs. Yes men, hair grows on the limbs of women too.

I am a woman who has hair on her limbs. Something we all struggle with, right? Well, it is a pain in the neck to get them waxed. I don’t know when the society made up its mind that women should have hairless limbs, but it was not the right decision. A girl should be welcome; however, she is and not judged because she has hair on her limbs. Unfortunately, we are surrounded by people who stereotype that women should not have hair on their limbs. To all these people, I would like to inform, women do not have silky smooth legs like you think, and instead of criticising them for this, you should accept them.

 

People tend to have opinions on this topic, lots and lots of them. Some feel, body hair on women is disgusting, unfeminine and ugly. Well, it’s not. A girl should be allowed to stay how she wants to and not according to the standards the society set for itself regardless of the impact they would have on the lives of women.

 

Going Back a Few Decades

You will be surprised to know that there used to be a time when women didn’t shave their legs- even I couldn’t believe this when I read it. In fact, body hair had been viewed as a boon by Caucasian people, and therefore removal was not an imported practice from European settlers. After the advent of advertisements relating to the topic, the trend spread like wildfire and took control of the world. The removal leg hair by American women became a new practice in the early 20th century due to a confluence of multiple factors.

 

One cultural change was the definition of femininity. While ads between 1920 and 1940 do refer to legs, the first ad in Harper's Bazaar that focused primarily on the legs appeared in 1929. Writers for beauty magazines and books reinforced the hairless-leg message. The norm to remove leg hair for women became very strong in the 1940s, more specifically, it moved from fad to custom in a matter of months in the early 1940s. A later survey, in 1964, indicated that 98% of American women aged 15–44 routinely shaved their legs.

 

The tipping point came and now the world regards limb hair as an ugly and disgusting truth- Men are an exception of course, leg hair makes them look masculine. This unfair and unjustified logic is beyond my understanding. Leg shaving even earned an entry on Wikipedia, which signifies its popularity.

 

Present Campaigns

Well, now a new movement is saying no more “non-essential grooming” including shaving legs and pits and thousands of women are responding by posting pics of themselves au naturel. Groups like the Hairy Legs Club on Tumblr and the Very Hairy Legs Blog are encouraging women to embrace their natural beauty and not be ashamed of their body hair.

 

They believe having body hair is only gross because we’ve been taught it’s gross. Due to these influential campaigns, many women have realized that the practice of non-scientific and non-useful rituals for body hair removal is a waste of time. Some celebs who are embracing their limb hair are Rihanna, Bella Thorne, Adele, Jessica Simpson and Bekah Martinez.

 

Myths

MYTH 1: SHAVING YOUR BODY AND FACIAL HAIR WILL MAKE THE HAIR GROW BACK THICKER AND DARKER AND FASTER

Fact 1: Shaving your body hair does not affect the speed, thickness or darkness at all.

 

MYTH 2: WAXING FROM A YOUNG AGE WILL GUARANTEE YOU WILL HAVE LESS HAIR AS AN ADULT

Fact 2: Waxing from a young age does not make a difference. There is no guarantee that you will have less hair as an adult if you start waxing from a young age.

MYTH 3: I HAVE CURLY HAIR, THAT'S WHY I GET INGROWN HAIRS

FACT 3: Ingrown hairs affect every kind of hair type as well as skin type. Ingrown hairs form when a hair cannot 'escape' through the follicle wall, occasionally this results in a pustule like bump that feels painful and looks irritated. In other instances, the hair will just find its way out naturally and fall out as its cycle finishes or it will disappear into the layers of the skin. 

MYTH 4: WAXING IS ALWAYS PAINFUL, NO MATTER WHAT

Fact 4: There is no denying that if you remove a hair from a root, pain will occur. The best way to make your waxing experience less painful is to be regular – you will find that having frequent sessions, every 4 weeks, will not only allow you to have a better overall effect but also it will be less painful.

 

Every time a woman goes to get her legs waxed; she has to convince herself to bring herself up to do it. There is always that fear of what people may think and the impression they may make. It’s not easy. Getting your legs waxed is painful. Don’t think of it as some minute pain. It is short yet sudden. 

 

We should definitely stand up to bullies who have zero tolerance to the picture in their head and get irritated when you don’t meet their expectations. They are the real reason why women get their legs waxed or shaved.

 

Do you know who is suffering due to these thought processes? Well, it’s the next generation of course. They think that women are supposed to have hairless limbs. These children have no room for a single spot of hair in their imagination. We can’t blame them. The surroundings of a person determine who he/she is going to be.  

 

There is no doubt that the opinions of people tend to offend. It is for a woman to decide whether she wishes to shave her legs or not.

For those who are lost in their Baywatch dream, wake up and explore the reality!  All is not lost yet. We can still turn back. The next change begins with you.

                                   (By Anshika Saxena, Upholder, Editorial Dept. Advanced Healthcare Foundation)