“Eww, you have more hair than me,” said multiple teenage boys during my high school years. While looking back, such an opinion is probably the least of my worries, but the reactions of disgust toward my body hair have been burned into my psyche for years. It was always something — the arm hair, the peach fuzz, the “unibrow.” This isn’t an uncommon experience for many women, who have reported “bushy unibrows, thick leg hair, upper lip fuzz and coarse locks made them feel othered — and ugly — when they were 12.”
An article by NBC News explained that “hairlessness, after it became common in the 20th century, was synonymous with purity and white femininity.” In addition, “there was a parallel effort to medicalize and demonize excessive body hair” as immigrant women from South Asia and Latin America had more body hair than white women, creating a beauty standard that was a “part of the anti-immigrant reaction.” It’s even more troubling then, that CNN reported “there have been countless examples of colonial powers enforcing hair removal as a means of control or punishment” and Charles Darwin himself suggested “that excessive body hair was primitive.” This has paved the way for the perceptions of disgust and cleanliness that surround body hair.
The thing is, body hair isn’t inherently dirty, and being hairless isn’t inherently clean. Most forms of hair removal “tend to introduce new opportunities for abrasion and infection.” Nature also reported that frequent hair removal with razors has a risk of skin irritation, allergic reactions, and ingrown hairs. We have body hair for a reason — primarily to protect skin and sensitive areas from sweat and bacteria.
When keeping up with regular hygiene, such as showering and washing your face, it doesn’t matter whether you have body hair or not. It’s important to note that while the removal of underarm hair can aid in suppressing body odour, it’s not the hair itself that causes the smell. Shaved or not, “the bacteria themselves remain” and “if you have no armpit hair but don’t wash your armpits, you’re still going to have odour.”
If you want to shave because that’s your preference, by all means do so. I’m not trying to argue that keeping your body hair is inherently better because it’s “more natural.” It’s truly up to personal preference. However, it’s time to let go of our preconceived notions around body hair — and especially question what these notions mean for women. The next time I hear someone claiming that being hairless is “cleaner” and more “hygienic,” I’ll be asking them whether they’ve committed to a full-body wax.
